Yangju City Distributes 5,000 Virus-Free, High-Quality Strawberry Seedlings to Farms

Yangju City Agricultural Technology Center distributed 5,000 virus-free and high-quality strawberry seedlings produced through tissue culture to seedling farms within the city.

Strawberries are vegetatively propagated crops, and when infected with viruses, the disease can be transmitted to the next generation, potentially reducing yield and quality. Tissue culture seedlings are produced by extracting growth points and culturing them in a state with reduced potential for virus infection, and are utilized for stable production and quality improvement.

Yangju City Agricultural Technology Center is the only agricultural technology center among Gyeonggi Province's municipal and county centers that produces strawberry tissue culture seedlings in-house. It cultures strawberry growth points at its scientific farming facility, then propagates them at a smart seedling nursery equipped with an ICT-based integrated environmental control system and water-cooled heat pump, distributing them to seedling farms.

Seedling farms receive original seedlings derived from tissue culture and propagate them through the original seedling and supply seedling stages for their own use. Through this process, seedling self-sufficiency among strawberry cultivation farms within the city is maintained at approximately 64%.

Ji In-hwan, director of Yangju City Agricultural Technology Center, said, "Since good seedlings are a critical factor determining the success or failure of strawberry farming, we will continue to make efforts to produce and distribute tissue culture seedlings so that farmers can stably receive high-quality seedlings."