Cho Eun-ki, the first director of the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences, who laid the foundation for Korea to become a 'seed powerhouse' by establishing the National Agricultural Genetic Resources Center, which integrated management of plant, microorganism, and insect genetic resources (seeds) that were dispersed in various places, passed away on the 24th of last month, current Director Seong Je-hoon of the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences announced on the 2nd. Age 71.
The deceased, who was born in Yeongyang, Gyeongbuk, graduated from Kyungpook National University's Department of Agriculture and Graduate School. In 1984, he began working for the Rural Development Administration as an agricultural researcher at the Yeongnam Crop Experiment Station and devoted himself to seed research. We studied plant genetic resource cryopreservation technology in an ultra-low temperature environment of -196 degrees Celsius.
In 2005, while serving as Director of Research and Development at the Rural Development Administration, he led the establishment of the National Agricultural Genetic Resources Center. The National Agricultural Genetic Resources Center was established in November 2006 by building a new storage facility next to the old College of Agriculture and Life Sciences of Seoul National University in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, and was later incorporated into the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences.
According to Director Seong, in the past, seeds were only stored at room temperature (15 to 25 degrees Celsius). Seeds stored this way can last 30 years. The deceased's argument was to vary the storage method for each seed by adding a refrigerator temperature of +4 degrees (50 years guaranteed) and minus 18 degrees (100 years guaranteed), and this concept led to the National Agricultural Genetic Resources Center. Seeds of special crops, such as garlic germ, are stored at -196 degrees Celsius, where the deceased studied.
The Agricultural Genetic Resources Center was designated as a 'Global Seed Safe and Redundant Storage Center' by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Global Crop Diversity Foundation (GCDT) in 2008. In the world, there are only Norway (Svalbard) and Korea (Suwon at first, and Jeonju added later). Thanks to this, Korea has emerged as a global ‘seed powerhouse’.
During the time of President Lee Myung-bak, when nine agriculture-related research institutes were merged into four (Korea Crop Science Institute, Entertainment Science Institute, Livestock Science Institute, and Agricultural Science Institute) and the Agricultural Technology Commercialization Foundation was created, he served as the first director of the National Institute of Agricultural Science from 2008 to 2009. He served as the general manager of the Agricultural Technology Commercialization Foundation from 2009 to 2011, and later worked as a visiting professor at Kyungpook National University's Department of Applied Life Sciences, head of the Native Luxury Product Development Group, and director of the Gyeongsangbuk-do Agricultural and Food Distribution Education Promotion Agency. On the 22nd of last month, he announced on his personal Facebook page that he had launched 'Jo Eun-ki TV', a YouTube channel about farm management, but suddenly became famous.
He has published books such as ‘Invincibility in Rural Areas’ (2009) and ‘The Road to Agriculture’ (2025). Director Seong commemorated the deceased by saying, “He was a world-class seed conservation expert and the person who created the framework for Korea’s food seed management.”
