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KOPIA

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Korea Partnership for Innovation of Agriculture, RDA

In the last 50 years, the Republic of Korea has experienced unprecedented transformation in the agriculture sector. The agriculture development has been largely driven by revolutionary technological advancement which set the once war-torn nation free from chronic famine and food shortage.

In an effort to efficiently share its experiences and knowledge with other countries, the Rural Development Administration (RDA) of the Republic of Korea launched the Korea Programme on International Agriculture (KOPIA) in 2009. The acronym KOPIA now stands for Korea Partnerships for Innovation in Agriculture. To date, the RDA has established 20 KOPIA Centres operating in partner countries in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa to deal with local and regional issues in agriculture and rural development such as food security, resource depletion and climate change. RDA researchers have been dispatched to these Centres in order to successfully implement KOPIA programmes.

KOPIA has carried out various kinds of agricultural technology cooperative projects with its partner institutions to meet the needs of each country under the slogan: “We Love to Share what we Have Experienced”.

KOPIA activities involve:

  • Developing localized technologies for partner countries by adapting Korean technologies.
  • Carrying out small pilot projects at the farmer’s field and providing customized technologies to the farmers through demonstration trials.
  • Advancing the projects at the national level to contribute to the development of agriculture with partner countries and share technologies with other KOPIA Centres.

In Zimbabwe, the KOPIA Centre is housed at the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (SIRDC). The KOPIA Zimbabwe Centre was officially launched in December 2016, and is the 20th KOPIA Centre in the world and the 7th in Africa.

Projects that have or are being implemented under KOPIA Zimbabwe Centre are:

  • Domestication of Edible Indigenous Mushrooms
  • Promotion of Indigenous Free-range Village Chickens by develop robust hatching, brooding and rearing management practices
  • Production of Disease-free Potato Seed Using Aeroponics Technology
  • Production of Sesame Seed in Drought-prone Areas
  • Development and Fabrication of Post-harvest Equipment for Small Grains
  • Improved Rice Project
  • Horticultural Projects

The national impact of the KOPIA Zimbabwe Centre projects include: socio-economic development, technology transfer, food security, income security as well as strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries, among other indicators.