INTRODUCTION
A few South-east Asian countries, including the Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Indonesia, have pursued recently high-valued crops development policy by advancing agricultural technologies to improve yield productivity and raise farm households’ income. For instance, they have developed large-scaled farming through clustering of medium- and small-scaled farmers, with capacity for building new agricultural technologies (CIAT and WB, 2017;ODC, 2019;ADB, 2021;EPIS, 2021, 2022; Philippine DA, 2023). Moreover, it has been emphasized to establish smart greenhouse where adequate technologies are adopted in addressing technical and economic problems from climate change vulnerability.
In these contexts, an international development cooperation project of smart greenhouse for high-valued crops (SGHC) has been implemented since 2020 by the Agency of Education, Promotion, and Information Service in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (EPIS) in four Asian countries. The project was embarked on at first in the Philippines as it emphasized on establishing smart greenhouse in order to improve productivity of high-valued crops. In Cambodia, the project of smart greenhouse is expected to improve farmers' income and agricultural competitiveness, reduce difficulties that female farmers face in labor supply, and extend eco-friendly agriculture against climate shocks. In Vietnam, the pilot project for smart production and cold-chained distribution system aims to create sustainable agro-food value chains in producing high-quality fruits and vegetables. Finally, with the Human Resources Policy in the Age of Digitization of the Agricultural Sector, the Indonesian government initiated a project that responds local demands on technological development and reflects the opinions of local project managers by utilizing Korean smart agricultural technology.
Smart agriculture at the beginning was implemented mostly under the climate-smart agriculture (CSA) scheme to respond climate shocks (Abegunde, et al. 2019;Gupta, et al. 2020) as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (2010, 2013) explored policies, practices and components of CSA, and the World Bank (WB) (2016) aggregated indicators of CSA. Recently in international development cooperation on smart agriculture, an emphasis has been put more on the livelihood of vulnerable farmers, and thus a conceptual framework on vulnerable-smart agriculture (VSA) has been empirically investigated (Azadi, et al., 2021). In line with this, the SGHC project aims to raise agricultural productivity, coupled with innovative capacity building, by addressing climate change vulnerability of small-scaled farmers in collaboration with recipient organizations.
It pursues both aspects of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) and vulnerable-smart agriculture (VSA). The CSA is seeking to overcome the food security problem and develop rural livelihoods while minimizing negative impacts on the environment (Amin, et al. 2015). Under the VSA scheme, farmers can get information for operational preparation to deal with tension and disasters at farm level. In these contexts, this paper aims to explore tales of processes and results of the SGHC project in the four countries, and to examine the necessity and applications of the VSA scheme to the project in order to fill the shortage of the elaborated CSA approach in developing economies. Finally, it discusses some future tasks for sustainability of the projects with the analysis of responses for structured survey from farmers and officials participating in the project.
SMART AGRICULTURE AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE VULNERABILITY
Environmental and technical constraints by climate shocks, as put in Mutengwa, et al. (2023), have worsened socio-economic vulnerability such as food shortages for marginalized rural communities across the world. In order to address climate change problems, smart agriculture for various crops and livestock has been developed and adopted gradually in agriculture of advanced economies (Amin, et al., 2015;Khatri-Chhetri, et al., 2017). When developing smart agriculture at the beginning, a focus was mostly put on the CSA scheme to address climate shocks as WB (2016) aggregated indicators of CSA. However, the ultimate goal of smart agriculture in developing economies has been recently challenged and redirected to support the livelihood of small-scaled vulnerable farmers. In this vein, a conceptual framework towards VSA, which attempts to understand and overcome the difficulties that vulnerable farmers encounter, has been newly investigated (Azadi, et al., 2021).
CSA was recognized as a key strategy for ensuring food security by adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change (Chandra, et al., 2018). However, there has been a minimal level of adoption of CSA among smallscaled farmers. Factors upon the limited adoption of CSA include poor infrastructure, poor access to resources by small-scaled farmers, and an insufficient level of advisory and resource service. As a result, smart agriculture for the vulnerable is more needed to address climate change impacts particularly on small-scaled farmers, albeit a number of factors that influence the extent to which vulnerable farmers adopt VSA technologies.
Vulnerability is viewed as negative impacts on marginalized people’s capitals and livelihood, and it can be affected by both external and internal factors (Okumu, et al., 2022). External factors include shocks, seasonality, and trends whereas internal factors are associated with inability and incompetence to deal with these factors (FAO, 2010; WB, 2017). The varying combinations of these factors impact differently the livelihood of small-scaled farmers depending on their different access to livelihood capitals. The types of capital that small-scaled farmers need for raising their livelihood and developing strategies to face climate change incidents are notably categorized into five: human, physical, social, financial, and natural capital (Azadi, et al., 2021). Thus, the VSA, in the context of a sustainable livelihood framework, can be conceptualized to be a resilient smart agriculture system designed to increase some or all of the five capitals to address the vulnerability of smallscaled farmers.
Reportedly, it is essential to plant high-valued crops in reducing rural poverty against increased vulnerability. Natural hazards by climate change may result in economic and social vulnerability, and weaken resilience in rural communities. Natural hazards are more likely to threaten livelihood of small-scaled farmers and hence make them economically vulnerable. Economic vulnerability, vis-àvis lower adaptability to climate change, is caused by less productivity and lower price competitiveness of traditional crops. Thus it can be assessed by multi-dimensional indices, which are composed of output (gross domestic product or regional production), income, employment, inflation, consumption, expenditures, savings, financial transfers, public finance, and trade.
Social vulnerability may result from many different aspects as it refers to the socioeconomic factors that affect the resilience of local communities. For instance, preference of agriculture as a vocation has recently continued to fall even in some developing countries. Most of all, urbanization may weaken livelihood and sustainability of rural communities. Effectively addressing social vulnerability tends to decrease both human suffering and the economic loss related to providing social services and public assistance after a disaster. However, in natural hazards by climate change, the socially vulnerable are more likely to be adversely affected.
In these contexts, smart farming is necessary to solve effectively the above-mentioned problems and has been developed toward sustainable agriculture against the vulnerability of marginalized farmers. The first and foremost goal of the SGHC project by the EPIS is to raise farm households’ income through installing infrastructure of sustainable smart agriculture, mixed with building smart agriculture capacity. The project is therefore three-phased that includes the completion of facility installment, facility management, and a human capacity building program. In phase one, a variety of equipment for SGHC is procured and installed for productive crop yield by advanced greenhouse technology via cooperation with a recipient organization. In phase two, different kinds of high-valued crops are developed such as cherry tomato, melon, Shiitake mushroom, paprika pepper, and strawberry so on, using SGHC facility management. In the third phase, capacity building program is launched with innovative marketing, including brand development, advertisement, and cooperative sales system for entrepreneurial farmers and collegiate students in food and agriculture.
PROCESSES AND RESULTS OF THE PROJECT IN EACH COUNTRY
Philippine’s Case
Philippine DA (2023) launched High-valued Crops Development Policy (HVCDP), along with its national development plan (PDP 2017-2022), to raise farm households’ income with large-scaling farming through clustering of small-sized farmers, and with capacity building for new agricultural technology. In order to improve yield productivity of high-valued crops, the Philippine government emphasized on establishing smart greenhouse where adequate technology is adopted.
In this context, the Government of Korea has implemented the project with Philippine DA and its subsidiary Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) under the Record of Discussion (RD) signed on September 2020 after an official visit of the President of the Philippines to South Korea. As a result of project implementation from 2020 to 2023, smart greenhouses have been effectively installed in both Iloilo of the Panay Island, and Bukidnon of the Mindanao Island. Contributions of SGHC cover increasing the productivity of high-quality crops, and training and education to build capacity of entrepreneurial farmers in response with climate change vulnerability in agriculture (EPIS, 2023a).
In the overall analysis of the project implementation, the four objectives have been effectively achieved as followings. First, agricultural productivity improved, for instance, the productivity of tomato through soil cultivation inside smart greenhouse increased by more than six times from 1.4 kg/m2 in 2020 to 10 kg/m2 in 2022. Second, price competitiveness of high-valued crops raised with branding and sales innovation. For instance, the producer sale price of tomato was 70 pesos per kilogram in 2020 but it doubled up to 150 pesos per kilogram in 2022. Third, technology of SGHC has been extended to more than the targeted number of farm households and utilized in cultivating high-valued crops. Finally, the number of visitors and local farmers from other regions who want to learn the installment and operation of SGHC reached about 50 per month.
As positive performance was demonstrated from the project, the Philippine government crafted a sustainable plan to extend smart greenhouse systems across the country. A mid-term monitoring and end-term comprehensive evaluation of overall project performance, including beneficiary interviews, was conducted in December 2022 and September 2023 respectively. Following the monitoring results, the Philippine’s DA launched “Action Plan on Policy for Extending Smart Agriculture”, which aims to come up with policy promoting EPIS’ smart agriculture in DA programs as part of sustainability plan, in August 2023.
Ultimately, the Action Plan consists of five phases: 1) to conduct assessment in the four sites of smart greenhouse (November to December 2023); 2) to discuss with the 4 DA units (BPI, DA RFO IV A, VI, and X) the crafting of the sustainability plan for each site in taking the available budget of the DA unit into consideration, and to look for other sources of fund (December 2023); 3) to finalize the sustainability plan (January to March 2024); 4) to implement the plan (April 2024 onwards); and finally 5) to conduct periodic monitoring and evaluation.
Cambodian Case
The Smart Farm Project for High-quality Fruits and Vegetables was launched in 2021 and will be completed by 2024 in Kandal province (EPIS, 2023b). It is quite aligned with the goals of Cambodia's National Development Strategy and Quadrilateral Strategy 4, and is in line with key strategies related to rural development. It is also compatible with Cambodia's Agricultural Strategic Development Plan (ASDP), and coherent with Goal 2 and Goal 13 of SDG by advancing facility cultivation technology and reducing environmental pollution. The project is implemented in a farm belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture near Phnom Penh, where peri-urban agriculture is possible. If the farm produces agricultural products with a certain level of output and quality, sustainable agriculture can be secured through the operation and spread of smart farmrelated educational facilities in the country.
The project was selected as an official development assistance (ODA) project of the EPIS, which met the appropriate project selection and evaluation criteria. By resting on the experience of the project management consultant (PMC) and its partners, a smart farm tailored to the region will be built in order to improve the supply of highquality crops, reduce the burden of female farmers, and enlarge eco-friendly agriculture. The farmers participating in the training were selected, albeit imperfect criteria for selecting trainees, after sufficient discussion with the General Directorate of Agriculture of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (GDA/MAFF), and supports to them was equitably distributed through open communication. It is quite consistent with Korea’s International Development Goals of 2023 to support innovation and development in the country.
Cambodia's ASDP 2019-2023 is a key mid-term strategy that outlines the direction of agricultural development. It is expected that the effectiveness of this project will be continuously achieved with the goal of increasing farmers' profits by the development of agricultural technology. With the project, implementation and management capacity of staffs of the central and Kandal provincial government in policies for smart agriculture can be strengthened. Yet, it is needed to establish a dialogue channel with neighboring farmers for the operation and dissemination of smart farming.
In brief, it is expected 1) to produce high-quality fruits and vegetables, 2) to provide training of local trainers and farmers for high-quality production, and 3) to improve the quality and distribution system. However, communication and cooperation with related organizations should be refurbished to determine appropriate inputs for the local area and to ensure timely cooperation and participation of the recipients. As the project is mainly based on building and utilizing Korean facilities, there are some difficulties in securing the economics of the project and selecting crops suitable for the region’s production and distribution environment. In addition, it is difficult to assume that the best practices of the Korean smart farm business suitable for Cambodia have been identified at this time. Therefore, a lowest-cost model suitable for the Cambodian environment is needed.
Vietnamese Case
The Pilot Project for Smart Production and Cold-chained Distribution System in Southern Vietnam was embarked on in 2021 and it is going to be completed in 2024. The project aims to create a sustainable agro-food value chain by producing high-quality fruits such as strawberries, and vegetables using Korean smart farming technology and capacity building in Vietnam. The project is funded by the Korean government with a budget of 3.21 billion Korean won (EPIS, 2021, 2023c).
The relevance and coherence of the project was reviewed, and efficiency was evaluated based on the activities during the project execution process. The project could contribute to reduction of poverty and sustainability of agriculture by improving farm household income. The project was effectively implemented through cooperation with staffs of the Potato-Vegetable-Flower Research Center (PVFC).
The project was proceeded according to the plan. However, it was needed to revise the marketing plan at an earlier stage, and to build a facility that is more environmentfriendly. Efficiency seemed to be lower due to considerable time and cost required in the procurement process of Korean parts and tools.
The facility was costly and may not be easy to replicate locally although some farms already adopted it. The education and training program was well-received and local farmers were quite satisfied with it. Along with high demand on smart agriculture, on-site education, field trips, and consulting for cultivation technology could all contribute to agricultural productivity.
Capacity building programs for smart agriculture such as education and field trips were found to have a high potential to improve farm household income. This was confirmed by interviews with farm households who participated in the program. However, the smart farm facilities should be more frequently utilized to train and educate local farmers in order to have a significant impact on the perception and attitude of ordinary farmers. Also due to difficulties in exporting Korean equipment and materials to Vietnam, parts and tools should be more localized depending on the level of cost and the convenience of procurement.
The project can be sustainable, as the PVFC is actively involved in it. However, there are concerns about whether the technology and facilities can be utilized for the public interest. To increase sustainability, it is necessary to actively consider collaboration with universities. The visit to Dalat university suggests that there exists considerable demand for agricultural technology. In addition, it is necessary to come up with a plan to increase the linkage with domestic ODA projects. For example, in the case of strawberry varieties, it seems that Korean varieties used in other projects can be applied.
In sum, most of the farmers participating in the training are interested in Korean cultivation methods and agricultural products, and some have already adopted them. More importantly, it is necessary to localize smart greenhouses by using local equipment and parts, as imported Korean equipment is costly due to customs procedures and tax issues. Smart farming is a high value-added business requiring a high initial investment cost. Smart farm can be expanded nation-widely with the Vietnamese government's support. Therefore, with the EPIS’s assistance for smart farm, the Vietnamese government should actively establish policies related to smart farm, and continue to overhaul regulations on securing sales channels for crops produced in smart farms built locally and distributing profits. With government support through legislation, it is made possible to spread smart farms in Vietnam.
Indonesian Case
The Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture (MA) is very willing to and interested in improving agricultural productivity through smart agriculture. The MA and its subsidiary Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Extension and Human Resources Development (IAAEHRD) are actively promoting policies to strengthen the growth and capacity of 2.5 million millennials through the ‘Human Resources Policy in the Age of Digitization of the Agricultural Sector’ for millennial farmers. The farmers are also attempting to build low-cost smart farm facilities (EPIS, 2022).
In this background, the EPIS initiated a project that is highly suitable for the Indonesian government and local farmers. Rather than just applying Korea's smart farm technology to Indonesia, a flexible project method was adopted that finds varieties suitable to the local agricultural environment, responds to local demands on technology development, and reflects the opinions of local project managers. Indonesian young farmers can improve their income by producing highly valued agricultural products by utilizing Korean smart agricultural technology. Smart agriculture in Indonesia is highly suitable in terms of technology and environment. When operating a Korean smart farm based on cloud server, good performance – in terms of automation system operation, data collection and utilization, and remote control – is expected to be achieved due to the well-equipped 4G Internet network. In addition, the cultivation method of fruits and vegetables such as melon, papaya, and tomato is rather easy to apply in Korean smart farm facilities and systems. Thus local farmers are expected to adapt Korean smart farm systems quickly and achieve better results.
Interim evaluation results of the K-smart farm construction project in Indonesia can be summarized as follows (EPIS, 2023d). First, in terms of adequacy criteria, the project is expected to contribute to improve income of farm households, particularly young farmers through smart agriculture. Through the project, young farmers can be trained to raise capacity for future agriculture and contribute to rural development. If the central and local governments are proactive in installing low-cost greenhouses, two regions are finally chosen for the project. Korean smart farms are needed because Dutch and Israeli smart agricultural system, which have already been recognized across the world, were little adequate to Indonesian environment.
Second, in terms of efficiency criteria, the project period is generally being delayed. In order to continue to operate Korean smart greenhouses, it is necessary to stockpile a variety of equipment by a local procurement plan. Unlike the Malang region, the Bogor region has a positive environment for dissemination and operation of smart farm system, so it is needed to differentiate operation method. Currently, in the case of Malang, relationships with local residents seem to be established through continuous invitational training for young farmers. The extension speed of smart greenhouses in the Malang area is more efficient than that in the Bogor region.
Third, by effectiveness criteria, although having not enough time to actively use smart farm technology, rural residents are actively participating in education and training, particularly in Malang. Since the Bogor region already has agricultural colleges, a high level of technological localization can be effectively achieved once education and training begins. As young farmers are the main targets, continuous monitoring of which activities they do after the completion of education and support for follow-up programs will increase the effectiveness of education and training. Most of all, the productivity of small– and medium–scaled farmers is expected to improve, and eventually a key task is to lead from production to distribution.
Fourth, by impact criteria, through visits to low-cost smart farm facilities of local farmers in Indonesia and high-quality facilities of private companies, it is tentatively confirmed that the quality, productivity, and sales revenue of crops are high. Education trainees are interested in startups of smart farm cultivation technology. In addition, they want an opportunity to acquire various cultivation skills for high-valued crops through invitational training in Korea. It is believed that production of high-valued crops through smart farming rather than field cultivation will contribute to rural community development. Opportunities for training smart farm cultivation technology and postharvest marketing competency for farmers can make a more contribution to an increase of farm households’ income.
In short, the project is aimed at training, business, and community formation. The K-smart farm needs to be differentiated from the Indonesian smart farm competition model. As smart farm systems in the Netherlands and Israel, which are more recognized than products from Korean smart farm companies, are spreading, it seems necessary to differentiate them from competitive models. The reason for the delay in the smart farm business is the customs clearance problem of Korean equipment. It is also necessary to consider procuring goods that can be procured locally from Indonesia. Smart farms have a major initial facility cost, especially because of the high construction costs, so it is impossible for young farmers to create smart farm facilities on their own without financial support. Therefore, without financial support, it would be somewhat difficult to establish a smart farm.
DISCUSSION
Lessons Learned from the Outcomes
As smart agriculture has recently pursued to support the livelihood of vulnerable farmers rather than to address climate change, the SGHC project has been conducted under the VSA framework. In order to address the barriers smallscaled farmers face, the project consists of three specific activities as below: a) to increase production of high-valued crops through introduction of smart greenhouse technology; b) to improve skills of implementers and farmers in the production of the crops; and c) to enhance distribution channel of the harvest.
The project is innovative in horticulture because of the following two aspects. First, it is easily transferable and locally adaptable for improvement of greenhouse operation in production and marketing of intensively cultivated high-valued crops and ornamental plants. It can provide a customized facility for each farmer’s different needs in horticulture cultivation. Components of SGHC – HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning), LED (lightemitting diode) lights, irrigation systems, materials handling, valves and pumps, control systems, particularly for hydroponics agriculture (i.e. agriculture to grow plants using water-based mineral nutrient solutions), and communications technology – can be customized upon individual farmer’s preferences, and budgetary and technological limits. Thus, a system applies selected measures to solve locally identified problems. Second, it enables smart greenhouses sustainable by capacity building with long term and short-term training for facility operation, organization of producers’ cooperatives and marketing innovation. It aims to provide locally adaptable facilities through various combinations of the components that depart from the previous high-costing and inefficient methods.
The project has reportedly contributed to agricultural productivity and income increase. According to the survey results answered by focal farmers and officers on July, 2023 in Cambodia and Vietnam, September in the Philippines, and October in Indonesia, effectiveness and sustainability of the project was assessed over 83 on average in all countries. As turning into hydroponics agriculture in smart greenhouse, farmers can plant high-valued crops such as shitake mushroom, cherry tomato, paprika pepper, and strawberry. Furthermore, products were more profitable to be sold at higher price – for instance, honey melons were purchased at more than doubled price on average. In addition, intensive capacity-building programs contributed to improve policy decision-making and technical skills of government officials. Those trained officials were fostering the sustainability of SGHC utilization though retraining for improved skills of farmers.
To verify these contributions, a structured survey to beneficiaries was conducted in each country by overall satisfaction as well as six criteria – i.e. relevance, coherence, efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability – that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee (OECD DAC) recommends for the evaluation of international development projects. Results of responses are given in the following <Table 1>. Overall satisfaction is the highest as of 87.43 in the Philippines while it tends to be relatively low as of 78.26 in Vietnam. Scores by six criteria are recorded over 80 except only one in the Philippines and Vietnam, whereas they are under 80 except one or two criteria in Cambodia and Indonesia. Cautiously, higher satisfaction with the project from beneficiaries may show positive consequence, particularly in Vietnam and the Philippines.
Some lessons can be learned through the project. First, smart farm technologies can play crucial roles as an innovative measure for food and agrarian reform in the climate change era. The enhancement of farm households’ income and further regional food security by productive crop yields will be secured by progress in agricultural modernization. Moreover, as agriculture is less preferred as vocation even in developing countries, more supports should be provided in this area. Second, it is important to raise project sustainability through the development of follow-up projects, and more important to reduce business uncertainty and risk in cooperation with other agencies. Communication among related agencies and organizations in early stages of new projects will reduce difficulties in achieving cooperative results. Third, human resources development on localization of smart agriculture is utmost pivotal for an effective SGHC system. Even an excellent system would be useless without researchers and farmers who completely understand, utilize, and operate the system. In sum, project phases should be sustained even after the completion of project under the ownership of a recipient country through cooperation between related stakeholders such as city governments, regional universities, and cooperatives of farmers. For instance, performance report responsibility at least for three years after turnover of the facilities should be added in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and RD between a recipient organization and the donor agency.
Challenges and Overcomes
The project was first embarked on in the Philippines and has been transferred by the method of duplicative project into other countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Uzbekistan from the year of 2021. Workshop meetings, particularly resting on mid-term and final monitoring, provided a discursive opportunity for sharing knowledge and experience with government officials of other countries. It is expandable to the recipients by overcoming shortfalls and constraints of earlier projects, in terms of technical and institutional aspects. The project is hopefully going to be extended to a few countries in future, although programing and formulation for another countries is tentatively suspended.
PMCs can improve the process and outcome of project from experience of consultants working in other countries. It is in this context that the project targets to replicate one’s identified innovation to another by applying customized systems. The project applies identified measures to solve identified problems to reflect each country’s unique agricultural circumstances by customization.
However, most officials, in the beginning, did not fully have confidence of Korean type smart greenhouse technology for agricultural productivity against climate change vulnerability. Lack of understanding and experience on Korean type smart greenhouse application caused an obstacle in communication with a recipient organization when designing detailed plans at the outset of the project. Thus, capacity-building programs, which were composed of practical training courses and workshops either on-site or in Korea, were executed to help improve government officials' knowledge and skills of Korean type system. Some technical issues – for instance, lack of electric power, supply limit of parts, tools and materials for equipment and operation of the system, and poor telecommunication infrastructure – were at the outset an obstacle to effectively establish the facilities. Thus, while the project implemented, recipient organizations continued to take efforts to install equipment from 4G broadband network to solar power panel to remove barriers.
Also, most of the countries experience increasingly heavy rainfall and droughts due to climate change, which is reducing agricultural productivity. In order to prepare for natural disasters caused by weather change, it is necessary to apply disaster-resistant standard facility design. Smart farms consume a lot of electricity in spite of power shortages, so it is necessary to utilize renewable energy such as photovoltaic power generation systems in the smart farm business. Smart farms are facilities that require advanced technology and management capabilities, but there are not enough experts or educational institutions to operate smart farms, so education and capacity building of local farmers and experts is essential. A significant amount of investment is required to build at the initial stage smart farm facilities, which are a huge burden for local small-scaled farmers given the income level of the countries.
In these circumstances, a recipient organization signs a MOA and RD to establish collaboration and partnerships with the doner organization and source organizations, and regularly reports the progress and performance of the project. Introducing innovative technologies and systems to a recipient country and promoting the transfer and diffusion of agricultural technologies through education and training of local researchers and government officials is a stepping stone for local agricultural development and economic growth.
The conditions for success of the project can be summarized as followings. First, political supports and supreme leadership improve new technologies and methodologies for agricultural modernization. Second, in combination with recipient’s national development strategy, the smart greenhouse project could achieve positive results in response to unprecedented climate change. Third, human resources with capacity for localizing technologies and facilities through training programs might lead to fruitful achievements in producing and marketing high-valued crops. Fourth, governments' commitment and administrative support for sustainable innovation is the last, but not the least, key factor. Particularly, cooperative procedures between the central government and local governments contribute to extend results of the project and standard systems to vulnerable farmers in other regions nationwide.
CONCLUSIONS
Smart agriculture refers to agriculture that incorporates advanced information technology (IT) or/and biotechnology (BT) to planting crops and nurturing livestock in green houses, orchards, cattle sheds, and even open fields (Kim and Jin, 2022). In maintaining smart agriculture, information, data software tools, and technology are combined in order to improve agricultural production. Frameworks for smart farming solutions could facilitate the achievement of sustainable agriculture, paricularly in climate change incidents (O’Shaughnessya, et al., 2021). Drawing on these findings, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) scheme was crafted to overcome various difficulties that rural communities face while farming crops and livestock. More recently the ultimate goal of smart agriculture in developing economies has been challenged and redirected to support the livelihood of small-scaled vulnerable farmers. As a result, smart agriculture for the vulnerable has been facilitated to address climate change impacts, despite many factors that influence the extent to which farmers adopt vulnerable-smart agriculture (VSA) technologies.
In combination with this trend, the smart greenhouse for high-valued crops (SGHC) project by the EPIS could play a crucial role in modernizing agriculture and building policy data to respond climate change through a tripartite mechanism of research, extension, and education, in the four countries. Above all, the importance of smart agriculture has gradually increased to address the vulnerability of marginalized farmers and food insecurity due to climate shocks. Lower popularity of agriculture as vocation in younger generation has also enhanced the necessity of smart greenhouse for agricultural sustainability. In these contexts, the project was launched to establish pilot villages in each country. Improved yields, combined with rising income, will support proper actions for wider application of smart greenhouses. In doing so, Korea is playing a role in the planning and coordination of the project, and shares all the results and significant information with other countries for customizing smart greenhouse to each country. Therefore, it might be effectively transferred to other developing countries, which are short of agricultural infrastructure.
Other country may usually imitate following five steps of the project. 1) A recipient organization builds detailed plans for smart greenhouses with adequate technology, production via hydroponics agriculture, and skills improvement for farmers. 2) Korean experts and companies support to develop and customize a smart farm system, and teach how to operate the system. 3) Local governments support extension of smart greenhouse equipment to local farmers through administrative and financial measures. 4) Cooperatives of farmers help themselves to adapt smart greenhouse in their fields. 5) Local universities give students opportunities to learn smart greenhouse on the site. Smart greenhouse for high-valued crops could thus contribute to enhance crop productivity and rural sustainability against economic and social vulnerability by climate shocks.
Vulnerability of small-scaled farmers has increased due to climate change. The CSA at the inception was embarked on to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on the agricultural sector. However, CSA is not solely enough to advancement in food security of smallholder agriculture. Instead the VSA approach is need that highlights the vulnerability of small-scaled farmers to climate shocks and the revision of CSA practices in developing countries. The adoption of VSA system can be enhanced by the advancement of favorable policies by cooperation of Korean government with recipient countries. As a result, a few things should be suggested. It is necessary for local agricultural companies to enter smart farm business. Next once local farmers enter, it is also necessary to create a low-cost smart farm model and provide financial support for facility investment. Most of all, it is pivotal to select varieties that are economical and suitable for planting in smart greenhouse, and thus high-valued crops are considered suitable for smart agriculture that require a lot of funds for facility investment.
Farmers’ priorities for CSA technologies are linked with prevailing climatic condition of particular location, socioeconomic features of farmers and their willingness-to-pay for available technologies. Preferences for CSA technologies are marked by some commonalities as well as differences according to their socio-economic features in addition to physical and natural conditions. As a result, importance VSA technologies are getting significantly higher in developing economies, based on potential benefits and costs of technologies. The VSA scheme has large implications to expand smart agriculture to the vulnerable farmers when designing and implementing climate change adaptation program. In short, smart agriculture is not only good for adapting to climate change, but also useful for reducing the vulnerability of marginalized farmers with its flexible mechanism in developing economies. More importantly, Korea’s higher capabilities and much experience could make the project better performed, and a positive impact on project performance can be reinforced by government policies of a recipient country.
