Gimje City has started construction of a 100-hectare (about 247-acre) test site for autonomous and AI-driven farm equipment inside the Saemangeum reclaimed zone in North Jeolla Province, backed by 10.67 billion won (about $8 million) in national funds.

Groundbreaking took place September 29 in Section 5 of the Saemangeum Agricultural and Life Science Land, a reclaimed-land allocation in Changje-ri, Gwanghal-myeon. The ceremony drew senior national and provincial figures. Attendees included Kim Jungwook, policy chief for agricultural industry innovation at the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA). Ko Jeongsam, vice governor for economic affairs of North Jeolla Special Self-Governing Province, represented the province. Gimje Mayor Jeong Sungjoo, city council chair Lee Jeongja, and Korea Agricultural Technology Promotion Agency (KOAT) president Lee Seokhyeong completed the official roster.

The Intelligent Agricultural Machinery Demonstration Complex will devote 95 hectares to machinery trials and five hectares to a permanent demonstration center. Gimje City Hall, project sponsor, expects the site to let Korean builders verify autonomous tractors, robotic implements (computer-guided attachments pulled by a power unit), and AI logistics carts in field conditions before commercial release.

What does the site change for Korean machinery makers?

The complex addresses a specific gap in the farm-equipment sector. Domestic prototypes (working pre-production models) have generally reached foreign test grounds only after commercial launch, slowing certification and weakening export positioning. By staging trials inside a public, government-funded venue, Gimje and KOAT aim to compress the loop between concept, certification, and overseas shipment.

The site also doubles as a showcase for importers, extension agents, and grower cooperatives evaluating Korean equipment. The Sept. 29 ceremony included an autonomous transport vehicle ferrying a ceremonial shovel to the platform, followed by a working demonstration of an autonomous tractor and an exhibition of advanced machinery.

How does the project fit into Korea's wider ag-tech push?

KOAT has held an entrustment agreement with Gimje City since November 2023. That arrangement gives the national agency direct operational oversight while the city retains the land lease. MAFRA's presence at the groundbreaking signals that the ministry treats the testbed as a piece of national policy, not a regional experiment.

For growers, the practical question is whether machinery emerging from the site will translate into measurable reductions in labor, fuel, or chemical cost per hectare. Performance data that engineers gather at Saemangeum will feed directly into that calculation. South Korea imports the bulk of its high-horsepower tractors, so domestic validation of autonomous models carries weight against that import base.

Mayor Jeong Sungjoo said after the ceremony: "With this groundbreaking in Saemangeum, we have taken the historic first step to lead the future of advanced agriculture in Korea. The demonstration complex will serve as an innovation stage for technology-driven companies to validate performance and achieve commercialization."

If trials open on schedule, the first cohort of certified Korean autonomous tractors will be benchmarked against imported competitors at Saemangeum before the next year-end export review.