Hadong’s traditional tea agriculture registered at GIHSA

Hadong’s traditional tea agriculture registered at GIHSA. November. 30, 2017 08:23. by Jeong-Hoon Kang manman@donga.com.

The traditional tea farming method of Hadong County in South Gyeongsang Province has been registered in the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS).

“UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has recognized the value of the traditional tea agriculture of Mount Jiri at Hadong, which has overcome the barren environment and staged itself as a heritage of Korea,” said Hadong Governor Yoon Sang-gi on Wednesday. “It has made a final approval of registering the tea agriculture at the GIHSA.”

This is the third time in Korea to be registered at the GIAHS, followed by Gudeuljangnon (terraced rice paddy) of Cheongsan Island and Jeju Batdam (volcanic black stone fences) in 2014. Globally, 38 agriculture methods from 17 different countries are registered at the GIAHS.

The science advisory group of the FAO, which inspected the Hadong region and reviewed documents for about two years, has confirmed that the natural environment of Hadong, where tea plants, tea plantation rocks and mountain slopes coexist, should be registered at the GIAHS.

In particular, Hadong's cultivating method of substituting fertilizers with hand-picked grass, not to mention preventing acidification of the soil, evaporation of soil water and loss of organic matters by sprinkling tea residue, have attributed to its receiving high scores.

Hadong County submitted an application for registration to the GIAHS Secretariat in July 2016 and went through actual inspection by the science advisory group of the FAO in August this year.