Kim Soon-kwon
Kim Soon-kwon | |
Hangul | 김순권 |
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Hanja | 金順權 |
Revised Romanization | Gim Sun-gwon |
McCune–Reischauer | Kim Sun'gwŏn |
Kim Soon-kwon (born May 1, 1945) is a South Korean maize specialist employed by Handong Global University.
Early life
Kim, better known in Korea as "Dr. Corn" or in Africa as "Green Revolutionary", was born to a poor family in Ulsan, on the southeast coast. This family depended on agriculture to survive, and Kim, as the son of the family, helped too. He studied at the Ulsan Agrarian Institute, expanding his agrarian knowledge. However, it was difficult to attend university because of his family's economic situation. Instead, he earned a scholarship and entered into the Faculty of Agriculture and Science of Life of Kyungpook National University in Korea.
Kim worked as a teacher to raise funds to attend university, as he dreamed of becoming an agricultural scientist and combating hunger around the world.
Having a passion for agriculture, he decided to expand his knowledge of corn. He studied in the
In fact, in only 5 years he developed a corn hybrid in Korea's favour, which United States made it in 55 years. This successful hybrid changed Korea's agriculture, who was unable to make more.
Early goals
The IITA (International Institute of Tropical Agriculture) was founded in 1967 by 2 American organizations dedicated to caritative[clarification needed] entities; this organization also held UN support. Dr Kim entered IITA, with his first mission in Nigeria, IITA's seat. Remembering his promise to help people, he went to Africa. There, he began to search for an African hybrid. It was said that central and western Africa weren't able to produce a hybrid, however Dr Kim continued to organize his efforts. He attempted to create varieties of cultivations, which could be helpful for farmers in Africa and elsewhere in the world, cultivations that resisted diseases. In time, Kim made a hybrid for farms in Western and Central Africa, concluding with the "Miracle of Central and Western Africa". Nigeria, which needed to import one million tons of corn yearly, is now self-sufficient in corn production.
During his stay in Africa, he contracted malaria 5 times, but has recovered each time. It is believed that he accumulated about a million kilometres in travel in and out of Central and Western Africa. "My best profit in Africa was the creation of varieties that could resist "
Sources
Koreana, Arte y Cultura de Corea
http://starbulletin.com/97/04/17/news/story3.html
See also
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National | |
Academics |