In 2020, ‘Sodammi’ was developed as a sweetpotato with a slightly moist texture, excellent palatability, and appearance. It was derived from a cross between ‘Hogammi’ (IT327288), which has a slightly moist texture and excellent palatability, and ‘Kyushu No. 121’ (IT309496), which has a yellow flesh and good appearance. The storage roots of ‘Sodammi’ have a purple-red skin, yellow flesh, and an ovate shape. ‘Sodammi’ storage roots exhibit a slightly moist texture and are more tender than those of the check variety ‘Jinhongmi’. The sweetness of steamed storage roots of ‘Sodammi’ was 19.1, which was 24.8% higher than that of ‘Jinhongmi’. Palatability of steamed storage of ‘Sodammi’ was better than that of ‘Jinhongmi’. The marketable storage root yield of ‘Sodammi’ was 19.6 MT/ha during the normal season culture. ‘Sodammi’ is moderately resistant to Fusarium wilt and root-knot nematodes. ‘Sodammi’ had very good storability, as there was almost no decay rate and no internal cavitation during long-term storage. Cultivation of the ‘Sodammi’ variety is expected to expand considerably, as it has characteristics favored by consumers, farmers, and distributors due to its excellent palatability, appearance, and storability (Registration No. 8789).

In 2019, ‘Bodeuremi’ was developed as a high-yielding sweetpotato variety with good palatability. It was derived from a cross between ‘MI2006-58-02’ with high yield and ‘Beniharuka’ (IT309504) with good palatability. The storage roots of ‘Bodeuremi’ have a red skin, light orange flesh, and an ovate shape. When steamed, ‘Bodeuremi’ storage roots exhibit a moist texture and are more tender than those of the check variety ‘Pungwonmi’. The sugar content of steamed ‘Bodeuremi’ storage roots was 33.4 mg/100 g dw, which was 6.0% higher than that of ‘Pungwonmi’. The marketable yield of ‘Bodeuremi’ storage roots was 30.3 MT/ha in the early season culture, which was 4.5% higher than that of ‘Pungwonmi’ with high yield in the early season culture. ‘Bodeuremi’ is resistant to root-knot nematode and moderately resistant to Fusarium wilt. ‘Bodeuremi’ is expected to contribute to increased income of sweetpotato growers as it has high cultivation stability and can be shipped at a time when the market price is high owing to its high yield in the early cultivation.

“Samkwang1,” a japonica rice variety, was developed as a cross between “Samkwang” and F1 of Suwon152 (IT008283), which has a medium maturing and lodging resistance and Samkwang (IT284608), a high quality variety with bacterial blight resistance and mid-late maturing property by the rice breeding team at NICS in 2015. The heading date of “Samkwang1” was August 8 in the middle plain area, which was 2 days early than that of “Hwaseong.” “Samkwang1” had a culm length of 77 cm, which was 7 cm shorter than that of “Hwaseong,” and it had 128 spikelets per panicle. The viviparous germination rate of “Samkwang1” was 2.1%. “Samkwang1” showed resistance to blast, bacterial blight (K1, K2, and K3 race) and stripe virus, but was susceptible to the K3a race of bacterial blight, dwarf and black streak dwarf viruses, and plant hoppers. The milled rice of this variety exhibits translucent and medium short grains. The cooked rice grains of “Samkwang1” have an excellent palatability index (0.35) and lower protein content (6.2%) than that of “Hwaseong.” The characteristics related to grain milling were better than those of “Hwaseong,” especially the head rice milling recovery ratio and head rice ratio (94.2%). “Samkwang1” showed 5.62 MT/ha of milled rice productivity at 11 sites under ordinary cultivation conditions (Registration No. 6798).

Blast resistance of 29 rice cultivars confirmed as a durable resistance in the evaluation of sequential planting from 2004 to 2006 was evaluated to nursery screening in 14 test sites during 11 years in Korea. The average disease severity (ADS) of 29 rice varieties against rice blast showed 3.5 degree; however, the difference of disease severity among the varieties was from 1.9 to 4.8. The 29 varieties were grouped into resistance less than 3.0 ADS degree including 12 varieties and moderate resistance over 3.1 ADS degree including 17 varieties. Among the 12 rice cultivars presented low ADS, 4 rice cultivars, Ungwang, Pungmi 1, Sinunbong 1, and Dasan 1 were constantly appeared high resistant reaction during 11 years in all test sites and the others were showed various diseases severity across the test years and the test sites. Twenty-one rice cultivars including Gopum were more variable among the test sites while the others were higher variable among the test years. These results indicated that durable resistance test against rice blast using sequential planting is a very efficient screening method to predict durability and nursery test for long periods and also useful method to predict indirectly durable resistance of rice cultivars.

Cheongdaok, a new single maize (Zea mays L.) variety, was developed by the maize breeding team at the National Institute of Crop Science (NICS), RDA in 2010. This high-yielding hybrid was produced by crossing two inbred lines, KS159 and KS155. KS159 is the seed parent and KS155 is the pollen parent of Cheongdaok. It is a yellow dent maize hybrid. After the preliminary yield trial and advanced yield trial of Cheongdaok in Suwon for two years, the regional yield trial was subsequently carried out for evaluation of its growth characteristics and yield at four different locations from 2008 to 2010. The silking date of Cheongdaok is one day earlier than that of the check hybrid, Kwangpyeongok. Compared to Kwangpyeongok, the Cheongdaok show short in plant height and low in ear height ratio. It has resistance to lodging. The stay-green degree and the ear ratio of Cheongdaok are similar to Kwangpyeongok. It has moderate resistance to southern leaf blight (Bipolaris maydis) and strong resistance to northern leaf blight (Exserohilum turcicum). It has moderate resistance to black streaked dwarf virus (BSDV), ear lot, and corn borer. The dry matter yield 20.24 ton/ha and the total digestible nutrient (TDN) yield (13.80 ton/ha) of Cheongdaok were similar to Kwangpyeongok. The grain yield (8.51 ton/ha) of Cheongdaok was higher than that of Jangdaok. The seed production of Cheongdaok was well processed due to a good synchronization of flowering period during crossing between the seed parent KS159 and the pollen parent KS155, and the F1 seed yield was 1.8 ton/ha in Yeongwol.