FLOOD AFFECTS HARVEST OF HORTICULTURAL GOODS

[Anchor Lead]

Geumji-myeon in Namwon, Jeollabukdo Province which suffered flood damage due to a river levee collapse is a key production site of greenhouse horticultural goods, taking up 10% of national output. Hopes of harvest may have to be abandoned not only this year but also for next year due to the extensive scale of damage.

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Hundreds of vinyl greenhouses are damage by strong currents with their roofs torn off. Inside, fully grown melons are caked in mud, withering away. From this point on through the Chuseok thanksgiving holiday is the high season for melons but they all need to be thrown away.

[Soundbite] (MELON FARMER) : "They lost their value. There's no other way but to throw them away. They can't be shipped."

Another greenhouse just next door which grows leaf vegetables is also completely ruined. Lettuces are stuck to the ground, rotting away. Following the collapse of a Seomjingang River embankment, over half of some 15-hundred greenhouses have been submerged under water. The bigger concern lies ahead. From as early as next month, seedlings for next year's strawberry and potato harvest need to be transplanted but there are barely no seedlings or undamaged vinyl houses left. Farmers may have to give up on harvest this year and also next year.

[Soundbite] CHAE MAN-GI(STRAWBERRY FARMER) : "Seeds must be planted around Sep. 10 for greenhouse-grown strawberries. But nothing is organized at the moment."

[Soundbite] IM JONG-DAE(POTATO FARMER) : "Greenhouse-grown potatoes are my main source of income for feeding and educating my children. I don't know what to do."

Farmers are demanding the government designate their area as a special disaster zone.

[Soundbite] IM SEUNG-GYU(AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVE, NAMWON) : "A disaster zone designation will encourage us farmers to regain energy."

They are worried that agriculture, the source of their livelihoods, can lose its foothold and fall apart.