[News Today] SHIFT IN FRUIT FARMING REGIONS

[LEAD]
Hot and humid weather increasingly affects agriculture. Fruits popular as Chuseok gifts have also gone through some changes. We have the details.

[REPORT]
Gangwon-do Province has emerged as a major producer of apples ahead of this year's Chuseok holiday.

One department store showcased apples from Yanggu near the military demarcation line. Another department store has apples from the Taebaek region.

Climate change has turned these areas into new apple cultivation areas.

Lee Jeong-won/ Department store staff
Buyers are seeking new sourcing regions due to distribution issues with previously popular ones.

Tropical fruits, such as mangoes and melons, have long been domestically produced.

This melon, appearing in department stores for the first time this year, is produced in Cheorwon-gun County, northern Gangwon-do Province. South of Chungcheong Province had been the major melon producer, but now the farming area has moved north near the border.

Three farmers had joined a pilot melon cultivation program last year but the number has grown to 10 this year.

Each melon costs 15,000 won, or roughly 11 U.S. dollars, so the fruit is carefully packaged by hand.

Jo Seong-deok/ Melon farmer
The weather is getting warmer, making this melon taste delicious. Consumers love its sweetness.

Compared to tomatoes or bell peppers, growing just one fruit per stem has reduced labor significantly and increased income.

But climate change is not an easy problem to deal with for individual farmers.

Kim Yun-sang/ Gangwon State Agricultural Research and Extension Services
Farmers struggle to choose crops suited to the climate on their own, so we expand through a pilot program when conditions are right.

Climate change directly affects agricultural productivity.

Experts advise developing comprehensive countermeasures by assessing the agricultural sector's vulnerability to climate change.