Gimje Smart Farm Innovation Valley Demonstration Complex: The Two Faces of a 100 Billion Won Greenhouse

When driving down toward Jeonbuk, somewhere around Baekgu-myeon, Gimje, you suddenly see a complex of glass and plastic roofs filling the horizon.

At first, I thought it was a massive logistics center, but it turned out to be the famous(?) Gimje Smart Farm Innovation Valley Demonstration Complex.

I had heard the term “Smart Farm Innovation Valley” in passing on the news, but I didn’t know exactly what they did there, why it was in Gimje, or if it was still running smoothly.

Looking into it, I found that this wasn’t just a large-scale greenhouse project; it was a policy experiment the government had been planning for a long time, and at the same time, a place that had been noisy with budget and defect controversies over the past few years.

Why Gimje for the Smart Farm Innovation Valley?

The Smart Farm Innovation Valley project started with the “Smart Farm Expansion Plan” released by the government in 2018.

The idea was to create a hub that integrates education, startups, and demonstration functions, as the farming population is shrinking and aging, while new smart farm technologies remain fragmented among individual households. Four regions across the country—Gimje, Sangju, Miryang, and Goheung—were selected simultaneously, and Gimje was chosen as the site in August 2018.

Looking at the subsequent timeline, construction began in December 2019 and was completed in November 2021, effectively being built right through the COVID-19 pandemic. The total project cost is known to be around 100 billion won. Since it is rare to pour this much budget into a single agricultural infrastructure, the term “Jeonbuk’s Smart Farm Landmark” was attached to it at the time of completion.

The location is 1079 Hwanto-ro, Baekgu-myeon, Gimje-si, Jeollabuk-do. Because the Gimje plains are very flat and the sunshine is quite good, it seems like a decent condition for establishing a large-scale facility horticulture complex. However, I suspect that this wasn’t decided solely based on geographical advantages, but that the policy symbolism of being adjacent to Saemangeum also played a role—I couldn’t find definitive evidence for this, so I’ll leave it as a speculation.

What Exactly Is in the Gimje Smart Farm Innovation Valley Demonstration Complex?

The total site area is about 21ha, and the core facilities—where the incubation, rental, and demonstration greenhouses and support centers are concentrated—are about 9ha. It’s hard to get a sense of the scale just from the numbers, but converted into soccer field units (approx. 0.71ha), the total site is about 30 soccer fields large. It makes sense that such an area was needed, as it is a structure where greenhouses, startup incubation centers, demonstration centers, and big data centers are all contained within one complex.

Operations are handled by the Korea Agriculture Technology Promotion Agency (KOAT), with the local demonstration center handling the practical work.

Focusing on the demonstration complex part, it consists of demonstration greenhouses, equipment, greenhouse facilities, and monitoring systems, which interested companies or research institutions can apply to use.

Recruitment for resident companies takes place in the first and second halves of each year. Looking at the 2025 first recruitment announcement, it seems the administrative system is still relatively small, as applications are received via email and the staff in charge at the demonstration center is explicitly named.

Education-Startup-Demonstration: A Three-Wheeled Structure

The reason it is called an “Innovation Valley” is that it has three layers of functions.

• Education: Operates a 20-month smart farm theory and practice course for prospective young farmers. It is said that there is a high proportion of hands-on practice growing crops in actual greenhouses, rather than just lectures.
• Startup Support: Those who complete this training well are provided with a rental smart farm for 3 years. The key merit is being able to start farming in a state-of-the-art facility without initial capital.
• Demonstration: Provides facilities and equipment for smart farm-related companies to verify new technologies and products in an actual agricultural environment.

To summarize these three functions in one line: “Young people learn to farm here, and companies verify their technologies here.” Theoretically, it is a quite tight design.

It seems the goal is a virtuous cycle where young people gain startup experience at a low cost, companies secure actual data, and the government uses that data to boost the localization of smart farms and export competitiveness.

How Are Sangju, Miryang, and Goheung Different from Gimje?

Even though they all carry the name “Innovation Valley,” the four locations of Gimje, Sangju, Miryang, and Goheung are operated by dividing the rental smart farm zones and focusing on different crop demonstrations.

For example, looking at data for Sangju, one rental zone is specialized for strawberries, while others are operated as cultivation-specialized facilities for cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, etc.

As seen earlier, Gimje gives the impression of being more focused on a model that links everything from seed development of functional crops to commercialization.

However, comparing all four locations one by one would cause this post to drift, so I will conclude here by saying, “The whole country didn’t just clone the same greenhouse; the focus of the demonstration varies slightly by region.”

Nevertheless, the reason Gimje appears in the media so often is likely because it is known to have the largest project budget, and consequently, the defect controversy was also the most prominent.

5-Year Demonstration Performance Sharing Session: Results in Numbers

As it enters its 5th year since completion, an event was held to review its performance.

At the ‘Demonstration Performance Sharing Session’ held by the Gimje and Sangju demonstration complexes at the end of 2025, about 80 people including officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the two local governments, and resident companies gathered. It was reported that a cumulative total of 40 companies had resided in the two complexes, and 4 excellent companies were selected as representative achievements.

The core of the presentation was that equipment such as smart farm ICT devices, agricultural robots, and complex environmental controllers had undergone testing and verification in actual greenhouse environments.

To be honest, it is hard to judge based on these numbers alone.

Whether 40 companies over 5 years is a lot or a little, and whether these companies actually went on to commercialize and export their products after finishing the demonstration, could not be confirmed just from the reports on this sharing session. However, the goal of creating a system that leads from research (Rural Development Administration) to demonstration and certification is the right direction, so it seems we need to watch it for a longer time.

118 Facility Defects, the Price of Choosing Vinyl Over Glass

I should also address this, as talking only about achievements would make this a one-sided post.

Looking at reports that emerged around 2024, the number of facility defects reported at this complex in the three years since completion reached 118.

Problems were particularly severe in the rental zones where young farmers moved in; it is said that water leaked from the ceiling like rain during every monsoon season, and shading screens were damaged repeatedly. There were even times when the automatic temperature and humidity control equipment broke down, forcing people to operate it manually.

Following the cause, there was a somewhat disheartening aspect.

The original design called for glass for the greenhouse ceiling, but it was changed to vinyl during the construction stage due to a budget shortage. Moreover, because the roof had a rounded arch structure, structural weaknesses overlapped, causing rainwater to pool at the joints and then pour down like a waterfall through narrow gaps. In the end, the young farmers farming in these facilities could not harvest their crops properly and suffered economic losses, and the dispute over who was responsible for compensation was not resolved for a long time.

A 100 billion won landmark and a roof covered in vinyl instead of glass due to a budget shortage—it feels strange that these two sentences describe the same complex. Perhaps, regardless of the overall project budget, the budget allocation for each item in the detailed construction stage was not meticulous enough; I will leave this as a speculation since I cannot know the internal situation.

Settlement of Young Farmers: What Happens After the 3-Year Support Ends?

The fact that the rental smart farm support period is 3 years was also something to reconsider.

Three years is the time when they have gone through initial trial and error and are just getting the hang of it, yet the support ends exactly at that point.

For young farmers who have gone through the period of greenhouse defect issues, it is worrying whether they will have the capacity to secure their own facilities and become independent after 3 years. This point is often pointed out in overall smart farm policies—while it lowers the initial barrier to entry, how solidly the bridge to self-reliance is being built afterward remains a question mark.

So, How Should We View This Complex?

Reviewing this far, the Gimje Smart Farm Innovation Valley Demonstration Complex is in an ambiguous position, neither a clear success nor a clear failure.

While there are clear achievements, such as training around 220 young people every year and verifying the technologies of 40 companies, the fact that 118 defects and actual losses for young farmers occurred in the same facility cannot be erased.

It feels as if the gap between the ‘high-tech’ image that the word ‘smart farm’ itself gives and the reality of farming under a leaking ceiling is compressed into this one complex.

Ultimately, this case shows that no matter how much money is spent on hardware, the entire purpose can be shaken if a single construction detail or post-management system is missing.

By the time of the next demonstration performance sharing session, we will see if the story of defect repair and prevention is listed alongside the list of achievements, or if only performance figures are being emphasized—that remains to be seen.

Personally, I have a thought every time I pass by this complex.

Under those wide glass and vinyl roofs, someone must have been filled with the expectation of finally having their own greenhouse after finishing a 20-month training course, while someone else must have given up on a year’s worth of farming while looking up at a ceiling that leaks every rainy season.

The fact that these two existed in the same space and at the same time seems to show how bumpy a single policy becomes when it meets reality, making it hard to end the story of this complex on a purely positive note.