Kim Soon-kwon - Early Life

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 agriculutral scientist and combating hunger around the world.

Having a passion for agriculture, he decided to expand his knowledge of corn. He studied in the University of Hawaii where he started to investigate corn, a principal factor in defeating the menace known as starvation. He was impressed with American corn, which was 30 times better than the Korean one at the time. His studies soon attracted interest. During that time, there were about 50 companies in the United States seeking "better corn", and they discovered Kim's research. "Mr Kim, your investigation is really incredible. We are amazed. Do you want to work for us? We will pay you 20 times more," but Mr Kim denied and he returned to Korea with his Hawaiian degree. Finally, he developed the varieties 18, 19 and 20 of Suwon, which he grew in Gangwon-do city. When the corn grew, Kim saw that they were as big as the American ones.

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.