South Korea will invest 73 billion won (62.9 million U.S. dollars) on enhancing research and development (R&D) for farming technologies, the government said Friday.

The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said the primary areas of development would be in the low carbon, "green-growth" sector, the plant seed and rice consumption industry, and safety for farming and food products, while providing incentives to research teams that bring outstanding results.

Under this R&D project, the ministry said, it hopes to see an increase in rice consumption, a more accurate technology to discover virulent food products, and advancement in animal disease treatment as well.

The ministry added it expects the investment to assist the farming community in sustaining low-carbon growth and further utilizing bio-energy resources, as South Korea announced last year to voluntarily reduce 30 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 from the business as usual (BAU) level of 2005.