Record Heat ‘Cooks’ Potatoes Underground

Weeks of intense heat in South Korea have produced a new national temperature record, severely damaging agriculture across the country. Potatoes are reportedly rotting and becoming soft underground before harvest, taking on an appearance similar to boiled potatoes. Cabbage, apples and peaches have also been badly affected by the extreme heat.

Farmers in Gangwon, a mountainous province in northeastern South Korea, told local media that potato fields that appeared normal just a week earlier are now showing widespread crop damage when farmers attempt to harvest them.

Lee Sang-hyeok, a potato farmer in Hyeon, Yanggu County, near the North Korean border, told local broadcaster SBS that he had never witnessed such conditions in 40 years of farming. He said, ‘This isn't just an isolated incident involving one or two plots of land. I'm at a loss for words to express how I feel; I'm deeply hurt.’

The extreme heat has damaged not only potatoes but also cabbage grown across several thousand pyeong of farmland in Gangwon. Farmers had delayed harvesting in the hope of receiving better market prices. The intense heat, however, caused the cabbage to burn and rot in the fields, resulting in losses reportedly worth tens of millions of Korean won.

Various fruits have also been affected. Excessive sunlight has caused ‘sunburn’ on apple skins, with exposed areas becoming scorched and discolored. Peaches, meanwhile, are splitting because of the extreme heat.

Apple farmer Chon Jong-tae said apples expected to be ready for harvest around the Chuseok holiday at the end of September have stopped growing normally. Only the parts facing the sun are turning red, and if the heatwave continues, even those areas could become discolored.

Peach farmer Park Won-sun said farmers have been forced to return to their fields despite government advice to avoid outdoor work during the daytime heat. In his words, the peaches are rotting, leaving them no option to remain idle.

The heatwave is also affecting people. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, at least 31 people have died so far from the heatwave. More than 900,000 livestock and nearly 1.4 million farmed fish have also died during the same period.

On August 2, temperatures in the southeastern city of Yangsan reached 42.5 degrees Celsius. This is the highest temperature recorded in South Korea since modern temperature records began in 1904.

Farmers themselves are suffering physically from the extreme heat. At the same time, the threat of crop losses makes it difficult for them to follow government advice to remain indoors during the hottest part of the day.

‘This weather is becoming the new normal’

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung told cabinet members that people in the country had never experienced weather conditions like these before. He called for major reforms to the national crisis-response system.

According to the president, such extreme weather is gradually becoming the new normal.

So far, official damage assessments have focused mainly on human deaths and livestock losses. The total damage to agriculture has yet to be determined.

Farmers fear that widespread crop losses could push already high food prices even higher, particularly ahead of Chuseok, one of South Korea’s major autumn holidays.

Potatoes vulnerable to extreme heat

Researchers have previously identified potatoes as a crop particularly vulnerable to extreme heat. A study published in Potato Research in 2024 said South Korea’s summer potato production may require heat-tolerant varieties under future climate conditions. Planting spring potatoes relatively earlier could also provide some benefits.

South Korea’s experience is another example of increasingly severe heatwaves across Asia. Temperatures have reached 40 degrees Celsius or higher in several parts of Japan. Hong Kong recorded 36.9 degrees Celsius, its highest temperature since records began. A weather station in China’s Xinjiang recorded temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius in July.

The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia report said the rate of temperature increase in Asia over the past 35 years was nearly twice that of the previous three decades.

The sight of potatoes effectively being ‘cooked’ underground in South Korea, therefore, is not merely an agricultural disaster in one country. It is also a stark warning of the rapidly intensifying climate risks facing Asia.

//DBTech/independent/MIS//