Jeonbuk National University (JBNU, President Yang Oh-bong) will conduct a two-week group training program to prepare competitive quarantine officers ahead of the 2024 Plant Quarantine Officer and Plant Inspector qualification examination to be held on March 13, 2024.

The group training for the Plant Quarantine Officer and Plant Inspector qualification examination is a preparatory program for the examination administered annually by the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency to grant the qualifications required to perform plant quarantine duties. Since last year, the Graduate School of Plant Quarantine at JBNU has been operating the program under contract.

Since the 19th, for two weeks, 29 new employees of the Quarantine Agency preparing for the exam have been participating at Auditorium No. 2, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, JBNU. Theory and laboratory practice designed to strengthen practical quarantine capabilities are being conducted, covering export-import plant quarantine, quarantine systems, pest risk analysis and disinfection, LMO border inspections, pest diagnosis methods, and other practical quarantine tasks related to export and import inspections.

At the first session held on the 19th, Koo Yun-mo, an administrative officer of the Quarantine Agency, emphasized the value and purpose of legislation in ensuring and promoting the safety of agricultural production, and in particular the law-based regulations and standards for plant export-import quarantine, in a lecture on the Plant Protection Act.

Also, Professor Kim So-ra of JBNU's Department of Plant Protection delivered a lecture on plant pests (Lepidoptera), explaining how to distinguish Lepidopteran pests commonly encountered in field quarantine and the characteristics of regulated quarantine pests, and highlighted the importance of quarantine for national biological security.

Participants will complete the structured training by March 4, 2024, and will take the Plant Quarantine Officer and Plant Inspector qualification examination on March 13, 2024.

Choo Byung-gil, dean of the Graduate School of Plant Quarantine and dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said, "I hope this training will produce many quarantine officers who can professionally respond to changes in the national quarantine environment and address current issues so that the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency can develop further and become a more robust institution." He added, "Taking this group training as an opportunity, JBNU and the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency will actively establish an education and research collaboration system and engage in exchanges and cooperation to achieve excellent outcomes in the field of plant export-import quarantine."