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The Rural Development Administration has developed the ‘Wheat Sprout Healing Agriculture Program’ for the elderly, improving their happiness and life satisfaction while reducing depression and stress, thus enhancing mental health. The National Institute of Crop Science operated the program at the Wheat Sprout Healing Farm with cooperation from Jeonbuk Social Service Institute for 25 active seniors aged 61-74.
The program consisted of four weekly sessions, incorporating rural culture, horticulture, healing food resources into activities such as landscape meditation, sweet potato harvesting, creating wheat sprout gardens, making wheat sprout frames and tea bags, and preparing wheat sprout finger food and lattes. Each session included social interaction time to increase vitality and communication among participants.
Survey results showed a 22.6% reduction in depression, a 27% increase in subjective happiness, and a 16% improvement in life satisfaction. The stress hormone cortisol levels also decreased. For men, cortisol levels steadily declined, while for women, levels significantly dropped after the second session but increased after the fourth session, possibly due to familiar cooking activities causing stress.
The Rural Development Administration is developing healing agriculture programs for institutions like schools, welfare centers, and dementia care centers and is verifying their effectiveness. Hwang Taek-sang, head of the National Institute of Crop Science, confirmed the program’s healing effects and expressed efforts to enable more citizens to benefit from such initiatives.