◆ Men are disappearing from the countryside
Another serious issue faced by farms is the shortage of workers.
A reporting partner from Ryanggang Province said, “I don’t see many men. Women lead the cows and work the land. One division on a farm consists of 10-15 workers, with only 3-5 men in each, there for army service. Of those few men, though, most have been mobilized since the spring for the construction of special tourist zones in Samjiyeon and Wonsan, as well as for the construction of the Dancheon Dam. On any farm, it’s mostly women doing the work.”
Although the construction of tourist zones in Samjiyeon and Wonsan were not originally urgent priorities, they have since become top national projects of the Kim Jong-un regime, with residents mobilized from all over the country to help bring the sites to fruition.
A third reason for the poor production is the small amount of rain the country received this year from April to June. At the cooperative farm visited by the reporting partner in North Hamkyung Province, 60% of the planted seeds failed to germinate due to the lack of rain.
The fourth factor is the decline in soil fertility. As chemical fertilizers have been used for many years, the soil has become severely acidified. In addition, the repeated cultivation of corn has led to a serious decline in soil fertility.
According to the reporting partner from North Hamkyung Province, “An overseer of a farm said that they must rotate their crops by planting beans or potatoes but, as farms do not have the authority to decide what to plant, they must plant what they are told to by those in Pyongyang.”
There is also information circulating that crops in Hwanghae Province, the breadbasket of North Korea, are struggling as well. According to North Korean state media, a typhoon hit the province in mid-September, damaging rice paddies before the harvest.
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Editor’s notes on North Korean reporters
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