Despite vowing to make this year one of
‘abundant harvests’ as North Korea marks its 70th anniversary of the Workers’ Party
foundation, the country is facing stumbling blocks in living up to that
promise. Full mobilization calls of workers and soldiers for agricultural
assistance have failed to draw out greater work capacity from purported
‘volunteers’, but sources report a very different picture when it comes to
plots allocated to individuals.
“On collective farms, where all residents
have been fully mobilized, rice planting, and sowing of corn and potatoes are
in full swing,” a source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on June 4th.
“But those who have been mobilized are working half-halfheartedly, and there are
no measures in place against threats of drought, so other than rice paddies,
most crops are drying out.”
Sources in two other provinces of North Korea reported the same trends, but for their safety Daily NK may not release their locations.
She added that as those adhering to the
state’s full-mobilization order are far from diligent about their work and “just trying to get by.” Young students are reportedly working from the
wee hours to transport buckets of water to the rice paddies but the overall
efforts are far from sufficient to overcome the dry spell wreaking havoc on the
crops.
“Most ‘volunteers’ play games or sit in the
shade, having a few drinks, when the farm managers are not around,” said the
source. This behavior earns the ire of managers, who threaten to pull meal
provisions for workers or refusing to accept volunteers altogether as a result.
However, this is all in stark contrast to
individual plots, the source reported. “On these individual plots, people are
using plastic covers and protecting their crops from drought–a popular method
employed by most with these swathes of land,” she said. “In each furrow on
private plots, people have put down plastic with holes in them, which facilitates moisture preservation and reduces the need for weeding.”
People are connecting plastic strips that
are roughly 40cm in width to place down in the furrows. Holes are made every
35cm and seeds are planted within. The plastic not only helps contain moisture in the
ground but also raises the ground temperature. This, in turn, improves
the growth of vegetables and corn, according to the source.
While collective farm output lags under
“Juche farming,” where problems like equipment shortages are endemic, individual plots teem with
activity, thriving on innovative methods devised by its tenders. “At the
end of the day, farming is more effective when there’s a landowner, and people
generally believe now that collective farms aren’t going to yield a good
harvest,” she concluded.
