Last month, North Korea mobilized its people to participate in what it called the “Dig 12 Bottoms” campaign as part of efforts to make up for shortages of fertilizer. Many people in the country, however, are complaining that the method is yielding few results.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a reporting partner in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK on Tuesday that “the provincial party committee called for the Dig 12 Bottoms campaign to gather more alternative fertilizer based on the experiences and lessons of last year.”
Suffering from fertilizer shortages, North Korea is increasing production of night soil and organic fertilizers to fill in the gap. Every farming season, the authorities mobilize people to conduct the Dig 12 Bottoms campaign, calling on them to dig soil from the bottom of 12 places — including ditches, swamps, toilets, pigsties and cow sheds — to spread on fields as fertilizer.
On Mar. 31, Rodong Sinmun called for the “brisk organization of several mass movements to increase soil fertility, including the improvement of acid soil and cold wetlands and soil addition, and forceful socialist competition to produce high-quality compost by mobilizing all sources of manure, including the digging of the 12 bottoms, and cutting lots of grass.”
Essentially, North Korea has asked people to make every effort to acquire fertilizer, a key resource for boosting agricultural productivity, because the country has put increasing grain production at the top of its list of 12 economic goals that must be achieved this year.
THE AUTHORITIES INSPECT THE RESULTS OF THE CAMPAIGN
North Korean authorities have also carried out an inspection of the results of the Dig 12 Bottoms campaign.
“The agricultural guidance teams dispatched to each farm ascertained the status of the Dig 12 Bottoms campaign and punished farmers and farm officials who failed to meet quotas,” the reporting partner said.
In response to the inspection, some people complained that they cannot tell whether the agricultural guidance teams came to help them farm or to get them in trouble.
Many farmers are saying that while preparing manure is necessary for increasing agricultural production, they doubt whether mobilizing everyone for the Dig 12 Bottoms campaign will be effective, the reporting partner said.
“People say providing more chemical fertilizers would be much more helpful in achieving the goal of increasing grain output by more than one ton per jeongbo [a Korean unit of measurement equal to approximately 9,900 square meters].”
According to data released by China Customs on Apr. 21, North Korea in March imported over USD 10.12 million of ammonium phosphate, an ingredient used in chemical fertilizers. In terms of import totals by items, the chemical’s import boasted the second highest figure behind imports of short grain rice, which totaled over USD 13.33 million dollars.
North Korea’s efforts to acquire manure through mobilizations of mass numbers of people alongside the import of large quantities of ingredients to produce chemical fertilizers indicates how actively the authorities are trying to boost agricultural production.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Daily NK works with a network of reporting partners who live inside North Korea and China. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK’s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page here.
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