Officials from the Cabinet’s Agricultural Commission have descended on the farms of South Hwanghae Province — North Korea’s breadbasket — to take command of the fall harvest, Daily NK has learned.
A source in South Hwanghae Province told Daily NK on Wednesday that small-scale “onsite guidance teams” from the Agricultural Commission were leading efforts in the fields, systematically monitoring the situation every day to ensure that the harvest proceeds smoothly.
The Agricultural Commission teams will stay on the farms until today (Thursday), though they could stay longer depending on orders from the Cabinet.
The source said the dispatch of the teams is “part of efforts to guarantee a successful harvest by resolving shortages of machine parts, oil and other items on the spot to ensure that new-type farm machinery is working at full capacity.”
He said the most basic problem farmers face during the harvest is oil, an issue individual farm managers find difficult to resolve on their own.
“This problem is being satisfactorily resolved, albeit with difficulty, by the onsite guidance teams, so farm workers are diving into the harvest with ease,” he claimed.
According to Rodong Sinmun, a total of “5,500 farm machines newly manufactured by the munitions industrial sector” were delivered to South Hwanghae Province following an order by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The machinery included “new-type efficient mobile rice combined threshers, small-sized rice harvesters, maize combined threshers and combination soil management machines,” the state-run outlet reported.
Members of the onsite guidance teams are currently engrossed in collecting the harvested grain as quickly as possible to prevent spoiling. They are also keeping an eye out for grain pilfering, watching from chairs placed next to checkpoints along streets and roads near the farms.
The source said members of the teams are “watching the entire process, from carrying the rice sheaves to threshing,” repeatedly emphasizing how “not even a single grain should go to waste.”
In addition to the onsite guidance teams, the Agricultural Commission has deployed teams of 20 or so officials to cities and countries throughout South Hwanghae Province, leaving the commission’s headquarters practically empty.
Agricultural Commission officials measuring and studying the harvest on farms have given this year’s harvest a thumb’s up, crediting the new machinery for allowing immediate threshing, shortening the workflow, and improving efficiency over previous years.
However, farm management officials and individual farmers are reportedly complaining that with government officials counting grain yields on the spot, they can no longer steal food.
Meanwhile, various social and political organizations are reportedly conducting onsite political activities, with the participation of the guidance team officials.
The source said officials were “standing in front of the fields holding verbal, informal struggle sessions without notes, or conducting lectures or lessons dressed in work clothes.
“People are being permitted to engage in all political activities dressed in work clothes and without portraits [of North Korea’s present and past leaders] present through Oct. 20,” he added.
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