The first rice planting of the year in North Korea took place on May 10 at the Wonhwa Collective Farm in Pyongwon, South Pyongan Province, DPRK state media announced yesterday.
Ju Chol Gyu, vice premier and chairman of the DPRK Agriculture Commission, along with the chief secretary of the South Pyongan Provincial Party Committee Kim Tu-Il and other party officials reportedly attended the event and even participated in the first seeding.
Wonhwa Farm was dubbed the “Land of Glory” after the DPRK’s first leader Kim Il Sung personally visited the land during the Korean War in 1952 to plant rice together with farmers. Since then, the sowing in Wonhwa gives the signal for North Korean rice farmers to start cultivating their fields as well – usually, this happens around May 10.
Rodong Sinmun: “Farming is a national struggle”
North Korea has given top priority to grain cultivation this year. With the start of the 2023 agriculture season, state media outlets have called on enterprises, party members, scientists and workers alike “to give strength” to the farmers who have “guarded the frontline of the socialist economic construction,” and to open a “vigorous new upswing phase of national development” by volunteering on the farm fields. Rodong Sinmun urged on May 11: Everyone in the nation should “boil with fever for farming and rural support” and “mobilize all human and material resources for projects to minimize damage from catastrophic weather such as drought, floodwater and heavy rain.
“Rice planting is the most labor-intensive farming business, and the rice planting season is a critical period that determines the agricultural performance of the year,” the outlet continued, adding: “Today’s struggle for good farming is a national struggle. Everyone regards farming as a serious issue related to their destiny and national development, and must be consciously, actively, and responsibly mobilized for rural support projects.”
The newspaper also called on party officials to exert a “powerful ideological and offensive force that has a revolutionary influence” on agricultural workers, saying: “It is necessary to actively urge them to lead the masses with a practical example while shouting the command ‘Follow me forward!’”
North Korea usually begins sowing rice nationwide in early to mid-May and completes the planting in early to mid-June.
Severe drought could have a devastating effect on the 2023 rice season
Following a poor harvest in 2022, food supplies in the DPRK are now running dangerously low, forcing the regime to cut food rations for the military and import large quantities of rice from China. The country is also facing its worst spring drought in years.
At “historic” plenary sessions of the party’s Central Committee in early April, the agriculture crisis, measures to combat the drought as well as the rural development project were the main topics of discussion, according to Rodong Sinmun. Ultimately, the authorities decided that volunteers must help out with agricultural work, while all state departments and workplaces – including ministries and central government agencies – must prepare and provide the goods and equipment needed for this year’s crop cultivation.
Edited by Robert Lauler.
