North Hamgyong Province farmers are expressing their frustration at the province’s rural management committee, which recently stated its intention – even before the start of the spring planting season – to collect more crop yields in the fall in order to cope with the province’s dire food situation.
“The provincial rural management committee held a meeting with farm managers in the province in early March,” a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK last Friday. “[In the meeting], they let them know about the urgent food situation in the province and said that, starting this fall, they will increase the share they collect from crop yields to 42%.”
According to the source, the rural management committee had originally called the meeting to discuss several important issues with the managers, but instead placed emphasis on the matter of receiving a higher share of crop yields this year.
“The food supply issue is on the rural committee’s meeting agenda every year, but the food crisis has worsened in the past two years due to the COVID-19 situation,” the source said. “[In this year’s meeting], they emphasized the food supply issue, saying that they will collect more crop yields in the fall by strictly supervising [farm harvests] starting from this autumn.”
The source explained that “the national farming law states that farms should give 30% of their crop yields [to the government], but the province exceeded this by 5% because they increased their share to 35% last year, and it is now requesting up to 42% this year.”
In the meeting, the provincial rural management committee reportedly blamed the urgent food situation in North Hamgyong Province on “poor farming,” emphasizing that the province will need to reach sufficient crop yields by all means available this year in order to avoid suffering through more “Arduous Marches” each year.
According to the source, the committee requested that the farmers take a “higher level of responsibility,” as having to give 42% of their crop yields this year to the government means they will need to work even harder.
However, many farm managers heaved great sighs of resignation after the meeting ended.
“The farm managers know that the output depends on the acreage farmed every year. They are in a tough spot because they will have nothing left to give their laborers after handing away 42% of the yields to the province,” the source said.
In fact, farm managers are criticizing the government for requesting 42% of the yields while not providing more of supplies needed in farming, such as fertilizer and oil. The government is requesting a higher share of the production while providing only a small part of the resources for the farms, expecting them to handle the rest.
“Many families are starving on the farms ahead of the planting season, and they are angry with the province for stating that they will collect more yields instead of taking any measures [to help them],” the source added.
Translated by Vilde Olaussen
