North Korea has ordered wheat and barley farms to adopt “underground drip irrigation systems” to optimize crop production, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Daily NK source in South Hwanghae Province said Tuesday that the provincial agricultural finance management committee handed down an order in late April to local city and county farm management committees to “make brisk efforts to popularize efficient underground drip irrigation systems for wheat and barley cultivation.”
In its order, the committee promoted the underground drip irrigation system as a “cutting-edge technology that optimizes crop production by delivering water and nutrients directly to the roots of the crops.”
In particular, officials are promoting drip irrigation as a new, efficient system that can significantly increase crop production in drought-prone regions.
The system “delivers water and nutrients at set intervals through underground piping, storage tanks, pumps, filter tanks, nutrient mixers, pressure regulators and basic distribution piping,” the source said.
According to the provincial agricultural finance management committee, the system can provide balanced amounts of water and nutrients to wheat and barley. It also wastes far less water and prevents soil erosion better than traditional irrigation systems.
“The provincial agricultural financial management committee considers the adoption of the new irrigation system an important step in dealing with the nation’s chronic food shortages and boosting wheat and barley farming and production in a sustainable way in line with the country’s internal situation with the rising demand for food,” the source said.
“Farmers believe the order calls on them to adopt the new irrigation system and popularize its use on all wheat and barley farms as a measure from the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea calling on them to focus their energy on wheat and barley farming in light of the poor wheat and barley yields in recent years,” the source said.
Local areas have to pay for the upgrade
However, some local city and county agricultural management committees are taking a cautious approach, adopting the new system on a trial basis at a handful of farms.
“The city and county farms have started the project by adopting the systems in one or two farms on a trial basis,” the source said.
Agricultural officials and farmers praise the new irrigation system as an “epoch-making” method that can consistently provide water and nutrients to crops despite erratic weather and strange climate conditions. At the same time, they feel burdened and helpless because the farms have to pay for the water tanks, pumps, filters, and other equipment themselves.
“The new irrigation system is getting attention in the agricultural sector, but on the ground, people say it will be hard to implement on their own when they already have too few hands to do their current farm work,” the source said.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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