Wheat and barley crops growing on North Korea’s west coast are severely stunted.
A source in South Pyongan province told Daily NK that winter wheat and barley crops in South Pyongan, North Pyongan, South Hwanghae and North Hwanghae provinces were discussed at a recent Cabinet Agricultural Commission meeting. Officials warned during the meeting that farms would struggle to meet this year’s production targets.
The stunted growth stems from delayed planting last year and unusually cold weather in February.
Farms practicing double-cropping—planting rice and corn in spring and wheat and barley in fall—must complete their wheat and barley work by November 20 at the latest. However, after a late harvest in October and November, west coast resources were tied up in threshing operations, preventing many farms from planting wheat and barley seeds until December.
Three months later, farms in South Pyongan’s Pyongwon, Sukchon, Mundok and Kaechon counties, as well as North Hwanghae’s Sariwon, Pongsan and Sohung counties, should be green with flourishing wheat plants at this time of year. Instead, these farms look as barren as desert.
“Since most workers and all the oxen and farming equipment were tied up with threshing, we barely managed to get to sowing until December. Poor weather has slowed growth, and we’re worried we won’t meet the schedule for this year’s rice transplanting,” said one local farmer.
The four west coast provinces account for 70% of North Korea’s wheat and barley cultivation. Average February temperatures in the two breadbasket regions were 1.5 and 0.7 degrees Celsius respectively—nearly five degrees lower than the previous year’s 6.4 and 4.6 degrees.
Wheat plants typically form tillers in mid-February as winter ends and the ground thaws. This year’s tillering was hampered by the unusually low temperatures.
Compared to wheat planted at the normal time (early, mid- or late November), wheat and barley planted late in December have essentially failed to form any tillers.
“Last year’s wheat crop was poor due to unusually high temperatures, and we’re already worried this year’s harvest will be meager as well,” said a local farm manager.
What options exist to overcome these challenges?
First, the Workers’ Party of Korea and its agricultural bureaucrats must stop interfering with farming schedules and grant farms greater autonomy.
If farmers are forced to harvest wheat and barley early to comply with rice transplanting schedules demanded by authorities, both the quantity and quality of wheat and barley will suffer.
The regime currently forces farms to stick to rigid rice transplanting schedules. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach, crops should be allowed to mature according to regional conditions, even if this takes longer than expected.
To boost wheat and barley production, authorities need to develop improved varieties and provide access to trenchless subsurface drainage technology and other advanced techniques.
Second, the regime must establish meaningful income protections that leverage market mechanisms to raise grain prices and stabilize farmers’ incomes.
Climate change-related disasters have reduced farm output, shrinking food supplies and cutting farmers’ income. The resulting economic downturn has severely damaged North Korean society overall.
A key weakness of North Korea’s top-down management system is its inability to respond adequately to farm income fluctuations. This is why autonomous management must be adopted.
The regime should give farmers authority to run their own operations instead of binding them to municipal and county management committees that impose party policy mechanically. Farmers should be empowered to make decisions about their farms, while management committees provide technical and material support.
Most importantly, party and government officials at both central and regional levels must stop meddling in agriculture when they lack field expertise.
