The outline of Kim Jong Eun’s agricultural reform agenda is slowing taking shape. The proposed reforms, which will see the size of the average cooperative farm production unit [bunjo] reduced to 4-6 people and grain procured at market prices, have already been delivered to provincial and municipal Party agencies. Now, three counties in Yangkang Province have been selected to test the plan.
A source from Yangkang Province told Daily NK today, “They have handed down the new policy to cooperative farms in Daehongdan, Kim Hyung Jik County [formerly Huchang County] and Kim Jong Suk County [formerly Sinpa County). They are providing new seed varieties, fertilizer, weeding implements and what-have-you, and say they will give 30% of the grain to the farmers.
“The state will take 70% of the target production and the farmers will get 30%, but if the farmers exceed the target then they get to keep the surplus,” the source then clarified, before adding a caveat, “Obviously, the key is the standard according to which the authorities set those targets.”
“The farmers in the three counties are excited about it now that they have heard that they will be able to get 30% of the production and even the surplus as well. So much so that they think some people who left for the cities will come back to the area,” he noted, adding that in Kim Jong Suk County they are already bringing in new agricultural machinery, which is being described as coming from Kim Jong Eun.
If the policy is implemented as stated, then the amount of production going to farmers should rise. This will be a welcome change for most; the Chosun People’s Army took direct responsibility for the management of food procurement and distribution during the food insecurity and famine of the 1990s, and this invariably left the farmers themselves with a vastly reduced share.
However, it is not just internationally that concerns over the viability of the measures being implemented are being raised.
Local people are not yet prepared to trust the authorities either, following a history of disappointments such as the 2009 currency redenomination. In consequence, many are reportedly looking upon the latest policy with skepticism; many expect the authorities to break their promises in one way or another, for example by taking more than 30% of production in order to feed the military.
“In 1985 I went to Kim Jong Suk County and tested some changes like this for myself,” Lee Min Bok, who was once an agricultural researcher in North Korea, explained, before emphasizing, “For as long as they don’t move to a fully private farming model it is very hard to imagine that they will improve production or obtain a significant surplus.”
