Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein
North Korea’s farms in the country’s breadbasket are suffering from a lack of fertilizer and other agricultural supplies amid the shutdown of the Sino-North Korean border, Daily NK sources have reported.
“Farms are lacking agricultural supplies throughout the province even as we are heading into the planting season,” a North Hwanghae Province-based source reported on Mar. 31.
North Korean farms typically focus on preparing for the year’s farming during January to March, acquiring needed fertilizer, pesticides and other supplies.
The country’s agricultural sector, however, relies on imports of agricultural supplies and typically trading companies are putting on all their efforts into acquiring supplies during this period.
With the closure of the Sino-North Korean border and a general halt in trade and smuggling across the border, however, farms are not getting the supplies they need this year.
“North Korean authorities are telling farms to figure out things themselves, even telling them to make their own electricity,” the source said. “Farmers are upset.”
North Korean officials have moved to increase supplies of fertilizer to farms by ordering fertilizer factories throughout the country to increase their production beyond this year’s original production quotas.
“Factory managers are full of anxiety because they have to create massive amounts of fertilizer – more than they are accustomed to,” the source noted.
North Korean cities and counties typically have their own fertilizer factories. Most of these factories, however, are small-scale and are unable to produce enough to supply all the farms in their respective areas.
(Source: Ha Yoon Ah, “N. Korea’s farms face shortages of fertilizer and other supplies,” Daily NK, April 1st, 2020.)
More than immediate rice prices rising, this sort of news is perhaps the most concerning in the long run, and we’ll only begin to see the effects in a few months.
Tags: Corona
