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North Korea Production and Distribution of Crops and Livestock
The total cropland of about 2.2 million hectares is
overwhelmingly planted with grains, of which rice accounted for
30.1 percent in 1989-90. Official data on cropland distribution
and agricultural production are scanty, and there are
discrepancies in the methods of calculating the weight of rice
(husked or unhusked). North Korea claims to have produced 10
million tons of grains in 1984. The grain output in 1989 was
estimated at 12.04 million tons by the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. In 1989 the output of
the two most important crops, rice and corn, was estimated at 6.4
million tons and 3 million tons, respectively. The output of
potatoes was 2.05 million tons in 1989. Other important crops are
wheat, barley, millet, sorghum, oats, and rye. Corn grows in most
areas, except for parts of Yanggang and North Hamgyng provinces.
Barley and wheat are cultivated mostly in both Hwanghae provinces
and in South P'yngan Province. Rice is exported, but other
grains, such as wheat, are imported. P'yongyang's goal is to
increase the grain output to 15 million tons by 1993.
Major rice production centers are located in the provinces of
North and South Hwanghae and in the provinces of North and South
P'yngan. North Korea's climate precludes double-cropping of rice
in most areas, and different methods had to be devised to
increase productivity. One method is to use cold-bed seeding, a
process that enables farmers to begin rice growing before the
regular season by planting seedlings in protected, dry beds.
Fruits, vegetables, and livestock also are important,
particularly around cities and in upland areas unsuited to grain
cultivation. Fruit orchards are concentrated in both Hamgyng
provinces, South P'yngan Province, and South Hwanghae Province.
Soybeans, whose output was around 450,000 tons toward the end of
the 1980s, are raised in many parts of the country, but primarily
in South P'yngan Province.
The post-Korean War trend of increasing the share of
livestock in the total value of agricultural output continued
during the 1980s, judging from the steady growth, which outpaced
grain production. Cattle are raised in the mountainous parts of
the two P'yngan provinces, and sheep and goats are kept in the
rugged areas of the two Hamgyng provinces and in Yanggang and
Kangwn provinces. Pigs and poultry, probably the most important
types of livestock, are raised near P'yongyang and in North
P'yngan and South Hwanghae provinces. The government is
particularly proud of its large chicken farms.
According to a 1988 agreement with the UNDP, North Korea was
to receive livestock aid from the UNDP, along with assistance in
modernizing vegetable farms, fruit production and storage, rice
cultivation, and construction of a fish farm and soil and plant
experimental stations. A rice nursery and a vegetable research
institute began operation in March 1991. The Third Seven-Year
Plan called for attaining an annual output of 1.7 million tons of
meat, 7 billion eggs, and 2 million tons of fruit by 1993.
In the early 1990s, there were persistent reports of severe
food shortages as a result of several years of consecutive crop
failures, coupled with distribution problems that had serious
consequences for food rationing. An indirect admission of food
shortages came in Kim Il Sung's 1992 New Year's address, in which
he defined 1992 as the "year of put-greater-efforts-into-
agriculture" in order to provide the population with sufficient
food.
Data as of June 1993
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