AFSC - North Korea

Remembering Kim Dae Jung

The American Friends Service Committee mourns the passing of former South Korean President and fellow Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Kim Dae Jung. His courageous political stands forged South Korea�s democracy. As president, his leadership and vision transformed relations between North and South Korea and the results of his conciliatory approach continue to positively affect the present. The AFSC was part of worldwide efforts to free Kim Dae Jung from prison in the 1980�s and he honored us by visiting our offices in Philadelphia when he was in exile in the US. The AFSC has been actively engaged in promoting peace and reconciliation in Korea over several decades, and we have been inspired by Kim Dae Jung�s example.

DPRK Agricultural Assistance Program

Interview with AFSC staff in DRPK

Listen to an in-depth interview with Randy Ireson, AFSC, who has been working with farmers in Korea since 1997.

Interview
(MP3 file - 36 Min.)

The American Friends Service Committee has provided agricultural assistance to the DPRK since 1997. Over this decade, AFSC�s agricultural assistance program in the DPRK has followed two complementary strategies: (1) supporting immediate production gains at selected farms, and (2) helping farms to increase production with their own resources. AFSC�s budget for these activities has been approximately $350,000 per year for the last five years. The program provides assistance to four large cooperative farms, three in the Western coastal �rice basket� and one in the eroded foothills 120 km northeast of Pyongyang.

Research laboratory at Agriculture Canada

In addition, AFSC supports testing and evaluation of sustainable farming methods at three agricultural research institutes, including the national Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Increases in food production at the four farms supported by AFSC contribute substantially to better nutrition for urban North Koreans, as well as for the farm families.

Experimental rice fields at OADA

AFSC focuses its assistance on selected obstacles which restrict food production. These obstacles include poor soil fertility and fertility management, inadequate rainfall for early season crop development, and excessive post-harvest losses because of slow grain processing. During the past two years, AFSC has joined with the North Korean Academy of Agricultural Science (AAS), the Organic Agriculture Development Association (OADA), and the Research Center for Compound Microorganisms (CM Center) in a coordinated program to develop high-yielding sustainable farming methods which are suited to DPRK conditions. These methods especially include introduction of cover crops which provide nitrogen and organic matter to the depleted soils, and simple farm equipment which facilitates growing these cover crops. Under appropriate conditions, green manure cover crops can add enough nitrogen to raise rice and corn yields by 30% over the current average.

Corn from fields rotated with soybean

With suggestions and support from AFSC, farms have begun to implement several crop rotation systems that include soybeans, and the results are quite positive both for food production and farmer income.

In previous years, AFSC provided small irrigation and sprinkler systems. These pumps provide small but critical amounts of water to corn, wheat or soybean during frequent early spring droughts, avoiding loss of a crop and stabilizing yields. AFSC has also donated small portable rice threshing machines which help prevent grain losses in the fields to birds and rats, and allow work teams to directly process the harvest in their allocated fields, rather than having to carry it to a central threshing machine. Both the pumps and threshers pay for their initial purchase cost in just one year of operation, because of the reduction in crop losses.

Vetch test in harvested rice paddy.

Most importantly, AFSC has so far hosted fourteen delegations abroad for technical study in agriculture, and brought agricultural scientists from the US to North Korea. Past delegations have come to the US, Canada, China and Vietnam. The North Korean farming specialists who have participated in these delegations have learned about many topics including rice and corn breeding, pork and poultry production, and sustainable farming methods. Their exposure to ordinary citizens in the US and other countries visited allows them to take home new ideas. AFSC�s continuing work in the DPRK builds new understanding between the North Korean and American people and helps to break down stereotyped images on both sides.

The East Asia Quaker International Affairs Representative Program has more information about AFSC's work in Korea.