Neatly patterned paddies line the slopping hills as you drive through the countryside in DPR Korea. Women and men are hard at work in the paddies watering and transplanting rice and maize seedlings.
It is a rather beautiful sunny May day during this planting season. Farming in DPR Korea is carried out by cooperative farms of around 1000 – 2000. The Jangsuwon cooperative farm produces around 1500 tonnes of rice and 500 tonnes of maize which is threshed, cleaned, dried and stored for distribution to Korean families by the Ministry of Food Administration.
With each seedling transplanted into the ground, the farmers expect an even bigger yield at harvest time between October and November.
But the dream is often far from the reality, the farmers do not achieve the estimated harvest in part due to poor seed varieties, soil infertility, harsh weather conditions and unexpected drought and/or floods.
One unforeseen cause of reduction in harvest is the post harvest loss caused by poor handling. Approximately 15.56 % in rice, 16.65 % in maize and 16.35 % in wheat and barley is lost during post harvest.
Leaving harvested crops in the field for around three to four weeks before it is taken for threshing, drying and storage, exposes the produce to harsh weather conditions, grain shattering, heating of grains leading to discoloration, mould damage; hence causing serious grain losses.
This is because of lack of transport to move the crop to threshing centres, located 4 to 5 km from the fields. This is worsened by inadequate threshing, drying and storage facilities at the threshing centres that result in further grain loss. The use of out-dated mills also results in a high percentage of broken grains.
Post-harvest losses have a serious dampening effect on the country’s efforts for increased agricultural productivity and food security.
DPR Korea losses 944,000 (metric tonnes) MT of food annually which would feed 3,780 people for one year according to a post-harvest loss assessment study carried out by FAO in collaboration with the Pyongyang Agricultural Campus, Kim Il Sung University.
Yet, if controlled by at least 50%, the country would reduce post-harvest losses by up to 397,000 MT.
FAO provided improved post-harvest machinery to six demonstration cooperative farms with the aim of encouraging farmers to adopt improved technologies to reduce post-harvest losses under the auspices of its Reduction of Post-Harvest Losses for Food Security project.
The 1.7 million USD UNDP funded project provided improved infrastructure and equipment, including threshing yards, threshers, harvesters and two complete rice milling plants.
FAO provided Jangsuwon, Osin Pyongam Soho Yonan and Taepyong cooperative farms with tractors, harvesters, threshers and other equipment. A tractor alone can plough 10 hectares of land per day.
The mobile thresher provided under the post-harvest loss handling project reduced losses in wasted grain during harvesting, processing and drying.
One of the six demonstration farms recorded a 50% reduction of such losses to around 7.5%. The rice production alone on Yonan cooperative farm was 4723 metric tonnes in 2012.
A report on “Post-harvest Loss Assessment” in Korean language was printed and distributed to the Korean cooperative farms. Improved threshing technology and maize shelling for loss reduction was also introduced and improved storage facilities and equipment for reducing losses and boosting productivity were installed.
The project improved food security and nutrition for many cooperative farmers by helping to increase the availability of food, through reducing post-harvest losses. The quantified economic benefits are cost savings consisting of reduction in out-of-pocket household expenses in health costs.