Our work in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Concern Worldwide’s work in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) mainly focuses on improving food security and nutrition, water and sanitation, responding to emergencies and building resilience. We currently work in four provinces – Kangwon, North Hwanghae, South Hwanghae, South Pyongan – and in Pyongyang district.
Related articles
Jul
07
2015
Drought threatens livelihoods of farmers in DPRK
Blog post
Apr
14
2015
The quest for clean water in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Blog post
Apr
14
2015
Helping farmers beat drought in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
Blog post
Improving food security and nutrition
Sustainable food production
We are helping to increase sustainable food production by establishing community-based greenhouses, irrigation systems, and goat’s milk and soya bean processing facilities. We also help local people to increase their technical and management skills through training, exchange visits and attending conferences.
Improved techniques
We have introduced conservation agriculture techniques which help increase crop yields, reduce soil erosion and reduce the amount of labour required to produce food. We are improving crop storage facilities to help reduce post-harvest crop losses, and are conducting crop trials for improved varieties of crops. Our programmes also supply food processing equipment to the cooperative farms so that they can process their crops into nutritious and easily digestible foods like popped maize or soy noodles.
Water and environmental health
A large part of our work focuses on water, sanitation and hygiene promotion. In many parts of DPRK, people have to walk long distances to access safe drinking water. There is a lack of proper sanitation facilities leading to the spread of diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases.
Improving water provision
Concern helps provide clean drinking water supplies to communities by constructing gravity-fed and solar pumped water systems. We also help communities to build latrines, especially in institutions such as schools, kindergartens, nurseries and hospitals.
Building resilience
Our programmes help to build families’ assets, and diversify livelihoods, which contributes to reducing vulnerability and building resilience. We’re working with communities on projects related to conservation agriculture, expanding growing seasons with greenhouses, crop and food processing, reducing the effects of water borne diseases to ultimately reduce their vulnerability.
Concern works with rural communities to build their resilience to natural disasters such as flooding or drought. We support them to improve reforestation, improve water conservation and develop disaster preparedness plans. We established two Early Warning Systems (EWS) which collect data such as temperature, precipitation and soil moisture and assesses anticipated weather and disaster risks. This information will increase cooperative farms’ resilience to hazards and guide farmers on how they can mitigate against disasters.
In depth
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Tackling deforestation: Democratic People's Republic of Korea
People living in rural areas of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) used to depend on their forests for shelter, food and energy. Now these forests are being cut down, and this is having a huge impact on people’s lives. Since 2001, Concern has been working with the people affected.
In the past, 65% of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was covered by forest, which was protected by the government. Recently though, major shortages of fuel and building materials have brought changes. The forests are being cleared to make way for development. Rural communities are being asked to farm on steep, deforestedslopes where they are only gaining short-term crop benefits. Without forest, the mountain landscape is being exposed to severe erosion and flooding.
Importance of forestry
People living in rural areas are largely dependent on the country’s natural forests. They use wood for building houses, cooking food, and as a much needed energy source in winter time. Temperatures can drop as low as minus 26 degrees. In times of food shortages, the naturally growing vegetation in the forests also provides people with an extra source of nutrition. Rural communities who rely heavily on forestry are now experiencing serious problems and the environment is suffering hugely
Concern’s forestry programme
In the last few years, we’ve been dealing with these problems. We’ve put in place new methods to reduce soil erosion, control flooding and secure supplies of drinking water. New cropping techniques are helping farmers to preserve valuable farmland. The management of forests has improved and communities are growing new trees.
Fast-growing tree species that can be used for fuel and timber are also being identified. This will result in less of the natural forest being chopped down. Efforts are also being made to rehabilitate the natural forests by planting native plant species. Lastly, we are working to share valuable lessons learnt through this natural resource management programme with local people and officials and the wider international community.
Fast-growing tree species that can be used for fuel and timber are also being identified. This will result in less of the natural forest being chopped down. Efforts are also being made to rehabilitate the natural forests by planting native plant species. Lastly, we are working to share valuable lessons learnt through this natural resource management programme with local people and officials and the wider international community.
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Daniel Gray | 07 July 2015 | 1 Comment
Dry spell
Rainfall for the past year has been markedly below average. The DPRK government has reported that 31% of rice growing areas have suffered from serious water shortages this year. Rice paddy fields should be full with water at the moment. However due to reduced rainfall levels, lower levels of water in hand-dug wells and weak irrigation systems, the paddy fields are extremely dry making it difficult for the rice plants to survive.
Consequences
Early crop production (such as potatoes, maize, wheat and barley) is likely to be reduced by 40–50% in drought-affected areas. The main harvest could fall by up to 40%.
This shortfall in food production could lead to a devastating outcome for the wellbeing and livelihoods of up to 70% of the total population.
Drought comes with high risks not just to food security, but can also reduce production of hydro-electric power and exacerbate the spread of waterborne diseases.
Response
Across the regions in danger, co-operative farms have mobilised large numbers of people to support rice planting and watering until the rainfall becomes adequate for their survival. It is not clear how much this will offset the drought.
Concern has purchased and delivered 100 pumps for the immediate irrigation of fields to help the current rice crop reach its full potential.
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Drought
Last summer, the official news agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was reporting the worst drought in over a decade, with some areas of the country experiencing the lowest rainfall levels since 1961.
Concerns over potential food shortages prompted the government to mobilise office workers, farmers and women into the fields to help direct water into thirsty fields and rice paddies. Chronic food shortages have been a stark reality for many North Koreans in the last 20 years – in the 1990s, famine is thought to have killed an estimated one million people in the country.
Bulkier yields
Against this backdrop, this picture taken at Anbyon Up-farm last September is all the more amazing. Despite the terrible drought, rice yields at this farm were as good, year-on-year, as before.
Pak Yon Chun is manager of the Anbyon Up-farm. She spoke to us about how her farm managed to achieve bulkier yields than neighbouring farms, despite the drought.
With the help of Concern, our farm rehabilitated the fixed irrigation system for 137 hectares of paddy fields last year.
Fixed irrigation system
The fixed irrigation system at Anbyon Up-farm consists of one main supply pump station and two boost pump stations. Concern provided a new set of pumps and motors to increase the water supply to the boost pump stations. Old motors were repaired, water transmission pipes were extended, iron electric wires were replaced with aluminium wire, and a 200kva transformer was installed to improve the power supply. Small portable pumps were also provided for rain-fed fields.
Beating drought
Such preparedness enabled timely irrigation of transplanted rice seedlings which gave the plants a head start as they grew on. Pak Yon Chun explained the difference this made to her farm’s yield:
The average yield in this area used to be 3.5 metric tonnes per hectare, with 2.5 metric tonnes per hectare in the worst 30 hectares. We had an average yield of 4.7 metric tonnes per hectare this year, which is in total a 164.4 metric tonne increase. This is amazing.
This improvement was largely due to the rehabilitated fixed irrigation system. The small portable pumps helped greatly too as they enabled targeted irrigation where it was needed in the paddy fields. “Neighbouring farms are envious and so we are very proud,” Pak Yon Chun concluded.
Sustainable food production
Concern is helping to increase sustainable food production in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by establishing community-based greenhouses, irrigation systems, and goat’s milk and soya bean processing facilities. Also, through training, exchange visits and conferences, we help locals to increase their technical and management skills. In 2014,over 100,000 people benefitted from our agriculture, nutrition and food security programme.
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Daesong and Sinhung are two of the most remote villages of Sin’gye county in the southern half of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Situated among flatlands where spring water is scarce and the ground-water table is low, the quest for water has been a daily headache for locals until lately.
Water scarcity
Until recently, the people of Daesong and Sinhung have had to trek up to 9km each morning to fetch clean water using wooden handcarts loaded with containers – a task that would consume a large part of their work day. In the rainy season, rain-water collection bolstered supplies for washing. But during winter when temperatures could drop as low as -20°C, water could be so scarce that whole families would often have to wash from a single bowl of water.
Health concerns
When Concern Worldwide first visited Daesong, village leader Pak Chang Ho told us that locals were unable to wash their clothes in winter as a result. There were also frequent occurrences of severe diarrhoea and water borne diseases, especially in children.
It wasn’t always this way. In the 1970s, electric pumping systems provided water to these villages. But over time these systems began to fail, not helped by irregular and highly fluctuating electric power supplies.
Gravity-fed system
A large part of our work in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea focusses on water, sanitation and hygiene promotion. Working with local teams in Daesong and Sinhung last year, we implemented a gravity-fed system for water supply to each village, using a lake water source some kilometres away.
Construction proved challenging due to the lack of suitable construction materials nearby. Stones, gravel and sand had to travel up to 15km by truck, tractors, oxen, or even hand cart. But despite the challenges, the system in Daesong was completed in March, with Sinhung households turning on their taps in November.
Dramatic improvement
The new water systems have dramatically improved lives for the villagers. Pak Chang Ho described the reaction in Daesong village:
When the water came out of the taps, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Actually nobody in our village believed that water would flow from the lake such a long distance. Everybody, the elders and the children in the village were so excited…some of the grandmothers cried to see water running. It was like a holiday.
Despite a drought last summer, the village has had no scarcity of drinking water. “During hot summer days, villagers had the pleasure of a bath,” he told us.
Increased productivity
There has been a large decrease in the number of water-borne diseases reported in Daesong as compared to last year. Furthermore, as villagers no longer have to spend so much of their day in pursuit of water, the total man days available for agricultural work have almost doubled – with tangible results. Daesong celebrated a bumper harvest last year with the village’s yield 1.7 times higher than the previous year. This is the highest recorded annual crop yield in the history of Daesong village.
Pak Ho Chang said:
In our village there was a saying that when a guest comes, he can get food, but no water for drinking. All Koreans know this saying, but now this has no meaning for us. I must say that the newly built water supply system has completely changed our lives – dramatically improved them.
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