DPRK Agriculture Program: SRI Project in four local farms

1. DPRK Agriculture Program:SRI Project in four local farms • Brief history of AFSC agriculture development work in DPRK • New program cycle of agricultural development approach in DPRK • Farm experience with SRI practices and initial reports • Next stage of focus on SRI and some of the issues we are facing

2. Brief history of AFSC agricultural development work in DPRK • 1990-2000 Humanitarian assistance • 2000-2007 Focus on agricultural development- soil fertility, with winter cover crop and forage • 2007-present Improvement in cultivation methods - rice and corn, tackle shortfalls in production issue and structural challenges Seed breeding and generation advancement - tackle long-term production bottlenecks Soil fertility - address long-term agricultural needs and environment sustainability

3. The new program cycle of agricultural development approaches in DPRK Three focuses: - Cultivation methods - rice and corn - Seed breeding and generation advancement - Soil fertility

4. Cultivation methods - rice and corn Based on each farm’s situation, specific location, crop, labor force, natural and economic condition, address immediate needs of increased food production Results: By 2009, 250 hectares of rice paddy in experiments with the new cultivation methods. Average yield increases of 0.5 t to 1 t per hectare

5. Seed breeding and generation advancement Address one of the fundamental issues of low food production in a poor country which is lack of knowledge and means to have appropriate policy and research opportunities for producing better crop seeds Results: three new rice varieties have been released; positive results from DPRK-based exchange programs with other institutions in Southeast Asia

6. Soil fertility Address long-term agriculture and environment sustainability issues to find ways to gradually improve soil fertility, with changes in conventional agricultural practice and systematic structure Result: Extremely difficult to find sustainable solutions. Initial findings need more test.

7. First element: address immediate need for increase food production at farm level Evaluate changes in cultivation methods on the farm for rice cultivation • Farm experience with SRI and initial reports: see pictures below

8. Reasons and processes for the original introduction of SRI to farms - Ease shortage of labor and resources at planting period, and at the some time, increase crop yield and, if possible, soil fertility. -Establish experimental stages for gradual introduction of new production methods: 1) Seeding 2) Transplanting 3) Water management 4) Other related issues.

9. Introducing of tray seeding bed method

10. Tiller effect of new cultivation method

11. In 2009, total experimental area in the four farms was up 250 hectares

12. Different transplanting spacing experiments

13. Seed: Pyong Do 11Seeding date: April 30 April 21Transplanted June 5 June 6 Tillers/ pyong 380 310 As of June 24, 640 440 Seed: Pyong Do 15Seeding date: April 30 April 21Transplanted June 5 June 6Tillers/pyong 360 300As of June 24 560 520

14. Visiting the experimental fields

15. Comparison of the effects of conventional and new cultivation methods on rice plants

16. Color differences between rice seedlings in the experimental field: new on the left---conventional on the right

17. Some improvement

18. Average increase of 0.5 t to 1 t per hectare on 250 hectares of experimental fields

19. Next stage of focus on SRI and some of the issues that we are facing - Better scientific experimental design for the on-farm trials for finding the best combination of methods in each location -More experiments on different transplanting densities -Look into the possibilities of more efficient water management and ways of weed control -Look into ways to increase the soil biomass -Expand the experiment fields in more farms

20. Thank you American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Wuna Reilly China and DPRK Country Representative