UN agency warns North Korea faces serious cereal deficit

[News_Editor]

UN agency warns North Korea faces serious cereal deficit

2010-11-16 18:18:50 GMT+7 (ICT)

ROME (BNO NEWS) -- A joint report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) on Tuesday warned that about five million people living in North Korea will continue to face food shortages despite a relatively good harvest and a slight increase in food supply.

The report follows a visit of the joint FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission which visited North Korea in September. The mission found that the country faces a cereal import requirement for the 2010/11 marketing year of an estimated 867,000 tonnes.

However, the report said that North Korea plans to commercially import only about 325,000 tonnes, leaving 542,000 tonnes as an uncovered food deficit. Therefore, the mission recommended to provide some 305,000 tonnes of international food assistance to the most vulnerable population.

"The cereal rations provided by the government through its Public Distribution System (PDS) in 2010/11 would likely contribute about half the daily energy requirements," said Joyce Luma, Chief of WFP's Food Security Analysis Unit and co-leader of the mission. "A small shock in the future could trigger a severe negative impact and will be difficult to contain if these chronic deficits are not effectively managed."

Those who are most vulnerable to food shortages include children, pregnant women and nursing mothers, the elderly and food insecure in regions with high malnutrition.

The U.N. mission which visited North Korea covered seven of North Korea's 10 provinces, accounting for about 90 percent of the country's cereal production. The warehouses visited contained no cereal stocks while low quality maize available for distribution in October came from the summer harvest and, due to inadequate drying facilities, had excessive moisture content and contaminants.

A substantial increase in cereal production had been expected this year due to some improvement in the availability of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, operational tractors, diesel fuel and electricity. These expectations, however, were frustrated by a series of extreme weather events such as the intense rainstorms causing severe flooding and consequent crop loss. The combination of these factors resulted in an increase of only three percent in the 2010/11 staple food production over that of 2009/10.

"North Korea's economy has been growing at a sluggish pace of under one percent annually and for many years now has suffered significant food deficits," said Kisan Gunjal, FAO economist and co-leader of the mission. "Furthermore, the performance of the important agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector has been erratic with negative annual growth rates over the last years."

In recent years, total cereal production has stagnated at around 4.5 million tonnes annually, compared to the 5.35 million tonnes that the Mission says represent total utilization needs. Paddy (unmilled rice) is the most important crop of North Korea, followed by maize, potatoes, wheat/barley and soybeans.

In addition to maintaining food assistance programs in North Korea, the mission recommended the government to upgrade storage facilities for potatoes, to improve grain drying methods, to increase production of high-protein legumes and to develop a national policy to provide greater support to household gardens. Also suggested as a means of adding protein to the local diet, is increasing the areas dedicated to fish ponds, therefore broadening aquaculture production.

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