SPECIAL REPORT - FAO/WFP CROP AND FOOD SECURITY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE?S REPUBLIC OF KOREA (November 12 2012, extract)

[Giuseppe]

[Source: FAO, full PDF document: (LINK). Extract, edited.]


S P E C I A L R E P O R T - FAO/WFP CROP AND FOOD SECURITY ASSESSMENT MISSION TO THE DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE?S REPUBLIC OF KOREA

12 November 2012


FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS, ROME / WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME, ROME


This report has been prepared by Kisan Gunjal, Swithun Goodbody and Cristina Coslet (FAO) and Siemon Hollema, Elliot Vurumuku, Anusara Singhkumarwong, and Samir Wanmali (WFP) under the responsibility of the FAO and WFP Secretariats with information from official and other sources. Since conditions may change rapidly, please contact the undersigned for further information if required.

GIEWS Asia Team Leader Kenro Oshidari, GIEWS, FAO Regional Director, WFP, Fax: 0039-06-5705-4495 Fax: 0066-26554413, E-mail: giews1@fao.org E-mail: kenro.oshidari@wfp.org

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Mission Highlights

1. In DPRK, staple food production in 2012/13 is estimated to increase for the second consecutive year, reflecting improved yields, by about 10 percent over the revised above-normal production in 2011/12.
2. A total of about 5.8 million tonnes of food output from cooperative farms, individual plots on sloping land and household gardens for 2012/13 is expected, including estimates for the 2012 main season harvest and the forecast for 2013 early season crops. When paddy is converted to milled rice and soybeans to cereal equivalent, total production is estimated at 4.9 million tonnes.
3. Despite some flood damage in July-August to paddy crop in the main grain producing provinces, the timely availability of key inputs and an increase in the State procurement prices resulted in an overall increase in the main season crop harvest. Furthermore, the impact of the prolonged dry spell in the first half of the season was largely mitigated by increased irrigation efforts including mass mobilization of people to water maize plants.
4. Soybean production, on the other hand, decreased this year by over 30 percent, primarily due to the dry spell. Given the overall inadequacy of pulse production, efforts should be redoubled, including more favourable pricing of the commodity in relation to other cereals, to increase the protein content of the diet.
5. The second consecutive poor harvest of early crops has resulted in a shortage of wheat, barley and potato seed for the 2013 winter and spring crops. Overall, production from the early season crops over the last several years has been on a negative trend.
6. Based on the Mission?s estimate of total utilization needs of 5.43 million tonnes of cereal equivalent (rice in milled terms), the Mission estimates cereal import requirement of 507 000 tonnes for the 2012/13 marketing year (November/October). Assuming the official target of 300 000 tonnes of food imports, the Mission estimates an uncovered food deficit of 207 000 tonnes for the 2012/13 marketing year. This food gap is the narrowest in many years mainly due to the improved harvests.
7. Household food consumption has improved but serious gaps remain between recommended and actual nutrient intake. The predominant share of the population remains food insecure and highly vulnerable to production shocks.
8. Acute malnutrition rates seem to have improved this year due to better food rations and a consistent food assistance pipeline. Chronic under-nutrition however remains a public health problem.
9. The Mission recommends that international support be focused on expanding and developing nutrition programmes specifically targeted to about 2.8 million vulnerable people (children, pregnant and lactating women, elderly and disabled or chronic ill) in five provinces in the North-East of the country.
10. In order to improve food security in the short to medium term, the Mission also makes recommendations for national and international support for -
    • (i) increased production of protein commodities, namely soybean cultivation and fish pond development,
    • (ii) revitalization of the double-cropping programme by providing inputs (e.g. seeds and fertilizer for the early crops wheat, barley and potatoes), improved mechanization and sufficient incentives to cooperative farms, and
    • (iii) general assistance for household garden production. In the medium to longer term, adoption of incentive system through relevant changes in agricultural marketing would help elevate production and improve the country?s food security.

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