N. Korean farmers increasingly renting out idle land
Farms in the mountainous inland areas of South Pyongan Province are increasingly renting out idle land left unused because of farm worker shortages, Daily NK has learned from local sources.
Rather than cultivating the unused land themselves, farmers in the mountainous inland regions such as those in the counties of Yangdok, Nyongwon, Taehung, and Maengsan have been loaning the land to municipal organizations, businesses, the Socialist Women’s Union of Korea, universities, and even primary, middle and high schools.
Rental fees for fallow land vary according to the yields of the farms renting them, but prices are generally said to be set at the market rate of 30% of the farm’s total yield. If a farm’s yield is one ton, for example, the rental fee would be the market value of 300 kilograms of its total crop.
North Korean students in a truck driving along the Sino-North Korean border. There is reportedly a clear demand for idle fields in the province. The education department of the province’s people’s committee recently decided to have its schools purchase rights to cultivate idle farmland as part of efforts to tackle food shortages. ......
[Source: Daily NK]
