N. Korea expected to harvest 3 million tons of potatoes: official

PYONGYANG, Dec. 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is expected to harvest as much as 3 million tons of potatoes this year, a Pyongyang official told Yonhap News Agency on Sunday, a significant increase for the nation that suffers from chronic food shortages.
The increase was made possible in large part by support and assistance provided
by South Korea, visiting South Korean scholars and agricultural officials noted.
Seoul and Pyongyang have held annual symposiums on agricultural science since
2000, through which South Korean scientists and officials provide agricultural
technology and expertise to North Korea, with a focus on potato farming, they
said.
"The potato is fast becoming an alternative staple food amid a worldwide food
crisis," said Lee Yong-beom, a professor from the University of Seoul. "If North
Korea is able to produce and distribute seed potatoes and learn to effectively
control harmful insects, it should be able to produce between 3.3 million and
4.25 million tons of potatoes annually."
A North Korean official attending the inter-Korean symposium said his country's
potato harvest was expected to increase from 2 million tons last year to 3
million tons in 2009.
South Korean participants, however, noted the North still remains far from
meeting its overall food needs.
"The cooperation project in the area of potato farming is very successful, but it
will require large amounts of resources if we are to expand the project to other
farm products, which means it will be impossible without the assistance of the
(South Korean) government," a South Korean participant said, asking not to be
identified.
The United Nations' World Food Program says North Korea needs some 800,000 tons
of food this year to feed its people, most of whom are already undernourished.
A nationwide famine in the 1990s was believed to have left nearly 2 million North
Koreans dead.
(END)