North Korea is facing severe food shortages due to its worst drought since 2001 with food imports needed to ensure children and the elderly do not go hungry, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Thursday.
Rainfall in key producing areas fell well below the long-term average between April and last month and badly affected staple crops including rice, maize, potatoes and soybean, the FAO said.
This disrupted planting activities and damaged this year’s main season crops, an FAO report prepared with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre said.
Increased food imports — commercial or aid — would be required over the next three months in the isolated nation to ensure adequate food supplies for the most vulnerable, including children and elderly, the report said.
The drought is expected to seriously affect Nampo City and the provinces of South and North Pyongan and Hwanghae which account for nearly two-thirds of main season crops, FAO representative in China and North Korea Vincent Martin said.
“Immediate interventions are needed to support affected farmers and prevent undesirable coping strategies for the most vulnerable, such as reducing daily food intakes,” Martin said in a statement. “It is critical now that farmers receive appropriate and timely agricultural assistance, including irrigation equipment and machinery.”
The FAO estimated that early season production plunged more than 30 percent from last year, and the situation would worsen during the 2017-2018 marketing year, with cereal imports and food aid likely to increase as a result.
North Korea suffered a devastating famine in the 1990s and has relied on international food aid to feed many of its 25 million people, but support has fallen sharply due to reluctance to allow monitoring of food distribution and also in part to sanctions implemented to punish the nation over its weapons development program.
The UN’s World Food Program said it has also seen a steep drop in contributions while last year’s Global Hunger Index said two in every five people in North Korea were undernourished.
In the longer term, the FAO said it recommends using drought-tolerant crops and varieties, and finding ways for farmers and households to diversify their livelihoods to cope with natural disasters and climate change.
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