Radio Free Asia 10/14/2019
Competition for human feces has become cutthroat in North Korea, as authorities have burdened citizens with impossible collection quotas to prepare fertilizer for next year’s farming season.
In impoverished North Korea, farms are fertilized using human waste, and the government tasks every household with yearly collection quotas.
RFA reported in January, shortly after leader Kim Jong Un’s New Year’s address, that households were struggling to meet an impossible quota amounting to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) per able-bodied citizen.
One source told RFA the quota was intentionally unreasonable because the true purpose of the quota was to force the citizens to pay fines and bribes for failure to meet targets.
But authorities have already set the quota for next year, and in urban areas, the mission is causing unrest and environmental damage, as citizens are stealing feces from each other, or digging up soil to mix with feces in an effort to reach the quota, which once again appears unreasonably high.
“The agricultural authorities are forcing residents to produce eight tons of manure for each household to help the local farms,†a resident of Ryanggang province told RFA’s Korean Service on October 8.
More:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/nk-manure-quota-2020-10142019154836.html
