The Pyongyang Times carries

Let Us Expedite the Construction of the Livestock Farming Base in the Sepho Area and Bring about a New Turn in Developing Animal Husbandry

, a talk supreme leader Kim Jong Un gave to senior officials of the Party and state economic organs on January 28.



The following are the full text of it:





The most important task facing us today is to improve the people’s standard of living at an earlier date.

Our people have so far waged an intense struggle to build socialism in the difficult condition of confrontation with the enemy; this being the situation, they have never enjoyed a plentiful life to their heart’s content. Whenever I am reminded of my failure to provide a rich life to these laudable people, who, in spite of their difficult living conditions, have firmly trusted and followed only our Party and remained faithful to their pure sense of moral obligation to the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, I cannot get sleep. And whenever I receive a report that, though not so significant, a difficulty the people experienced in their living has been solved or, though not so large in quantity, something has been supplied to them, I feel most delighted. We should provide our people, who have entrusted their all to the Party and stood by it in braving all manner of trials and hardships together with the Party, with the most abundant and happiest life in the world at an earlier date.

In order to improve the people’s standard of living, we should, while doing farming well, develop animal husbandry and fishing, and thus resolve their food problem.

At the New Year Address for this year I advanced the task of resolving the food problem of the people with farming, animal husbandry and fishing as the major thrust areas. If we keep up with these sectors and develop them actively, we can find a satisfactory solution to the food problem of the people.

In order to develop animal husbandry, our Party has put forward the policy of reclaiming the Sepho Tableland and turning it into a large-scale livestock farming base.

Reclaiming this area and turning it into a livestock farming base was an earnest instruction of President Kim Il Sung and General Kim Jong Il. In the days of the fierce Fatherland Liberation War, the President, with an eye to the victorious tomorrow of the country, unfolded a far-reaching plan to develop animal husbandry by reclaiming the Sepho Tableland. While leading the socialist construction after the war, he stressed the need to improve the living standards of the farmers in the Sepho area by raising large numbers of domestic animals in the pastures on the tableland, and had a farm specializing in animal husbandry built there. True to his intention the General clarified the ways and means for developing animal husbandry on an extensive scale by reclaiming the tableland.

In accordance with the Party’s plan and operational intention to translate the wish of the President and the General into reality, a vigorous struggle is now being waged to build a large-scale, modern livestock farming base in the Sepho area.

This is the first time for our country to create pastures covering tens of thousands of hectares and build a large-scale livestock farming base. Though they are inexperienced and many things are in short supply, the builders of the large-scale livestock farming base in the Sepho area are creating miracles and innovations to the wonder and admiration of all by giving full play to the fighting spirit of self-reliance and fortitude. The service personnel of the People’s Army and shock-brigade members, who have gone to the Sepho area in hearty response to the Party’s call, have created tens of thousands of hectares of pastures in a short period, taking up the challenges of Nature, and overfulfilled the last year’s target of grass production. Great successes have also been achieved in the road work and the construction of dwelling houses, animal sheds, public buildings and other structures.

Though the successes achieved are great, the future tasks are gigantic. Building on the already-achieved successes, we should attain the set targets as soon as possible by bringing the soaring spirit of the service personnel and shock-brigade members to a new high.

The most important task in turning the Sepho area into a large-scale livestock farming base is to improve the soil and create pastures.

The soil of the Sepho area, in general, lacks humus and has become acidified, so grasses for grazing animals cannot be produced in large quantities if their seeds are scattered on that soil. The soil should be improved. It can be said that the destiny of livestock farming in the Sepho area is dependent on how the soil is improved.

We must not leave the infertile soil of the Sepho Tableland as it is. Many bombs and bullets from the days of the Fatherland Liberation War have been unearthed while reclaiming the tableland; we must not forget that every inch of the land belongs to the country which our forerunners defended at the cost of their blood and even their lives. We should not allow even an inch of the country’s priceless land to lie fallow but turn it into a fertile land where the people’s happiness blossoms, as it is associated with the lofty, patriotic aim of the President and the General and permeated with the red blood of our forerunners.

A saying goes that a good farmer does not complain of bad land; when we break sweat and work with sincerity to cultivate the land, it will become fertile no matter how it might be. The builders of the livestock base in the Sepho area should enrich the soil of the Sepho Tableland with the warm sincerity of bringing flowers into bloom even on a rock and the patriotic zeal of holding dear every handful of earth and every blade of grass and devoting themselves heart and soul to looking after them.

On the basis of a detailed analysis of the soil in the Sepho area, they should apply sufficient amounts of slaked lime, coal ashes and hukposan and other organic fertilizers to radically increase the soil’s content of nutrients. Sustained efforts should be made to improve the fertility of the pastures even after the completion of the livestock base project in the Sepho area. The soil of the tableland is mostly impervious to water, making it highly susceptible to damage from heavy rains, so due concern should be paid to ensuring good drainage.

As the Sepho area is subject to strong winds all the year round, the builders should create windbreaks according to a far-reaching plan.

They should plant seeds of fine grass species in the area and manure and maintain the pastures in a scientific and technological way.

On the pastures they should plant orchard grass, alfalfa, clover and other good species of grasses for grazing animals. Sepho, Phyonggang and Ichon counties should fend for themselves in producing the grass seeds to be scattered on the pastures in their charge, and a nationwide campaign should be waged to collect and send superior seeds to them.

As the Sepho area varies greatly in altitude and climate and its topography is complex, we should distribute pasture grasses and crops appropriately on the principle of planting the right ones on the right soil, and perfect the methods of manuring and cultivating them in conformity with the geographical features to boost their output.

We should look after the pastures well as we do crop fields, applying fertilizers and agro-chemicals and sprinkling water on them. I sent the officials concerned a book titled

Cultivation of Pastures and Ranches

for reference; we should adopt the good experiences other countries have gained in cultivating pastures to meet our specific conditions.

We should speed up construction of dwelling houses, animal sheds, public buildings and other architectural structures and road work, and finish off with them on a high qualitative level. We must build a livestock research institute and a livestock processing base in the Sepho area without fail. All structures there should be fit for their uses and in keeping with the scientific and technological requirements; they should also blend well with the natural landscape and be impeccable even by future standards. Effective guidance and supervision should be given over the building work of the structures so as to ensure their best possible quality as befit those of the model livestock farming base in the 21st century.

Fuel, materials, manpower and equipment needed for the livestock farming base project should be supplied on a priority basis. The Cabinet and relevant units should provide cement, steel and other construction materials and equipment as planned, and organize their transportation properly to make the project proceed according to the schedule.

We should make good preparations for operating the livestock farming base in the Sepho area.

Now construction of the livestock farming base is in full swing in this area, but preparations for its operation and speedy production, such as procurement of animals, are not going smoothly. We should send good breeds of animals to the Sepho area and post sufficient numbers of stockbreeding technicians and breeders beforehand, so that upon completion of the project the livestock farming base can pay off soon. Breeding Station No. 621 of the Korean People’s Army and the Ungok Area Combined Livestock Farm should produce boer goats and many other good breeds of grazing animals and send them to the livestock farming base in the Sepho area. We should also bring in animals from foreign countries to raise them in this area.

The work of reclaiming the Sepho Tableland and building a livestock farming base there should be done as a campaign involving the whole Party and the entire country. I have ordered the senior officers of the People’s Army to take the lead in reclaiming the tableland. The Party Central Committee, the Cabinet, commissions, ministries and central agencies should all pay concern and channel their efforts to the project.

While stepping up construction of the livestock farming base in the Sepho area, drastic measures should be taken to shore up the country’s livestock farming as a whole.

The Party’s important objective in giving priority to the above construction project is to provide momentum for effecting a fresh turnaround in developing the country’s livestock farming as a whole.

We should normalize production at the modern livestock farming bases built under the Party’s leadership.

In those trying years of the Arduous March and forced march, the General ensured that many modern livestock farming bases including chicken, pig and cattle farms were built across the country for improving the people’s dietary life. The capacity of these bases built under his energetic guidance is enormous. If production is put on a normal footing at these bases, it will be possible to produce large quantities of meat and eggs and supply them to the people. However, several of them are not functioning properly because officials failed to take measures necessary for their normal operation after they were built.

To normalize production at the existing livestock farming bases and thereby ensure that the people perceive the General’s love and benevolence through actual life is a duty and moral obligation devolving upon our officials who are his soldiers and disciples. Putting their production on a normal footing is not merely an economic and technical matter but an important aspect of political work for safeguarding and adding brilliance to his leadership exploits. It is necessary to work out objectives and scientific strategy for business operation and enterprise management so as to normalize production on a high level at the livestock farming bases associated with his leadership exploits and scrupulously organize the economic work to rapidly increase meat and egg production. During on-site guidance at the Taedonggang Combined Fruit Farm the other day, I referred to the need for fruit farms to wage a production emulation drive among themselves. In the stockbreeding sector units associated with the General’s leadership exploits should also raise a strong wind of socialist emulation drive and bring about an upswing in livestock production.

A dynamic mass-based drive for increasing livestock production should be waged.

Collective livestock farming at cooperative farms and private livestock farming at rural households should be developed.

These types of livestock farming hold no small share in the country’s livestock production. To develop these types of livestock farming is a major way for increasing livestock production without large investment from the state.

All cooperative farms should build up their stockbreeding workteams and animal-fattening sub-workteams and ensure profitability of their operation. It is important to give them assignments for the production of the young and meat and make them fulfil these assignments without fail.

Private livestock farming at rural households should be encouraged. Every house teeming with domestic animals adds to the socialist rural scenery. Rural households should be encouraged to raise large numbers of pigs, goats, rabbits, chicken and other kinds of domestic animals so as to augment their income and enrich their lives.

Livestock farming should be undertaken at all units. Now many units, including the Songjin Steel Complex and Namhung Youth Chemical Complex, are in the limelight for their effective livestock farming and supply services for their employees. With the view that supply services are precisely political work and part of the struggle to defend socialism, all organs and enterprises should promote livestock farming in conformity with their actual conditions, thereby raising the enthusiasm for labour on the part of their employees and dynamically inspiring them to carry out their revolutionary tasks.

In order to develop livestock farming, it is necessary to solve the problems of animal breeds and their feed, improve the methods of raising them and take thoroughgoing veterinary and anti-epizootic measures. Superior breeds, sufficient amounts of feed, scientific rearing methods and thoroughgoing veterinary and anti-epizootic measures can be called four major factors for developing livestock farming.

Solving the problem of breeds is a prerequisite for developing livestock farming.

Breeds are to livestock farming what seeds are to crop cultivation. Only when we raise domestic animals of superior breeds, can we produce large quantities of meat and eggs with less amounts of feed. For livestock farming to be done on a mass basis, the problem of breeds should be solved first.

Many animals of superior breeds should be obtained through proper breeding. Efforts should be focused on developing breeds that grow quickly on less amounts of feed, breed fast and are highly resistant to diseases. It is particularly important to develop the breeds that consume small amounts of cereals and give benefits in a short span of time. We should breed large numbers of animals of superior breeds by establishing a Juche orientation and proactively applying the achievements of cell and genetic engineering and other branches of modern science and technology. Animal breeding should not be done only by the central research institute, but also by local livestock farming bases and individual persons so as to develop animal breeds that suit their specific conditions.

Meanwhile, brisk scientific and technological exchanges should be conducted with foreign countries so as to bring in domestic animals of superior breeds and raise them after going through the stage of performance testing.

State inspection of breeds and their use should be intensified. A system should be established of registering and using breeds, either domestically bred or brought in from abroad, after going through inspection by the state.

It is important to build up pedigree and breeding farms and establish a thoroughgoing system of breed production and supply. Nationwide efforts should be directed to modernizing pedigree and breeding farms and providing them with necessary amounts of feed on a preferential basis. Methods of producing first-filial generation and breeding stock should be improved based on the latest achievements of science and technology, and scrupulous arrangements be made for their supply. Along with this, a system of preserving the first-filial generation should be set up to ensure that superior domestic animals neither degenerate nor become extinct. Our Korean breed domestic animals, including pigs and chickens that produce tasty meat of unique flavour, should be well preserved and propagated. The first-filial generation of the famous Korean breed oxen and Phungsan dogs should also be preserved well and propagated widely.

To solve the animal feed problem is a decisive guarantee for developing livestock farming.

In developing livestock farming feed is no less important than breeds. No matter what excellent breeds may be obtained, it is impossible to develop livestock farming unless feed is amply provided. Livestock farming, which had been prospering for a certain period in the past, got stagnated because of the failure to solve the feed problem.

Implementing the Party’s policy of “grass for meat” is the way of solving the animal feed problem. “Grass for meat” is an aphorism the President had presented as early as the 1950s. This aphorism clarifies a scientific way of solving the animal feed problem in conformity with the actual conditions of our country and the basic orientation of the development of our country’s livestock farming.

We should develop livestock farming using grasses instead of cereals as instructed by the President. To this end, it is important to create pastures in various parts of the country. Pastures, both artificial and natural, should be created in conformity with the topographical features of relevant units, so as to cultivate grasses of high nutritive value and increase their unit-area yields. As the arable land is limited and there are many mountains in our country, it is necessary to widely introduce agroforestry to solve the animal feed problem and increase grain production. Livestock farming units should bring new land under plough in order to plant nutritive grasses and build pumpkin pergolas, while cultivating arrowroots in the mountainous areas and aquatic plants in the areas with rivers and lakes. By doing so, they can solve the feed problem on their own.

We should solve the problem of cereals needed for livestock farming through good crop farming. The General, whenever opportunity offered, instructed that both meat production and grain yield can be increased at the same time only by thoroughly establishing a food production cycle of stockbreeding and crop farming. The food production cycle should be introduced widely in line with the Party’s policy, thereby boosting both grain and livestock outputs.

We should also solve the problem of feed rich in protein. As products of animal husbandry contain much protein in them, meat and eggs cannot be produced sufficiently unless protein feed is provided. Soybean farming should be encouraged to increase defatted beancake production, and at the same time protein-rich insects and various other protein feed resources should be enlisted to the maximum.

It is necessary to meet the demand for feed additives. At present not a few stockbreeding units are using feed additives purchased from foreign countries; in this way, we cannot run stockbreeding bases properly. In our country there are factories that produce feed additives, but they, too, rely on basic materials imported from abroad. We should study and perfect the method of producing feed additives with locally-available materials and thus supply the feed additives needed for running stockbreeding bases.

Production of animal feed should be industrialized based on advanced science and technology. Assorted feed factories should be renovated and supplied with sufficient amounts of raw materials, so that they can turn out large quantities of perfect compound feed with various nutritive elements. We should take necessary measures to make feed-processing machines and send them to stockbreeding units.

Animal raising should be conducted in a scientific and rational way.

Livestock farming is also a science. As effective crop cultivation is ensured by scientific farming, livestock farming should also be based on science. Only then can we increase livestock production and guarantee cost-effectiveness.

Animals should be raised in conformity with their physiological features. The stockbreeding sector should fix proper feed units according to the purpose of raising animals and the stages of their growth, provide them with full conditions for growth and raise them in line with their living behaviours. It should also fix proper periods of their gestation and slaughtering.

Animals should be raised in conformity with the geographical features. As the principle of the right crop on the right soil should be abided by in crop cultivation, right breeds of animals should be raised in right areas. Livestock farming should be done based on a detailed consideration of the natural and geological features and various conditions of the given areas.

Livestock research institutes should improve their role in establishing scientific raising methods. They should intensify research into putting all the processes of livestock production on a scientific basis and introducing rational raising methods. In particular, they should direct their efforts to the research into increasing the animals’ weight with no or less grain feed and perfecting the methods of raising animals in the rainy and winter seasons. We should build up the research bases, provide scientists and technicians with good working conditions and set up a well-regulated scientific and technological guidance system.

In order to raise animals in a scientific way, the officials and working people in the stockbreeding sector should possess specialized scientific knowledge and technical skills. The central scientific research organ and stockbreeding units should be connected via a computer network so that the officials and working people can keep abreast of the world trend of stockbreeding development and introduce scientific raising methods. We should also arrange exchanges of experiences, demonstration lectures and the like frequently among the stockbreeding units to give wide publicity to the advanced raising methods and good experiences.

Veterinary and anti-epizootic work is the life of animal husbandry.

The President and the General said the stockbreeding sector should direct its first and foremost concern to intensifying anti-epizootic work. By doing so, it can decrease death rate of animals and put livestock production on a safe basis. In this sector anti-epizootic work immediately means production.

All the livestock farming units should furnish themselves with proper anti-epizootic facilities and regularly make medical checkup of animals and disinfect their sheds. The livestock farming bases should strictly restrict the entrance of outsiders and raise animals in a hygienic and cultured way so as to eliminate the root cause of outbreak of various diseases including epidemics and parasitosis. As various livestock diseases are spread around the world doing serious harm to animal husbandry, anti-epizootic inspection should be intensified at border crossings so as to ward off such diseases from other countries. Especially such highly contagious diseases as foot-and-mouth disease and avian flu should be kept away in a thoroughgoing way. If an animal disease breaks out or if there is a possibility of such danger looming, the relevant area should be sealed off in time and thoroughgoing anti-epizootic measures taken. Nothing should be compromised with regard to issues related with the veterinary and anti-epizootic work.

Firm material and technical foundations should be laid for the veterinary and anti-epizootic sector. The organs in this sector should build themselves up and furnish themselves with sufficient amounts of modern diagnostic facilities, testing appliances and reagents. Measures should be taken by the state to produce and supply disinfectants, medicines and instruments needed for treating animal diseases. Livestock farming units should make veterinary medicines for themselves with herbs.

Party organizations should enhance their role in carrying out the Party’s policy on improving the people’s standard of living by reenergizing the stockbreeding sector.

They should hold fast to the Party’s policy on developing livestock farming and carry it out with all consistency. Keeping in mind our Party’s plan and intention to provide the people with affluent living conditions by developing livestock farming, they should set scientific and reasonable plans for reinvigorating livestock farming as suited to the specific features of their own units, and press on with the work until they see its vitality in reality. They should never belittle livestock farming and give it up halfway, hesitating or vacillating in the face of hardships and difficulties, as some of them did in the past.

Party organizations at all levels, those in the stockbreeding sector in particular, should conduct a proactive political offensive to rouse officials and working people to carry out the Party’s line on animal husbandry. They should implant in their hearts the ennobling love for the people cherished by the General all his life, so that they will all turn out enthusiastically to carry out the Party’s policy. They should give wide publicity to the units and working people that do livestock farming with all consistency and enjoy benefits from it, and generalize their experiences.