economy

The primary task to be solved by concentrating all efforts in the period of the current five-year plan is to lay a foundation for safe development of the country’s agriculture without knowing any crop failure.

As farming is unthinkable without water, the informatization of irrigation system should be pushed forward in the future to consolidate the country’s  foundation for agricultural production.

To informatize the irrigation system means putting the operation of irrigation facilities on a scientific and modern basis by digitizing the irrigation-related elements including rivers, reservoirs, barrages and pumping stations and building them up into a spatial database.

The informatization, which is aimed at putting all affairs in the irrigation field including the planning, command and management activities for water control on a higher scientific basis by using information technology, cannot be done in a day or two. It is a work which needs a lot of time and much labour. But it is the must-do for the development of the country’s agriculture.

If the irrigation system is informatized, it can contribute to the stable and sustainable development of agricultural production to cope with extreme weather conditions by organically combining it with water management to suit the characteristic features of the soil, topography and region.

Scientists and technicians in the agricultural sector should play a pivotal role in informatizing the irrigation system. In particular, only when the scientists of agricultural science research institutions across the country play the role as an engine in informatizing the irrigation system, can the regional agriculture develop safely on a new scientific basis.

In recent years, the DPRK has vigorously pushed ahead with projects to build up a nationwide irrigation information database, establish a well-regulated water management command system from the water supply units to the related national agency and develop and introduce a water level measuring system based on the mobile communication network.

It saves labour and time used for water management as it observes and controls information about geographically far-away reservoirs in a unified way by introducing a water management control support system and real-time water level measurement system in several regions.

If the informatization of irrigation system is pressed on according to a long-term plan, the agricultural workers can overcome the vagaries of the weather and attain the goal of grain production.