economy

Apple harvest is in full swing at the Onchon Fruit Farm, which has the vast stretches of orchard.

Trucks carrying apples are seen at the pavements traversing fields. 

Farmers are engrossed in carrying gathered apples to storehouses.

Happy smiles are seen on every face of farmers picking apples and drivers busy with carrying them.

President Kim Il Sung visited the farm eight times including in January 1966 and Chairman Kim Jong Il dropped in on it on five occasions including in April 1966 to stress the need to spruce up the farm into a model one of the country.

The farm won the 2023 socialist emulation drive in the field of fruit farming last year and was awarded a citation and rotating pennant in the joint name of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the DPRK Cabinet.

According to Rim Myong Chol, deputy manager of the farm, the farm has directed efforts to manuring and cultivating fruit trees on a scientific basis this year, thus bringing about a bumper harvest despite unfavourable weather conditions.

The farm conducted a soil analysis in detail and applied scarce nutritive elements to fruit trees scientifically according to fields.

And it has constantly improved soil fertility by establishing a food production cycle based on fruit farming and animal husbandry.

 It also put the system of monitoring and forecasting blight and insects on a more scientific and detailed basis and prevented the per-hectare yield reduction by way of controlling diseases with less cost.

As a result, the per-hectare yield this year seems to grow much more than last year, said An Jun Hyok, manager of the farm.

The apples produced by the farm are fast-ripening and large and have high sugar content. Among them are “Sukchon”, which is favoured by children and elderly for much juice and high sugar content, and “Kumgang” which contains sweet taste and less sour taste.

This year, the farm built scores of hectares of new orchards.