Some innovative Activities of SDC in
2004
Since the visit of the Swiss Foreign Minister in May 2003, DPRK has asked SDC to contribute to more training activities. It is SDC’s wish for 2004 to implement different levels of training, both in country and overseas. The main objective of the training is to help farm managers and other key people in the working teams respond to the recent reforms with some innovative activities:
- Each county has its own agricultural colleges where farmers are trained to the various needs of the local agriculture. SDC will be working with two of the colleges, and develop their relationships to the pilot farms, which have been supported by SDC for a few years. Such collaboration will give the students in agriculture an outlook on new methods and technologies, as well as give them the opportunity to approach project work and experience different methods of field management.
-
Farm managers have been trained
in Switzerland in 2003. The outcome was extremely positive and the managers
recommended the SDC continue with the training. SDC intends to organise similar
training in
- A small project was started in 2003 in Sukchon county to support the implementation of a training centre for farm mechanics. With its five to seven modules, this centre will enable the local mechanics to acquire various skills such as maintenance and repair of main machinery and construction of small farm implements. The training will be paid by the farms to give the training centre a sustainable activity.
In addition to the above, SDC will train its counterparts in different specified topics related to their activities in the green sector.
A big event, - the second international potato conference - shall
take place in 2004. The inaugural event, in September 2003, was very successful
and well attended with: nearly 20 foreign specialists participating.
In the DPRK post harvest losses may reach up to a third of the produced yield because of factors such as lack of energy, of machinery or of adequate storage.
SDC is working closely on storage issues, particularly for seed potatoes, with several farms. In Daehongdan, the installation of a ventilation system brought down the losses of stored seed potatoes from 15% to 3%. Following such positive results, comparable but adapted storage houses have been built also in the mountainous area of Pujon and Changjin but results are not yet available. In the Miru Hills storage facilities are different from the northern type because potatoes are stored during summer and wintertime. A follow-up of the newly installed storage houses will be done in spring 2004. However, the first estimations made jointly by the farmers and SDC expatriates are as follows:
- In Miru Hill SDC invested some 27 Euro per ton of storage capacity.
- The total capacity of storage installed is of 600 metric tons divided in seven buildings.
- The expected loss with a traditional storage reaches about 30 %.
- The expected loss with the new type of storage should be about 5 % (to be verified in the course of spring 2004)
è The net benefit would be some 130 to 150 tons, or, the seed for 75 ha of potato (with an average yield of 15 to 20 tons per ha of potatoes).
Since 2003, SDC has also been working in potatoes and other agricultural goods processing. On such projects it has been working with another Swiss organisation: Campus for Christus, dealing mainly with goat keeping and milk processing:
Some lessons have been learnt from the experience with the factory in Singhe county:
- The newly appointed director chose to prioritise a production increase for 2004. In 2003, the factory was not yet fully operational and experience was still lacking.
- In 2004, they want to process 2000 Mt of tuber (50% potato & 50% sweet potato) with 14 Mt of potatoes and 7 Mt of sweet potatoes per day.
- The following table, elaborated in December 2003, gives the picture for a production of 1.000 tons of processed potatoes (approximately 100 tons of starch): A lot of questions remain but this is only a first approach.
-
|
Parameters (partially estimated) |
Quantity |
Results of operations |
Euro |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Exchange rate per Won (in Euro) |
1000 |
Fixed costs |
€ 4'934.96 |
|
Processing of potatoes per day (in tons) |
10 |
variable costs |
€ 26'098.51 |
|
Number of days of production |
100 |
total costs |
€ 31'033.47 |
|
Production of potatoes in tons |
1000 |
revenues from sales |
€ 44'086.08 |
|
Price per ton of potato in Won |
25000 |
gross profit |
€ 13'052.60 |
|
Price for sweet potato in Won |
25000 |
in percent of investment (28.500 €) |
45.80% |
|
Price per kilogram of noodles |
350 |
|
|
|
Price per kg of starch |
275 |
Processing in one season: |
|
|
Proportion noodles to starch |
0.80 |
Potatoes in tons |
200 |
|
Share potato/sweet potato |
0.20 |
Sweet potatoes in tons |
800 |
SDC supports another green sector processing project: goat skin tanning.
Although goat skins are very much sought after in the international markets, in the DPRK most goatskins are thrown away. Campus for Christus and SDC initiated a project of skin tanning in collaboration with the Ministry of Light Industry. The goatskins will be collected, exported, and the money blocked on a bank account to be reinvested later into local tanning facilities. SDC will be dealing with the management capacity building and Campus supporting the technical part: preparation and collecting of the skins.
According to the results obtained in 2002 and 2003, it is essential that the pest management strategy, developed recently, be implemented. Problems related to insect pest have increased over the last years, partly because of an increased resistance to insecticide. Biological control is one of the remaining tools to maintain profitable cabbage production and the only sustainable and proven option for brassica pest control.
- With the high quality Bt Product, farmers have produced in average 58.5 t/hectare; minimum 44 t/hectare
- On field plots treated with „Deltametrin“, they have produced an average 39.8 t/hectare; minimum = 26 t/hectare
The implementation of the new biologically based IPM strategy for white and Chinese cabbage enabled five co-operative farms to produce up to 40% more yield of white cabbage. In addition, it was proved that some of the chemical insecticide treatments applied on Chinese cabbage are not necessary when farmers are using the Swiss monitoring and damage threshold model. The encouraging 2003 results following the implementation of major components of IPM will be further developed on co-operative farms.
In the past, biological control was commonly and successfully used to control the maize borer: O. furnacalis in DPR Korea. But today these insect pests are mostly treated with chemical pesticides. At the beginning of the 1970s a research programme was established at PPI, Pyongyang to select effective Trichogramma strains for corn borer control and develop a simple mass rearing technique which could be implemented at Co-Farm level. Since the mid 1980s, Trichogramma mass production facilities have been established under the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and releases carried out in almost every county growing maize (approximately 3,000 hectare/county). A total of 230,000 hectares of maize were treated with Trichogramma between 1980 and the early 1990s.
The IPM approach shall be
reactivated in 2004 with SDC support. The project will be established in
collaboration with AAS-PPI and MoA if both organisations are able to provide
facilities, technical installations and personnel needed to establish the mass
production of Trichogramma in
Sloping land management is an approach used in several countries in the world both in tropical and temperate climates. The objectives of supporting sustainable sloping land management are quite simple: to generate more income for the farmers and make the cultivation of the slopes more sustainable. In those respects DPRK does not differ from other countries.
However, in DPR Korea, there are no clear patterns for land use. The allocation of the plots is only clarified at Ministry level (Ministry of Land and Environment Protection for most of the slopes). Most of the workers do not belong to a unit dealing with sloping land management. Therefore, it has been a challenge to bring up the topic and to approach the groups working on the slopes. It took some dialogue which concluded in a week’s workshop during which the main topics have been elaborated, discussed and chosen by the farmers, the county and the Ministry of Land and Environment Protection:
1) the one who works on Sloping lands can use her / his yield
2) sloping land user groups (sanleeyongpan) work according to land use plans, elaborated with a participatory approach together with MoLEP, local authority, and the sloping land user group
3) the sloping land user groups, which perform well in sloping land management can be promoted in their activities on sloping land management in various ways
4) sloping land management activities are always economically viable and ecologically sustainable
1) Adequate methods and patterns (as e.g. Agro-Forestry, etc.) are used to restore degraded land and environment and to produce fire wood, food and other products responding to the requirements of the families
2) Technologies are developed / transferred in an interdisciplinary approach and including the experience and lessons learnt of all the stakeholders (including the Sloping land user groups)
3) Capacity building is promoted in networking and communication, management, and technology involving all stakeholders (national and local level, Sloping land user groups)
4) Participatory management is promoted and fully applied in the elaboration and implementation of land use plans and in all activities relating to the project cycle (planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation)
5) Communication and networking strengthens and co-ordinates the participation within and among the Sloping land stakeholders on national, provincial and local level (including the Sloping Land user groups)
These principles and strategies have been enhanced by a working plan with different activities for a pilot project in the area of the Miru Hills.
Two main training are offered in country this year:
- Training I: Project Cycle Management:
· Module 1 to 3 (one week training course)
· Module 4 to 6 (one week training course)
- Training II: Empowering Korean Staff for the Transition from Humanitarian Aid to Development Co-operation (one week training course)
Information on these training will be circulated among the international organisation staff by the 16th of January 2004 on a small flyer.
General Goals of the Training
- The participants understand the difference between Humanitarian Aid and Development Co-operation and have an insight on the implication of every player’s role.
- The participants are enabled to lead meetings with focus on results and people.
- The participants have a basic understanding of workflow management in international organisations of development aid.
- The participants have experienced what the advantage of teamwork can be; they have learnt about supportive and hampering factors of team development.
- The participants have an insight of social values that lead western organisations to Development Co-operation.
- There is an awareness of cultural differences, they are named (to a large extend) and looked at in a mutually respectful way.
- The participants know the basic principles of international negotiations.
Special Considerations
- How to become equal partners in the office of an international organisation?
- Relation between foreigners and Korean staff in project management: how to improve?
- Skills to push the foreigners to give more responsibility to the Koreans?
- Skills to get responsibility from the foreigners?
- How to give and receive responsibilities?
- How to make reports and plans?
Last but not Least
- The training shall contribute to a better understanding between foreigners and local staff.
- The training shall give the Korean staff means, how to make progress on their own.
Module 1): Introduction to PCM
- Basic overview on PCM, terminology and comparison of different PCM concepts,
- Simulation of PCM on the basis of concrete examples of international co-operation projects,
- Analysis and discussion of concrete steps towards implementation of PCM in DPRK context.
Module 2): Identification of Programmes / Projects
- The approach to relevant project ideas,
- Project approaches,
- Project ideas within national and regional concepts and plans,
- Identification of project ideas in bridging phases (rehabilitation to medium-/long term development),
- The analysis of the situation,
- The elaboration of a first document on the project idea,
- The approaches of negotiation with possible co-operation partners.
Module 3): Programme / Project Planning
- The concept of planning based on a careful situation analysis (coming partially from mod 2),
- Long term planning (planning of phase) / short term planning,
- Methods and instruments of planning, budgeting and elaboration of planning documents,
- The use of planning instruments in implementation and monitoring of the project.
Module 4): Evaluation + Monitoring of Programmes
- The concepts of E+M,
- The levels of measurement in E+M,
- The definition of relevant indicators,
- Methods and instruments of E+M,
- Reporting as a basic instruments of monitoring,
- The monitoring plan of a programme/project,
- The organisation and the follow-up of an evaluation of a programme/project
Pre-inscription
The participants and / or their organisations respectively shall make a final commitment, on:
- How many people will attend what training
- What period suits best the trainees
On this basis, SDC will plan the training and make the final offer. A later withdrawal should be accepted only for very persistent reasons. This pre-inscription shall be done until the 15th of February 2004.
Preparation
Participants of both, the PCM and the management training course, shall present examples of projects and project ideas for the practical exercise in the working group three weeks before the training starts. These projects shall be related to a clear thematic issue (small, clear, impact oriented), easy to understand, and supported by a co-operation agency or the National, provincial or local Government.
Schedule
|
Training |
Dates |
Code |
|
|
|
|
|
PCM first part: |
14th to 19th of March 16th to 21st of August |
1.2 1.3 |
|
PCM second part: |
7 th to 12th of March 22nd to 27th of August 17 th to 22nd of October |
2.1 2.2 2.3 |
|
Empowering Korean Staff for the Transition from Humanitarian Aid to Development Co-operation |
27th June to 7 th to 12th of November |
a/1 a/ii |
SDC hopes very much that a lot of people will subscribe to the training this year, and that we will encounter fewer problems to gather the people than in 2003.
Source: OCHA Situation
Bulletin December 2003