Unfolding A Great History Of The Hothouse Vegetable Production In The Northern Highlands

Today, Korean people are recollecting with deep emotions the energetic and wise guidance of President Kim Il Sung who wrote a great history of the hothouse vegetable production in the northern highlands burning his heart with ardent love for the people.

President Kim Il Sung said:

"In order to provide people with vegetables every season, we must make energetic efforts-building greenhouses and growing vegetables in them."

The demand for vegetables that supply people with vitamins and various nutrients is equal no matter the season. However, growing vegetables on open fields is impossible in the winter when it's cold while high yields are not expected in the summer due to heavy rains and a high temperature. That's why, the vegetable output fluctuates wildly according to the season, which leads to great inequality in supply. Especially, in the northern highlands, it is hard to increase the vegetable production as the unfavorable climate conditions have a great amount of influence on the output.

However, hothouses make it possible to grow vegetables regardless of the climate and to increase the output despite the unfavorable climate conditions in the northern highlands, as they provide us with favorable conditions for growing vegetables by raising the temperature by means of insulation in the winter and lowering the temperature with awnings and protecting from rain in the summer.

President Kim Il Sung personally laid out a far-reaching plan of hothouse vegetable production saying that they should do hothouse farming in the northern highlands to eat fresh vegetables in and out of season.

Deeply concerned about the shortage of vegetables for the people of Ryanggang Province, the President had already assigned the agricultural scientists to the task of research into the vegetable breeds that can be grown in the highlands and guided the work in detail. And, finally, a breed called an early-ripening cabbage that can be grown in cold areas was developed and they were cultivated in several regions in the province.

One day in August, Juche70(1981), the President visited Ryanggang Province and said they should build greenhouses and do greenhouse farming to solve the issue of vegetables. And he told the officials they could do hothouse farming for 8 months from March to October, in which they could produce 150-200 tons of vegetables per jongbo as three-crop farming was possible, and tomatoes and melons could be grown in two-crop farming while the ones like cucumbers in three-crop farming in greenhouses.

Next, he said it was good to build a greenhouse with plastic sheets as it needed only a small amount of materials. And he even taught easy ways of building a greenhouse, telling them to set up a frame with wood, cover it with plastic sheets and pave with humus soil.

Visiting the Samjiyon Vegetable greenhouse Farm, the President gave instructions to set up a pillar with a straight wood trimmed well, put up the bars and rafters planed smooth and broaden the space between rafters to let in more sunlight. He also gave valuable teachings about the structure of the hothouses to replace the thin plastic sheets with a bit thicker ones, in case they were torn easily, and to let out cold air and ensure the appropriate temperature by building up double walls of calcium silicate bricks made of pumice available in the local area, but not to cover another layer of sheets simply because cold air permeated through the walls.

President Kim Il Sung set and generalized an example of hothouse vegetable production in the northern highlands to increase the output.

First of all, he took measures to build plastic sheet greenhouses and test vegetable production in Samjiyon County. Inspecting the experiment station, he expressed a great satisfaction and highly appreciated its performance. He said they could plant another vegetable once more after cucumber harvest and the production test had gone quite well in the plastic sheet greenhouse till then.

Having confirmed the possibility of vegetable production in the plastic sheet hothouse, the President took measures to generalize it to supply the people abundantly with vegetables in the executive committee of the Party Committee of Ryanggang Province.

And he unsparingly sent them various kinds of equipment and materials including plastic sheets and water pumps and even dispatched technologists so that they could do hothouse vegetable farming well.

After that, he constantly paid his careful attention to the greenhouse vegetable farming in the northern highlands.

When he was learning about the crop of vegetables in the Samjiyon Vegetable Hothouse Farm in August, Juche78(1989), the great leader noticed unripe tomatoes, said tomatoes need to be provided with an appropriate temperature and humidity to bear many fruits and ripe early and also gave precious teachings about the proper distribution of various strains. Together with this, he gave instructions to innovate the cultivation method, increase the fertility of soil and improve the technical knowledge and skills of the agricultural workers.

Thanks to the painstaking efforts and great solicitude of President Kim Il Sung, who was deeply concerned about supplying our people abundantly with vegetables, a lot of vegetable greenhouses were build up across the northern highlands and our people could be supplied with fresh vegetables in and out of season.