Latest satellite tv for pc imagery evaluation has revealed that rice manufacturing in Ansok Tideland, Onchon county, South Pyongan province, was not notably good. Ansok Tideland was the place about 270 hectares of farmland had been flooded with seawater when the dikes had been breached by Hurricane Khanun and heavy rains in August 2023. North Korea has been pushing onerous to reclaim the tidelands as a part of its “Discover New Land Marketing campaign” to extend agricultural land. When the dikes broke final summer season, flooding the Ansok Tideland – which had been painstakingly reclaimed from the ocean – with seawater, an enraged Kim Jong Un rushed to the realm and roughed up officers, a scene reported by North Korean media with accompanying pictures.
North Korea rapidly repaired about 100 meters of the fallen dikes and restored the rice fields after pumping out the seawater and desalinating the soil. North Korea planted the fields this spring regardless of issues that it had rushed the desalination course of, however current evaluation of satellite tv for pc imagery means that the rice didn’t develop notably nicely.
I lately analyzed pictures taken by NASA’s Landsat-9 satellite tv for pc. The decision of the satellite tv for pc imagery used to research rice progress on Ansok Tideland was improved from 30 meters to fifteen meters through the use of the decision merge approach, which applies Band 8 (15 meter decision) to the Landsat-9 imagery.
Poor rice progress at Ansok Tideland
Wanting on the Ansok Tideland space within the Landsat-9 photographs of Aug. 28, we see an extended line of pale rice fields alongside the coast on the left. The soil beds are uncovered as a result of the rice fields have been broken in order that rice is not going to develop there. Farmers didn’t plant rice in these paddies, or the seedlings didn’t take root and died. We additionally see darkish inexperienced fields – nearly black – right here and there. These paddies seem darkish as a result of the rice is rising poorly. Paddies the place the rice is rising usually are gentle inexperienced.
To find out the state of rice progress within the tidal flats, I took a detailed take a look at the realm utilizing Normalized Distinction Vegetation Index (NDVI) evaluation. In keeping with the NDVI evaluation, rice was rising usually on 388 hectares of the 634 hectares of Ansok Tideland, or 61%. In distinction, rice didn’t develop in any respect on 118 hectares of broken farmland, or 19%, whereas rice progress was stunted on the remaining 128 hectares, or 20%. There’s concern that the broken rice fields is not going to produce any rice this fall, whereas the fields with poor rice progress could produce lower than half the same old crop. Ansok Tideland’s fall harvest is estimated to be about 30% to 40% beneath goal.
This summer season, villages within the Yalu River basin disappeared and heavy rains in late July triggered human losses, however the central areas of the nation – together with Ansok Tideland – weren’t affected. The USA Division of Agriculture (USDA) predicted that the flood injury round Sinuiju would have little affect on North Korea’s harvest this fall, given the nation’s local weather and vegetation progress.
In its “North Korea MY 2024/25 Seasonal Crop Outlook and Extra Rainfall and Flood-Associated Evaluation,” launched on Aug. 22, the USDA predicted that North Korea’s harvest this yr could be just like final yr’s. Particularly, it predicted it might be 8% greater than the 2022 harvest, however 1% decrease than the common harvest over the previous 5 years. The USDA additionally mentioned that the autumn local weather wouldn’t be in North Korea’s favor, with greater than regular temperatures and extra frequent rain in September and October.
The Korean Peninsula has entered a season of excessive, brilliant skies and fields stuffed with ripening grains, together with rice. It is a time when simply trying on the closely laden rice glowing golden within the fields ought to foretell a bountiful harvest. At such a time, the nice and cozy autumn daylight helps the ripening grain. Now, rain and typhoons are unwelcome company, and unhealthy climate forecasts will harm the autumn harvest. We will solely hope that typhoons and different extreme climate phenomena will steer clear of the Korean Peninsula this fall.
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