Expanding Agricultural Yields in Korea through Land and Water Management

Only 21 percent of Korea's total land area is cultivated; hence, food production has not kept pace with population growth. Therefore, the Government has initiated a nation-wide drive to increase the country's agricultural capacity by improving and developing its heretofore uncultivated mountainous regions. The Ansong-Chon watershed in the northwest and the Tongjin-Gang in the southwest have already served successfully as pilot demonstrations for the conversion of eroded, non-productive uplands into fertile cropland and pastures. This was accomplished through the construction of bench-terracing, grassed waterways, diversion drains, improved channels and water storage dams as well as hydrologic, agronomic and agricultural-economic studies. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as executive agency, assisted the Government in this effort, which has been unified and expanded to include a third region – the Naktung River Basin in the southeast. For this phase of the project, FAO is providing expert services, special equipment and fellowships for training local personnel in modern techniques of soil and water management.
Village children and project trainees overlook a pond from which water is drawn to operate sprinkler system for irrigating experimental farms. [No exact date]