President Kim Il Sung's Painstaking Efforts For Breeding Dry-Field Rice

President Kim Il Sung said:

"From ancient times our people have wished to live on rice and meat or fish soup and in silk and tile-roofed houses. Our Party is now working hard to meet their centuries-old wish."

President Kim Il Sung was the benevolent father of our people who devoted all his efforts to increasing the rice production while carrying out the constant tests on cultivating crops personally as an agricultural scientist, in order to make our people in silk dresses live in tile-roofed houses and live on rice with meat or fish soup throughout his life.

Considering that it is necessary to decisively increase the production of dry-field rice along with the production of paddy rice in order to provide the people with sufficient rice in our country with limited paddy fields and many dry fields, the President paid primary attention to the breeding of dry-field rice and made devoted efforts to breeding new seeds with high yields as required by the climatic and soil conditions of the country.

It had been planted in our country for a long time, but the planting rate was lower gradually because of its low yield and difficulty in weeding.

That was why the dry-field rice was out of the interest of agricultural officials and farmers, especially breeding researchers paid attention only to the breeding of high-yielding crops including rice, maize, wheat, barley and potato, not dry-field rice.

In January Juche 51 (1962), President Kim Il Sung told rice-breeding researchers that in order to provide the people with rice and meat soup, it was necessary to cultivate large quantities of dry-field rice together with paddy rice, stressing the need to conduct extensive researches on the cultivation of dry-field rice.

The President said that we should breed a new seed of dry-field rice with a yield of more than 3 tons per hectare and establish a system of double cropping without fail by crossing millet and rice to develop a new variety that could enable us to double-crop, pointing out that millet as a second crop was very good and how good it would be if we could cultivate rice like that.

Afterwards, the President paid deep attention to the work of the researchers, formed a research team with excellent scientists and sent them high-yielding varieties necessary for breeding dry-field rice and took measures to test them nationwide.

One day in August Juche 51 (1962), when he was reported that the researchers had succeeded in developing hybrids of dry-field rice and millet, the President came out to the experimental fields and congratulated them shaking hands of the researchers one by one.

At the experimental fields, he measured the height of the experimental crop and got an understanding of the research in detail including the way how this rice was bred, how many times the crops were irrigated, how many grains per ear and how many tillers per square yard, and named the new cultivar "Namsin No. 1" after the researcher.

On September 3, Juche 51 (1962), the President went to the experimental field again and wore a smile on his face satisfied with the fact that the rice was well grown, and asked the date of harvest, saying that the stalk is stronger and the ears are larger than the other rice plants.

Hearing that they could reap a harvest on September 5 or 6, the great leader said that they should produce something that was not tall and didn't fall easily and that ‘Mansuk' was good to breed but ripened late and it would be good for ears to be formed after the typhoon in August or early September, and indicated the advantages of the newly bred dry-field rice varieties and the tasks for further developing them as required by the climatic and soil conditions of our country.

He then repeatedly stressed to the officials and agricultural scientists that we should further develop dry-field rice in our mountainous country so that all the people could have rice for meal.

That day, President Kim Il Sung visited the experimental field for a long time and said that it was necessary to breed new varieties with the main emphasis on withstanding rainstorms, ripening early, overcoming hurricane damage and so on. He explained the way in detail and took measures to conduct the cultivation test in a wider area before leaving the field.

From Juche 51 (1962) to Juche 53 (1964), the President made clear to the agricultural scientists all the problems arising in increasing the production of dry-field rice such as the prospect and task of cultivating dry-field rice, the direction and method of breeding, the form of cultivation and its techniques and took measures to fully offer all the conditions necessary for the research.

Encouraged by the meticulous guidance and devoted efforts of the President, the researchers waged a dynamic breeding campaign to develop high-yielding cultivars of dry-field rice that could be adapted to the climatic and soil conditions of the country, ensuring high and safe yields.

Human history knows no instance of a benevolent leader of the people like the President who set forth the orientation and ways for breeding new varieties of dry-field rice to the researchers to provide the people with rice and meat soup, and chose even pairs of crossbreds and took measures to offer all the conditions necessary for the research and visited the experimental field several times to encourage the researchers and led them step by step.

The newly bred seed of dry-field rice was a crystal of ardent love for people by the President who devoted himself to realizing the people's centuries-old desire all his life, regarding it as his motto to believe in the people as in heaven.