One day in August Juche 89 (2000), Chairman Kim Jong Il visited the then Tongbong Co-op Farm in Hamju County, South Hamgyong Province of the DPRK.

He went round various fields of the farm making successes in double and triple cropping.

Learning about how the farm has cultivated potato, he told its management official that a good farming method is the one suited to the specific conditions of the relevant area and that it is necessary to find out good farming methods suited to the regional features.

Then, he acquainted himself in detail with the new rice strains and variety of fertilizer, cultivated and used at the farm. He told the officials of the farm that it is possible to know whether the seeds are good or bad only when they have been tested for at least three or four years under different weather and that chemical fertilizer should be applied in our own way when the rice seed is in cultivation test.

Encouraging the farm officials to do well the double and triple cropping and the study of new rice seeds in the future, too, he repeatedly asked them to obtain new high-yielding strains at any cost.

His earnest instruction that all farm work should be done in conformity with the local characteristics was important guidelines to be held fast to in farming. -0-