The Pyongyang Mushroom Farm is a modern farm where mushroom production is put on a scientific, intensive and industrial basis on a high level. Scientists and technicians of Korea established the production processes by their own efforts and wisdom.
Kim Jong Ryong, production manager, says, “Workers who have operated the production process for some months say in unison that ours is the best as all the processes are on a high level in making and security.”
Pulverizing of raw materials and mixing of substrates are done automatically at the push of a button. What is more attractive is the process where boxes with bottles in are carried on a conveyer belt to a substrate filler and the bottles are filled with substrate at one go before being taken on a handcart to an automatic sterilizer.
And the substrate bottles go through the processes for spore planting and cultivation. All the other processes are automated and streamlined, including those for uncorking the bottles, remov- ing vela and adding water to the substrate. The mushroom cultivation area is equipped with airconditioners, ventilators and humidifiers so as to automatically ensure a proper condition for mushroom cultivation by adjusting the humidity and temperature and carbonic acid gas density.
It was when several large machines for fermentation of mushroom substrate were to be made. They should be designed to ensure scientific fermentation of substrate inside them by means of an automatic control panel. This necessitated making a lot of control elements such as steam generator, ventilator, blower and varieties of electronically controlled valves. It was not an easy job.
The farm might have depended on import easily. Real modernization is the one based on our own strength, technology and wisdom and our own resources. Let’s struggle hard to make the machines with our own efforts in the spirit of keeping our feet firmly planted on this land and looking out over the world.
With this determination the farm workers set a bold goal, and pooling their creative wisdom with scientists and technicians they made strenuous efforts to the end. At last they found the key to success and finished the making of the machines, which had been supposed impossible with domestic materials.
The general manager of the farm says, “Whenever I read the nameplates of factories of my country attached to each machine and automation apparatus I recall how we modernized our farm, and I’m moved to tears with pride in our strength. So we are full of not only happiness but also conviction that working by relying on our own strength is the shortcut to prosperity.”
Article: Kim Un Jong.
