The Sepho Plateau that encompasses a wide area of Sepho, Phyonggang and Ichon counties in Kangwon Province has such unfavourable weather conditions as copious rain, heavy snow and strong wind, so it had remained abandoned and been overgrown with shrubs and purple eulalia until a decade ago.
But it began to undergo a tremendous change since the end of 2012, thanks to the grand plan advanced by the Workers’ Party of Korea to reclaim the plateau for the improvement of the people’s living standards.
Reclaimers from all across the country buckled down to the project. They took samples at many spots in the three counties for detailed soil analysis, and, based on them, applied reasonable soil improvement methods to reclaim the wild and barren mountains and plains.
Proper livestock breeds and feed crop species of high productivity were selected, and large-scale pastures were created.
Reclaimers created windbreaks, digging up hard fields and breaking rocks to plant trees on a large scale, and constructed bridges over the gorges and roads along the hills and valleys.
Not only buildings for livestock farming, such as those for housing animals, anti-epizootic work, and meat and dairy processing, but also dwelling houses, schools, kindergartens, nurseries, clinics and hall of culture, were constructed.
The plateau was reclaimed in less than five years into a gigantic livestock farming base which started operation in October 2017.
A vast pasture of 50 000 hectares, several hundred hectares of windbreaks, a forest of 12 600 hectares to protect grassland and 2 000 km-long roads, a drainage system and reservoir were laid out.
At present the base is exerting strenuous efforts to boost the livestock farming based on sound scientific foundations.
Now the Sepho Area Livestock Economy Committee provides guidance to the livestock farming through the general control station, which monitors in real time the cultivation of the pasture, preventive observation of harmful insects, rearing of domestic animals and anti-epizootic work. In this way it is putting the livestock farming on a scientific, industrial and intensive footing.
The Sepho Animal Husbandry Institute with ten odd departments has already achieved considerable successes in solving scientific and technological problems required for boosting the livestock farming in accordance with the features of the Sepho area.
The anti-epizootic centre in the base has developed scores of vaccines and medicines for the prevention and treatment of animal diseases with medicinal herbs abundant in the area, thereby lowering the death rate of animals.
The Aeguk Cattle Farm and other livestock farms have established a scientific breeding system and introduced advanced methods to raise a larger number of superior breeds of domestic animals.
Thanks to the production cycle of crop, fish and livestock farming, the farms are expecting further increase in production.
Working people in the farms are involved in the study-while-you-work system, and they are preparing themselves into competent technical and skilled personnel.
At present large flocks of dairy cattle, sheep and goats, grazing on the vast expanse of the pasture, offer a superb view in the Sepho area.
Meat and milk produced in the base are processed into various products and sent to all parts of the country.
