economy

Different economic sectors are making positive efforts to introduce phytosine, a new bioactive substance.

“We developed phytosine two years ago and introduced it into the agricultural sector for the first time. We applied it to thousands of hectares of land in the first year, but as it proved effective, we applied it to more than a million hectares this year,” said Kim Yong Song, director of the Pyongyang advanced biotechnology development company of Kim Chaek University of Technology.

Referring to the great effectiveness of phytosine in farming, he said that the members of the scientific farming promotion team unanimously attribute the success in last year’s farming and this year’s wheat farming to the introduction of phytosine.

Through an in-depth study for further raising the effectiveness of phytosine, the company developed items for treating seeds, aiding tillering and promoting ripening.

The agricultural scientific research institutes and production units treated seeds of such crops as rice, wheat, maize and bean with phytosine and sprayed it on their leaves several times, thus proving that the bioactive substance promotes root growth and photosynthesis so as to increase the number of ears, the number of grains per ear and the weight of 1 000 grains and produces remarkable effects in increasing crop yields under the same conditions of soil fertility, level of the application of fertilizers and climate.

Strenuous research into the application of phytosine to vegetable farming resulted in the establishment of the methods of increasing the per hectare yields of pumpkin, cucumber, spring radish and spring bok choy and the yields of Cichorium endivia, Lactuca sativa var. capitata and cabbage in cylindrical vegetable cultivation devices.

The application of the mixture of it and animal feed in the animal husbandry sector boosted the fattening rate of pigs and body weight of lambs. Its effectiveness was also recognized in the cultivation of industrial crops and fruit trees.

In the forestry sector, as seeds of Changsong larch were treated with phytosine, the germination ratio rose more than that of the control group and the test group which was treated with growth stimulants for saplings. Similar effects were witnessed in 10-odd species of trees including oak, acacia and Larix lepolepis.

Large numbers of mushroom producers across the country opened up bright prospects for increasing the mushroom output by applying it through spraying or adding it to substrates.

In the fishery sector, the feed added with it was used for young catfish, resulting in a sharp increase in their body weight after two months, a rise in their survival rate and a considerable reduction in feed consumption.

It was also effective in the farming of loach and mandarin fish.

In the light industry sector, a study into applying it to different kinds of cosmetics was carried out to provide a scientific guarantee for improving the effectiveness of skin whitening and hair beauty culture.

Scientists conducted several kinds of tests to prove afresh that its application to acrylic paints improves their technical specifications.

“Phytosine will make a great contribution to promoting the development of different economic sectors in the future,” said Kim Yong Song.