Plan to Increase Rice Production

To cover Japan’s rice shortage, Japan planned to raise rice output in Korea. More rice was shipped to Japan than the increase in production, and Korean food supplies worsened.

Industrialization had swelled Japan’s cities, and rice was short enough to cause the Rice Riots of 1918. From 1920 irrigation associations built reservoirs and channels, improved varieties and chemical fertilizer were pushed, and dry fields were turned into paddies.

Output rose less than planned, but shipments to Japan grew greatly; Korean rice consumption per head fell and millet and sorghum had to be imported from Manchuria. Farmers burdened with irrigation fees and fertilizer costs fell into debt, became tenants or slash-and-burn farmers, or left for Manchuria and Japan. The plan was halted in 1934 when rice prices fell in Japan.