TIFTON, Georgia (AP)-A delegation of agriculture experts from North Korea, where millions of people have died from malnutrition due to famine, is in Georgia to learn about advanced farming techniques.

The five representatives of the North Korean Academy of Agricultural Sciences toured irrigation systems and fields of corn, peanuts, cotton and soybeans at the University of Georgia’s Rural Development Center on May l6. The group, wrapping up a two-week visit May l8, was particularly interested in poultry and potatoes.

"Georgia has a lot of achievement in broiler production," said Kim Sam-ryong, deputy president of the North Korean Academy of Agricultural Sciences. "Also, you’ve got pecan trees, which could be similar (to growing) hazelnuts back in Korea."

Kim said the group also was interested in the work of Stan Kays, a Univeristy of Georgia horticulturist who has developed a sweet potato that tastes like an Irish potato. Kays accompanies them May l6 to the center, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) south of Atlanta.

"They have an area where the sweet potato grows very well," said Kays, who visited North Korea in October . "They’re interested in it as a viable field crop. President Kim Jong-il wants them to increase potato and sweet potato production."

Since potatoes and sweet potatoes grow underground, they are less vulnerable to sudden weather fluctuations. They also provide higher yields than some other crops, including corn, rice and wheat, he said.

Kays said he has given tissue samples of his sweet potato to China and North Korea to help scientists there develop varieties suitable to the local soils and climate.

North Korea can grow rice, corn, tobacco, fruits and vegetables, but it has had to rely on food from other countries.

It is estimated that between 270,000 and 3 million North Koreans, many of them children, have starved to death since l995, when the country’s agricultural system collapsed from decades of mismanagement and several years of bad weather.