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Pictured above: from 1974, during the Cultural Revolution. Left, “Support agriculture to strive for bumper harvests”. Right, “Make great efforts to develop agriculture to amass foodstuffs”. And that is exactly what the Chinese people did. Chineseposters.net
Sixteen years on the streets, living and working with the people of China, Jeff
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Note before starting: 10,000 thanks to Chan Pooi Hoong, who is providing all this research and valuable information! He rocks!
Transcript of short intro for article summary below
This is Jeff J. Brown, China Rising Radio Sinoland, Seek Truth From Facts Foundation, China Writers Group and the Bioweapon Truth Commission. This is the second installment about the Mao Era wonders of science, innovation and invention.
Agriculture was huge, of course. When Mao and the communists took over in 1949, the average lifespan in China was about 35 years of age. And then just 25 years later, when he passed away, it was 65. So, obviously a lot of good things were done for the people during that time in spite of everything you’ve been told about how bloody awful the Mao Era was. It was in fact the greatest democratic success story in the history of the human race.
It’s hard to believe, I know, but you only have to look at these statistics to see what happened during the Mao Era, including the Great Leap Forward, which was the greatest burst of industrial activity in the history of the world, even more so than the United States, Germany, Japan, and England at the height of their industrial evolutions. The Chinese outpaced all of those industrial revolutions, in the double digits. And it just goes on and on. The Cultural Revolution, again, people think it was horrible. It was simply a way to get tens of millions of peasant farmer children, rural children into schools, a lot of them for the first time. Some, were able to go to grade school, but the Cultural Revolution allowed the 85% of the population that was rural at that time, now it’s more urban than rural.
But at that time, they were more rural than urban people, and they built tens of thousands of schools, middle schools, high schools, universities, etcetera. So, the reason I’m telling you this is that you cannot understand China in 2024 if you do not understand the Mao Era. Because everything that China is today is predicated on the Mao Era and its amazing successes. Again, I’m sure for you, that is cognitive dissonance, and you have a Pavlovian reaction that it’s not true. But it is, and China would not be where it is today without the Mao Era.
So, this one’s on agriculture. Enjoy. And, again, thanks to Chan Pooi Hoong, who put all this together, as he continues to provide information. I will be doing future posts, about the Mao Era success in science and innovation.
Thank you.
How China is solving its food problem
Summary (complete paper’s hyperlink and PDF article can be found below):
From 1958 to 1963, grain production first went up sharply, then dropped into a deep depression and recovered.
Technical Transformation
From 1964 to 1967, grain production rose very rapidly above the 1957 plateau, at an average of 6.0 percent each year. This is the period in which China rapidly adopted modern agricultural inputs, following the decisions of the Tenth Plenum.
Since 1968, grain production has grown at only 1.4 percent annually. The stagnation after 1968 has several causes which will be considered later.
Distribution of Agricultural Development over Space
Agricultural development proceeds on a region-by-region basis because the technical inputs for modern agriculture must be used together. High-yielding varieties of seeds require improved irrigation systems, more fertilizers, and improved patterns of pest control. New cropping patterns are possible if mechanization can be supplied. Economic theory calls this the principle of complementarity; Mao Tsetung thought calls this the principle of “concentrating forces and winning battles of annihilation.” Because China cannot produce these inputs in quantities for application everywhere, they developed “high and stable yield areas” (kao-ch ‘an wen-ch ‘an cb’ii) with modern agriculture.
In addition to these highly productive areas, there are large regions of China which have partially modern agriculture. These areas are marked by substantial improvements in water control, so that production is stabilized; however, high-yield- ing varieties and large amounts of fertilizer are not available.
The high and stable yield areas were first established in major river and lake basins, generally near major urban centers in the early 1960s. By 1965,6.6 million hectares of land were securely irrigated by mechanical power (8.6 million horse- power). The regions near Peking, Shanghai and Canton and the inland areas of Tungting Lake and Szechuan accounted for about 88 percent of the mechanically irrigated areas.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the low-land irrigation schemes were substantially completed, the focus of attention shifted to the North China Plain, and the technology shifted to deep pump wells (tube wells). By 1974 roughly 1.3 million mechanical pump wells had been developed, servicing 7.3 million hectares. The horsepower of mechanical irrigation equipment expanded rapidly, to 12 million horsepower in 1971 and 30 million in 1974.
At the same time throughout the 1960s, massive programs were developed for water conservancy, especially along the Yangtze River and on the North China Plain, involving the Huai and Hai River basins. Dams, irrigation canals, and huge drainage systems were constructed to mitigate against flood and drought. Low lift and deep well pumps supplemented the massive earth work in these systems. By 1974 roughly 29 million hectares of cultivated land and about
42 million hectares of sown land (i.e., counting double cropping) had significant improvements in agricultural technology .
Chemical Fertilizers
The growth rate in China’s chemical fertilizer industry has been nothing less than phenomenal. From 1960 to 1966 production quadrupled. From 1966 to 1973 it doubled again. The chemical fertilizer industry now supplies roughly 4 million tons of crop nutrients and another 1 million tons is imported. Altogether China uses more chemical fertilizer than any other country in Asia. Japan and India each use roughly half the amount of chemical fertilizer than is used in China.
Despite this tremendous chemical fertilizer industry, China uses natural fertilizers very extensively, so that chemical fertilizer supplies roughly one-third of the available crop nutrients, on a national basis. Even this massive amount of chemical fertilizer is not enough. China is currently purchasing large amounts of chemical fertilizer on the international market and has recently purchased eight huge ammonia factories from the U.S. and Japan, which will expand their already large production by about 65 percent.
Improved Seeds
Soon after the Tenth Plenum of 1962, the central authorities expanded research and development on improved seeds.
Research was carried out by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and various provincial level research institutes. Commune-level research units provided a good mechanism for drawing on the experience of peasants and for local testing. Progress came quickly.
During the early 1960s, very high-yielding varieties (HYV) of rice and wheat were developed and popularized, especially in the “high and stable yield” areas which had good, mechanized irrigation. By 1965 about 3.3 million hectares of high-yielding rice and about 2.5 million hectares of high-yielding wheat were planted. The Chinese HYV are definitely not simple copies of varieties from the International Rice Research Institute ).
The Chinese HYV were, in fact, distributed before the first IRRI varieties were. IRRI varieties take too long to mature for China’s multiple cropping systems. However, they may have been used in some of the breeding programs in China recently.
By 1973, 6.7 million hectares were sown to improved rice varieties. Another report stated that 80 percent of rice paddy and 70 percent of wheat were sown with “improved” strains. Notwithstanding the apparent success with their own HYV of wheat, China imported 16 tons of Mexican HYV seeds in 1974-1975.
Significant success has also been reported in high-yielding hybrid varieties of maize and sorghum.
With regard to vegetables, which contribute crucial elements to China’s diet, available reports suggest that not very much research effort has gone into improving varieties of vegetables, from the point of view of yield, pest resistance, quality or uniformity of maturity.
Mechanization
Another dimension of technical change in China’s agriculture is mechanization. By 1974, tractors were used to plow roughly 20 million hectares, representing about 18 percent of the total cultivated area.
Tractors are generally concentrated in the northeast sections of China and the North China plain. By 1965, about one-third of the land in the Northeast was machine cultivated. The Peking suburbs were also mechanized during the 1960s; by 1966, 60 percent of the suitable land around Peking was machine plowed. Other areas on the North China Plain also developed mechanization. Many tractors were reported in Shantung, Shansi, and Hopei.
Mechanization speeded up in the late 1960s, and by 1970, 60 percent of the farm land was cultivated by machine in a number of provinces. In 1971, 40 percent of the land in Honan was mechanically tilled.
In the southern rice paddy areas, mechanization based on small garden tractors are in widespread use in suburban communes in southern China.
Mechanization of harvesting in China is almost unknown, with the exception of harvesting of wheat on mechanized state farms, mostly in the northeast.
Mechanization of grain processing-threshing and milling, for example-is wide- spread, but statistics are lacking. In the Pearl River Delta, foot-operated threshing machines are quite widespread.
In 1972, China vaguely reported: “In many places more than half the rice harvested is machine-threshed.” In Hunan, 80 percent of the rice threshing was mechanized or semi-mechan- ized by 1973.
For more than fifteen years, China has been trying to develop machinery that could transplant rice shoots.
Engine- driven rice transplanters are used in the Peking suburbs, but it is not” known whether they are used for all the rice or only experimentally.
In Hunan around 1970, over 13,000 mechanical transplanters were used. (Chuchou County of Hunan had 3,700 for 4,300 hectares. In Kwangsi, 30,000 transplanters served 53,000 hectares. In Shanghai in 1974, about 20 percent of the rice was mechanically transplanted; in the Pearl River Delta most of the rice is still transplanted by the traditional hand method.
Machine sowing of wheat is developing.
In 1974, 80 percent of the wheat around Peking was sown by mechanical devices.
Generally speaking, mechanization does not have much effect on yields in a densely populated country such as China, because enough labor is available to assure intensive cultivation and maximum utilization of available resources. However, mechanization can help improve yields in certain regions.
In addition, mechanization has permitted expansion of cultivation in underpopulated sections of China’s vast northeast and northwest regions. Equally important, mechanization of both cultivation and grain processing can contribute to increases in production in the densely-populated southern and central regions by saving time and thus permitting increases in multiple cropping.
Pest, Disease, and Weed Control
Chemical pesticides are widely used in China. The types of chemicals in use, however, are not especially modern. Application rates are fairly low, generally chemicals are applied to control outbreaks, and are not used prophylacticaly.
Chemical pesticides are supplemented by a variety of natural control systems, including other insects and complex intercropping systems.
With regard to plant disease control, some effort has gone into breeding disease-resistant varieties of cereals.
Herbicides are used for chemical control of weeds at least on an experimental basis. In Yunnan, over one-third of the rice crop was treated with chemical herbicides in 1974. Often, however, weeds are pulled by hand and fed to pigs.
Cropping Systems
The one aspect of China’s agricultural techniques which is distinctive in comparison with other places is the way China emphasizes complex, intensive multiple cropping and inter- cropping systems. Often yield of an individual crop is sacrificed to get higher production, more stability, better natural crop production, and more varied diet over a one- or two-year cropping cycle. It is for this reason that in some cases the yields for each crop are not tremendously impressive.
Some American agricultural scientists who have visited China suspect that in some cases multiple cropping has been carried too far; however there is little argument with the overall approach.
It is interesting to note that the International Rice Research Institute has recently increased its research efforts in developing intensive multiple cropping systems as a way of getting high production with a minimum of chemical inputs for fertilizer and pest control. Also such a system of cultivation is highly labor intensive, and this may be beneficial in densely populated areas where unemployment can emerge as a serious problem.
Rural Income
While food grain production is one crucial dimension of rural development, it is not the only one. Another important factor is the income of people in rural areas. The level and trend of income are somewhat different from those of food grain production.
Production costs seem to be mostly between 15 and 30 percent of total production and there is no clear indication that communes with higher incomes spend more for produc- tion expenses. Agricultural taxes are generally fixed.
Family income is also generated by the private family garden plots and family handicrafts which together contribute around 20 percent of total rural income.
The third and most important factor influencing rural income is the extent of diversification of the rural economy. Government policy has been to keep the price of food grains low (now roughly 14 Yuan per 100 catties).
Once a locality can divert resources (land and labor) to higher-priced subsidiary crops such as fruits, vegetables, oil and fiber crops, animal husbandry, sericulture, beekeeping, or local handicrafts and industry, the cash income of the farmers goes up rapidly.
In Tachai, the national model for agriculture, economic diversification (fresh and dried fruit, fish ponds, pig raising, forestry products, and small factories) contributed only 27 percent to total collective income in 1967. This went up to 53 percent by 1973.39 In a rapidly developing area near Tungting Lake, a team’s grain production doubled from 1962 to 1972. In 1972, its income from diversified products doubled compared to 1971.
There are strong tendencies making it easier for a locality to switch land to high-value crops if food grain yields have increased enough to reduce the area sown to food grains.
It might be noted that there appear to be new programs to encourage diversification into poultry and fish culture. Surveys on poultry were made in 1966-68 (during which time the number of eating chickens declined from 462 million to 397 million, and then came up to 410 million). Consumption ranged from 1.4 kg per capita per year in North China to 4.9 kg. in the richer southern China provinces. The average was 3.1 kg., up somewhat from an estimated 2.3 kg. in the 1930s.
Fresh-water fish cultivation increased 11.1 percent in 1973 over 1972. Production was 1.4 times the total of 1965. The government has organized exchanges of information to encourage the rapid diffusion of fish culture.
Poultry and fish are, of course, the most efficient converters of plant food into animal protein, so there is much logic in programs directed at expanding production of these products.
All of these factors mean that rural income is going up faster than the growth rate of grain production of two percent per year.
For the 1952-55 period, average peasant (per capita) consumption has been estimated at 68 Yuan. (This was 49 Yuan worth of crops and 19 Yuan in cash.)
For a comparison, data from 21 localities in China, generally from the mid- to late 1960s, are examined. (In some cases the data refer to communes, in others to brigades or teams.) The median income (personal disposable income including cash and rations) from collective sources is about 110 Yuan per capita. The most frequently encountered level of income was 80-100 Yuan per capita. A few wealthy localities brought the average up to 126 Yuan. We estimate that income from private plots is about 20 percent of total income, so that the median total net income in rural areas would be about 137 Yuan and the average would be 158 Yuan.
These data indicate that rural income roughly doubled in 15 years. This is an average compound growth rate of 5 percent.
Prices of consumer goods have been roughly constant, or have declined somewhat, so no correction need be made for inflation. In fact, it is possible that a correction should be made for deflation.
China’s agricultural biotechnology research started in the early 1970s.
The Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science and Chinese Academy of Sciences and various Universities initiated their first agricultural biotechnology research program ls in the early 1970s.
The research focus of biotechnology in the 1970s was cell engineering, tissue culture and cell fusion.
Research in cell and tissue culture covered such crops as rice, wheat, maize, cotton, vegetables, etc.
Several advanced rice varieties were generated through another culture in the 1970s and 1980s.
Source:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14672715.1975.10406379
PDF of full report
How China is solving its food problem Green Revolution Mao Era
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JEFF J. BROWN, Editor, China Rising, and Senior Editor & China Correspondent, Dispatch from Beijing, The Greanville Post
Jeff J. Brown is a geopolitical analyst, journalist, lecturer and the author of The China Trilogy. It consists of 44 Days Backpacking in China – The Middle Kingdom in the 21st Century, with the United States, Europe and the Fate of the World in Its Looking Glass (2013); Punto Press released China Rising – Capitalist Roads, Socialist Destinations (2016); and BIG Red Book on China (2020). As well, he published a textbook, Doctor WriteRead’s Treasure Trove to Great English (2015). Jeff is a Senior Editor & China Correspondent for The Greanville Post, where he keeps a column, Dispatch from Beijing and is a Global Opinion Leader at 21st Century. He also writes a column for The Saker, called the Moscow-Beijing Express. Jeff writes, interviews and podcasts on his own program, China Rising Radio Sinoland, which is also available on YouTube, Stitcher Radio, iTunes, Ivoox and RUvid. Guests have included Ramsey Clark, James Bradley, Moti Nissani, Godfree Roberts, Hiroyuki Hamada, The Saker and many others. [/su_spoiler]
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