sbdcsierra Chapter 11 Current Status of Agriculture in Gushanling Township
Chapter 11 Current Status of Agriculture in Gushanling Township
For the next few days, Qi Tongwei stayed in his office studying materials.
In September 1979, the State adopted the "Decision on Several Issues Concerning Accelerating Agricultural Development," which allowed farmers to manage their businesses independently according to local conditions and circumstances.
In September 1979, the Handong Provincial Committee of the CPC also issued a "Notice on Seriously Studying the State's Decision on Several Issues Concerning Accelerating Agricultural Development".
In May 1980, the leader affirmed the farmers' great deeds and the practice of "household contract responsibility system" in some places during a speech.
In September 1980, the State issued "Several Issues Concerning Further Strengthening and Improving the Agricultural Production Responsibility System".
They believed that the household responsibility system posed "no danger of capitalist restoration" and proposed that different forms should be adopted in different places and communes based on the actual situation.
In remote mountainous areas and impoverished and underdeveloped regions, implementing the household responsibility system is a necessary measure to connect with the masses, develop production, and solve the problem of food and clothing.
From 1981 to the summer of 1982, various forms of the production responsibility system were gradually implemented in Handong Province, achieving breakthrough progress.
In January 1982, the State issued its first "Document No. 1" on issues concerning agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, officially affirming the household contract responsibility system.
In January 1983, the State issued another "Document No. 1," affirming that the household contract responsibility system was "a great creation of our country's farmers."
Handong then promoted the household contract responsibility system throughout the province.
By 1983, 98% of production teams in Handong Province had implemented the household contract responsibility system, which greatly mobilized farmers' enthusiasm for production.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, agricultural production in Handong and even the whole country was still at a low level, with low agricultural output and poor returns.
Many townships in Yantaishan County still rely on manual labor, especially Gushanling Township.
Yantaishan is one of the poorest counties in Handong Province, and Gushanling Township is known as the poorest in Handong.
In 1989, the township had 46 administrative villages and a population of 8.3. The per capita income was only 185.8 yuan (compared to 860 yuan per capita in the province and 603 yuan per capita nationwide), and the per capita grain ration was less than 270 kilograms (compared to 362 kilograms per capita nationwide).
Of course, the conditions of nature cannot be denied, but more importantly, the factors of the times have long bound people's hands and feet, and the people of Gushanling could not control their own destiny.
The people of Gushanling Township have not yet adopted modern planting methods, such as using chemical fertilizers and pesticides, to improve the yield and quality of crops.
Farmers in Gushanling Township still use farmyard manure for planting, and they never use pesticides.
At the same time, agricultural mechanization has not yet become widespread, and machinery such as tractors and harvesters have not yet been used.
In Gushanling Township, farmers still use oxen to plow and people to cultivate the land, and harvest the crops by cutting them with sickles one by one, and threshing them bit by bit with their hands and wooden farm tools.
Farmers still face high labor intensity and low productivity.
The farmers in Gushanling mainly grow corn, rice, wheat, peanuts, broad beans, peas, soybeans, and sweet potatoes.
The land in Gushanling is mostly terraced fields and mountains, with little flat land, so machinery is rarely needed.
Vegetables are not grown in large quantities; they are mainly used for family consumption and to feed livestock.
Moreover, the variety is limited, consisting only of leafy greens, pumpkin, and green beans.
Livestock include pigs, cattle, sheep, donkeys, and mules, while poultry include chickens, ducks, and geese.
Only a small number of farmers owned mules and donkeys, which they used to carry goods.
Fish are available, but there are relatively few, and no one specifically raises them.
There are virtually no cash crops, which is also the reason why Gushanling Township is backward and poor.
After seeing the situation in Gushanling Township, Qi Tongwei felt very heavy-hearted.
The situation in Gushanling Township is very bad, and the people are living a very hard life.
Correspondingly, the cadres also had a tough time.
Because the costs of digging rivers and repairing dikes, building farmland infrastructure, paying public grain taxes, collecting levies, and resolving township finances all depend on the burden of tens of thousands of farmers.
This resulted in the inability to pay the salaries of teachers and cadres in the township, making it impossible to build bridges, pave roads, or start businesses.
This is also why the road from the county seat to Gushanling Township is in such poor condition, because the township doesn't have the money to repair it.
Based on the data on the giants in Gushanling, Qi Tongwei deduced that the township's finances were extremely strained, and they might not be able to pay a single penny of wages for several months or even half a year.
Even if they pay wages, they won't receive the full amount.
Qi Tongwei was glad he went home; his father gave him 100 yuan, otherwise he would have had a hard life.
It's probably impossible to get money from the township government.
Qi Tongwei knew that he had to be careful with the 100 yuan his father had given him.
In addition, I need to find ways to make money so that I can have enough to live on if the village doesn't pay wages for several months.
It's foreseeable that the days ahead will be tough.
The agricultural technologies being promoted in Gushanling Township include hybrid rice, corn grown under plastic film, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and artificial brackish water crab breeding (Chinese mitten crabs).
Hybrid rice is a key focus. Before the advent of hybrid rice, the yield per mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.067 hectares) of paddy fields in my country was only about 300 kilograms.
Since the widespread cultivation of hybrid rice, the yield per mu (a Chinese unit of area, approximately 0.067 hectares) in my country's rice fields has exceeded 1000 kilograms.
Hybrid rice combines the advantages of several rice varieties, resulting in rice with large panicles, many grains, strong disease and insect resistance, and excellent rice quality.
As a result, my rice yield increased significantly, and the quality also improved. I not only ate more, but also ate better.
After countless failures, attempts, more failures, and more attempts...
Finally, they successfully hybridized rice varieties that scientists had envisioned, characterized by large panicles, abundant grains, strong disease and insect resistance, and excellent grain quality.
After successful cultivation, it was promoted and planted on a large scale.
The situation in Gushanling Township urgently requires the planting of high-yield grains to feed the 8.3 people in 46 administrative villages.
Nowadays, after paying their grain taxes, the people of Gushanling Township have very little food left and often go hungry.
Because of low grain yields, the income of each household was also low, making it very difficult to collect taxes and fees.
This resulted in very low fiscal revenue for the township, making it unable to pay the salaries of cadres, teachers, doctors, and nurses, and often leading to delays in payment.
However, the promotion of this technology has not been smooth, because hybrid rice cannot be saved for seed production, and seeds must be purchased every year.
Otherwise, the grain yield in Gushanling Township would not be so low.
Zhao Laodaming, an aquaculture expert known as the "father of regeneration," developed an artificial brackish water crab breeding technique that artificially creates the unique living environment required by the Chinese mitten crab (Chinese hairy crab).
This provides the necessary conditions for artificial crab farming in inland areas.
The hairy crabs we eat in later generations are probably related to this technology to some extent.
Even with the technology being promoted well, things haven't gone smoothly. Although there are many crabs in the Qingshui River in Gushanling Township, many locals only want to catch them for food and don't want to put in the effort to raise them.
In the 80s, agricultural technicians, together with local farmers in Fengzhu Village, successfully tested the technology of planting corn with plastic film covering for heat preservation.
The average yield per mu has increased from less than 180 kilograms to more than 300 kilograms, paving a successful path to solving the problem of food and clothing for farmers in high-altitude and cold mountainous areas.
Subsequently, the mulching technology for corn was promoted in high-altitude and cold mountainous areas across the country, and the planting area in Jianshi County reached 40 mu.
Every autumn, every household dries corn, creating a golden expanse.
However, this technology is intended to solve the problem of food and clothing for farmers in high-altitude and cold mountainous areas, and Gushanling Township is not high-altitude or cold enough.
The promotion of this technology has not been smooth, because although Gushanling Township is located at a relatively high altitude in Handong, it is also relatively cold.
However, from a national perspective, Gushanling Township is considered to have a relatively hot climate.
The fertilizers promoted mainly include urea, diammonium phosphate, and multi-element compound fertilizers.
However, the usage is very small, since urea and compound fertilizer cost money.
The people of Gushanling Township have no money at all.
As for pesticides, basically no one uses them anymore.
After all, pesticides cost money, and the tools for applying pesticides also cost money.