Chinese agriculture occurred in the Neolithic Age. China's Yellow River and Yangtze River basins are one of the origins of agriculture in the world. In the development process that lasted for eight or nine thousand years, Chinese agriculture had many inventions and creations that were ahead of the world, but it also experienced a long period of stagnation. The invasion of modern imperialism reduced China to a semi-feudal and semi-colonial state, and its agriculture increasingly lagged behind developed capitalist countries. Only in the late 1940s and early 1950s, due to the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the abolition of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial system, and the establishment of the socialist system, did China's agriculture end its history of stagnation and enter a period of rapid development. new era. Agricultural production conditions and production technology have been significantly improved, and output levels have increased rapidly. Although there have been setbacks in the development process over the past 30 years, China has been able to feed almost one-fifth of the world's population with only 7% of the world's arable land, which shows that it has still made great achievements. After 1979, under the guidance of the lines, principles and policies of the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, China's agriculture has achieved new achievements through the reform of its economic system, and its development and changes have attracted worldwide attention.
Natural conditions See agricultural natural resources.
Economic status Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy. Food, meat, vegetables, fruits and other foods and textile fibers for the country's 1.2 billion population all come from domestic agriculture, except for a few years when they are imported for the purpose of adjusting varieties. Light industry also uses agricultural products as raw materials to account for a large proportion. At the same time, the rural and agricultural production sectors are also important markets for China's industrial products. The proportion of rural commodity retail sales in total social commodity retail sales increased from 54.6% in 1952 to 58.5% in 1985; among which, the proportion of agricultural production means increased from 5.1% to 11.7%. In terms of the composition of export commodities in foreign trade, the export value of agricultural products accounted for 55.7% of total exports in 1953, which dropped to 17.5% in 1985. However, among light industry export products, processed agricultural products still account for a certain proportion, and agriculture is still China’s source of foreign exchange earnings. important means (Table 1).
The proportion of China’s agricultural output value in total social output value is on a downward trend. In 1952, the proportion of agricultural output value (46.1 billion yuan) was 45.4%, that of industry was 34.4%, and that of others (including construction, transportation and commerce) was 20.2%; by 1985, the proportion of industry had risen to 59.6%, and that of agriculture (361.9 billion yuan) yuan), it dropped to 22.2%, and that of others was 18.2%. For example, looking at the composition of agricultural and industrial output values, the ratio of agricultural output value to industrial output value in 1949 was about 7:3; in 1985, it was reversed, at about 3:7. However, the labor force engaged in agriculture still accounts for 60.9% of the total social labor force in the country. This ratio is not only much higher than that of developed countries, but also higher than that of many developing countries, such as Egypt and Brazil.
Before the 19th century, the Chinese government’s fiscal revenue mainly came from land taxes. During the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, land tax accounted for approximately 80% of fiscal revenue. During the Republic of China, land tax was still an important source of government revenue. For example, in 1916, the total land tax accounted for approximately 49% of fiscal revenue. After 1949, although agricultural tax was one of the sources of national fiscal revenue, its proportion in national fiscal revenue has dropped significantly. In 1952, it still accounted for 14.7%. After 1980, it averaged only about 2.5% for five consecutive years.
Socialist Transformation and System Reform Before 1949, China’s agriculture had extremely low productivity levels due to thousands of years of feudal system and more than a hundred years of imperialism. Reproduction is also difficult to maintain. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, it first completed the land reform in three years. Immediately afterwards, agricultural cooperatization was basically completed in 1956, putting the majority of farmers on the road to socialism (see Agricultural Cooperative Economic Organization). However, due to shortcomings and deviations in the late work of cooperatization, the launch of the people's commune movement in 1958 (see Rural People's Communes, and the disastrous "Cultural Revolution" in 1966, the process of agricultural socialist transformation suffered serious setbacks. Setbacks. Since 1979, in accordance with the spirit of the resolution of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, planned and step-by-step reforms have been carried out on the original rural economic system. The reform measures that have been taken include the reform of the original people's communes The reform of the business system and the political and social integration system, as well as the reform of the agricultural product purchase system, etc.
In particular, through the reform of the management system, the joint production contract responsibility system with household contracts as the mainstay has been basically popularized throughout the country. A two-tier management system in agriculture that combines collective management with decentralized management by contracted farmers has gradually formed, which has greatly improved the efficiency of agricultural cooperative economic organizations. The autonomy and farmers' enthusiasm for production have effectively promoted the rapid growth of agricultural production. Calculated at comparable prices, the average annual growth rate of agricultural output value from 1979 to 1985 was 10.1%, while it was only 3.2% from 1953 to 1978; the average annual net income of each farmer was 134 yuan in 1978 and 398 yuan in 1985. An increase of 197%.
After 1979, the management system of China’s state-owned farms has been gradually reformed (see State-owned Farms).
China’s ethnic minorities other than the Han include 55 ethnic groups including Zhuang, Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Manchu, Uyghur, Miao, Dong, Yi, Tujia, Korean, Buyi, and Gaoshan. In 1985, ethnic minority autonomy was The local ethnic minority population accounts for approximately 5.6% of the national population, but their grassland and forest resources account for approximately 90% and 40% of the national total respectively, which is of great importance to the development and utilization of agricultural natural resources and the development of agriculture as a whole. Before the founding of the People's Republic of China, the economic form and development level of ethnic minority agriculture were very inconsistent. Many ethnic groups mainly follow the feudal system of production; some still have serfdom or pastoral slavery; they even retain remnants of the primitive commune system. Judging from the structure and development level of agricultural production, some are still in the fishing and hunting economic stage, some are mainly engaged in animal husbandry, and some are mainly engaged in agriculture, but they still use the original farming method of slash-and-burn farming and extensive planting with low harvest. Some of their unique traditional production techniques, such as Korean agronomy, Uyghur gardening, Mongolian animal husbandry, veterinary medicine, etc. are relatively exquisite. However, due to the constraints of backward production relations, agricultural and animal husbandry production is generally at a relatively low level. low level. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, through socialist transformation and the reform of the rural economic system since the 1980s, agricultural production in ethnic minority autonomous areas has also developed greatly. Comparing 1985 with 1952, the total agricultural output value increased from 4.65 billion yuan to 36.83 billion yuan; grain increased from 15.82 million tons to 40.06 million tons, and large livestock (number of heads at the end of the year) increased from 24.39 million to 47.49 million.
Technical transformation In order to promote the transformation of traditional agriculture into modern agriculture, China proposed the task of agricultural technological transformation in the mid-1950s. At that time, it was planned to complete agricultural mechanization within five five-year plans. Later, this process took twists and turns due to work mistakes. After 1979, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China determined the policy of "relying first on policy and second on science" to develop agriculture, which put agricultural technological transformation on the track of healthy development. Over the past 30 years, the achievements made in agricultural technological transformation are mainly reflected in the following aspects.
Farmland capital construction The construction of farmland water conservancy and the construction of mountain horizontal terraces have been key projects in large-scale farmland capital construction across the country for more than 30 years. Due to the massive increase in power machinery for drainage and irrigation and the large-scale construction of channels and other facilities, the effective irrigation area of ??farmland reached 663.387 million acres in 1984, ranking first in the world. Its proportion of the cultivated land area was approximately 44.5%, which was also higher than that of any other country in the world. most countries. Among the effective irrigated area, the area irrigated by electromechanical equipment accounts for about 56.6%, compared with only 1.6% in 1952. In addition, a lot of work has been done in soil and water conservation, transformation of low-yield fields, saline-alkali land management and soil improvement. The great achievements in farmland infrastructure have improved the ability to withstand floods and droughts and created conditions for the stable development of China's agricultural production.
Fertilizer application and pest control Fertilizer application adheres to the principle of combining organic fertilizers with inorganic fertilizers. However, while organic fertilizers such as human and animal manure and green manure continue to be widely used, the amount of chemical fertilizers used has increased significantly. Calculated in terms of active ingredients, the amount of chemical fertilizers used in 1986 (pure amount) was 19.306 million tons, more than 240 times that in 1952. The average application amount per mu of cultivated land was 13 kilograms, ranking at the middle level in the world. However, the proportion of phosphate fertilizers and potassium fertilizers in the composition of chemical fertilizers is relatively low. Significant achievements have also been made in the control of plant pests and diseases. In 1982, the area of ??chemical control was nearly 1.28 billion acres, accounting for 86% of the cultivated land area. The locust plague that often caused crop failure in history has been eliminated, and many plant diseases such as wheat rust have been effectively controlled.
In terms of the prevention and control of livestock diseases, due to the establishment of a veterinary biopharmaceutical industry system and the rapid promotion of veterinary drugs, rinderpest was eliminated nationwide in the 1950s.
Later, infectious diseases such as emphysema, bovine pneumonia, sheeppox and some parasitic diseases were also effectively controlled. The vaccines developed by China for swine fever, cowpox, sheeppox, etc. are among the world's leaders.
Breeding and promotion of improved varieties The great achievements in breeding work over the past 30 years are another important reason for increasing agricultural production. From 1949 to 1979, the country carried out breeding work on 25 major crops such as rice, wheat, and cotton. More than 2,700 varieties were bred and used for production, of which 265 were promoted with an area of ??more than 1 million acres, which was very important for increasing yields and improving crops. Quality, increased resistance to pests and diseases, etc. all play an important role. The promotion of hybrid rice between 1975 and 1984 had a particularly significant effect on increasing grain production. At present, the planting area of ??improved varieties of major crops such as rice and wheat has exceeded 90% of the sown area.
In terms of livestock breeding, in addition to improving traditional breeds, we have also introduced improved breeds from abroad, and through pure breeding and hybridization, many excellent cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry breeds have been developed. Frozen semen and artificial insemination breeding systems have also been formed.
Machinery and electrical equipment Due to limitations in the level of industrial development and the existence of a very large labor force in rural areas, the degree of mechanization of China's agriculture is still low, and human operations and hand tools still dominate. However, agricultural machinery and rural electricity consumption have also changed greatly over the past 30 years. In the early 1950s, the number of tractors owned was still negligible; in 1986, there were 866,500 large and medium-sized tractors and 4.52 million small tractors (of which a considerable number of walking tractors were used for rural transportation); the number of combine harvesters was 30,900. In Taiwan, the number of agricultural trucks is 499,200. In 1986, the area under mechanical farming reached 546.417 million acres, more than 1/3 of the total cultivated land area in the country. Correspondingly, the application of electricity in rural areas has also developed greatly. In 1986, rural electricity consumption was 58.67 billion kilowatt hours.
Agricultural education and agricultural scientific research See agricultural education, agricultural scientific research.
Changes in production structure and output The production structure of China's agriculture includes planting, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery and sideline industries; but planting has been the main industry for thousands of years. Due to the large population and relatively small area of ??cultivated land, food production plays a major role. In traditional concepts, growing grains is almost synonymous with agricultural production. After the 1950s, forestry, animal husbandry, fishery and sideline industries have all grown on the original basis, but their proportions in the composition of total agricultural output have not changed much. After 1979, due to the reform of the economic system in rural areas and the establishment of the policy of "never relaxing food production and actively developing diversified operations", the rural economy transformed from a relatively single operation to a diversified commodity economy, and the situation began to appear. Changes in human attention (Table 2).
Planting industry is agriculture in a narrow sense. Including the production of food crops, cash crops, feed crops and green manure. Its specific items are usually represented by "twelve characters", namely grain, cotton, oil, hemp, silk (mulberry), tea, sugar, vegetables, tobacco, fruit, medicine and miscellaneous items. The proportion of planting industry in the total agricultural output value was more than 80% in the 1950s; more than 75% in the 1960s; about 75% in the early 1970s and about 66% in the late 1970s; and it has dropped to about 60% in the mid-1980s.
In the total crop sown area, the proportion of food crop sown area has always been as high as about 80% from the 1950s to the 1970s, and exceeded 85% in 9 years; after 1979, the crop layout was appropriately adjusted. . The sown area of ??grain crops decreased from 1.8 billion acres in 1978 to 1.66 billion acres in 1986, and the proportion dropped to 76.9%. However, due to the increase in output per mu, the total output increased from 304.75 million tons to 391.512 million tons. The general composition of the total grain output in 1986 was: rice 44%, wheat 23%, corn 18%, potatoes 6.5%, and others 8.5%.
The sown area of ??cash crops has always been relatively small in the total sown area of ??crops, but the general trend is upward. From the 1950s to 1978, it was roughly 8 to 9%; after entering the 1980s, it continued to increase rose to around 14%. Looking at the different types of cash crops, the proportion of cotton sown area in the total crop sown area decreased from 3.9% to about 3.0% between 1952 and 1986, while the output increased from 1.3035 million tons to 3.54 million tons. Although there were Ups and downs or stagnation, but generally speaking, growth is relatively fast.
The output of oil crops, including peanuts, rapeseed and sesame, fluctuates greatly. The sown area in 1952 accounted for 4% of the total crop sown area, and the output was 4.193 million tons; there have been increases and decreases since then. It developed rapidly after 1978. The sown area in 1986 accounted for 7.9% of the total crop sown area; the output was 14.738 million tons, about 3.5 times that of 1952.
The development of other cash crops, comparing the output in 1986 with that in 1952, the growth rate is approximately: 6 times of flue-cured tobacco, 7 times of sugar (sugar cane, sugar beets), 6 times of tea, yellow and red Hemp 5 times, fruit 18 times.
Forestry In the late 1940s, the output value of forestry accounted for only a tiny 0.7% of the country's total agricultural output value. After the 1950s, forestry construction developed. In 1986, the proportion of forestry output value increased to 5%. However, forestry production fluctuates greatly, and the overall development speed is not fast. Over the past 30 years, the country has accumulated afforestation area of ??more than 1.8 billion acres. Due to the failure of tending and management, less than one-third of the actual preserved area has been harvested rather than renewed. In 1985, the forest area was only 1.73 billion acres, with an average of 1.7 per person. mu, the forest coverage rate is 12%, and the distribution is very uneven, mostly concentrated in the northeast, southwest, Zhejiang, Fujian and other regions. In order to change the situation where forestry production is seriously incompatible with the needs of the country and the people, measures have been taken since 1978 to strengthen forestry construction, resulting in continuous improvements in tending management, an increase in afforestation area and timber production, and an increasing composition of timber forests, economic forests and protective forests. Reasonable.
Animal husbandry In the composition of total agricultural output value, the proportion of animal husbandry output value generally showed a downward trend in the 1950s and early 1960s. Then it gradually picked up. The proportion of animal husbandry was 11.5% in 1952 and increased to 21.8% in 1986. As for the output value ratio between planting and animal husbandry, the gap between the two has narrowed due to the gradual reduction of the proportion of planting. Generally speaking, it was 7:1 in the early 1950s and 3:1 in the mid-1980s.
The number of livestock has increased significantly. At the end of 1986, the number of large livestock (including cattle, horses, donkeys, mules, and camels) was 118.961 million (of which draft animals accounted for about 58%), pigs were 337.191 million, and sheep were 166.229 million, which were respectively increased than in 1952. 55.6%, 2.75 times and 1.69 times. Among them, the number of pigs is increasing the fastest. China accounts for about 40% of the total pig population in the world. The proportion of large livestock has decreased as some draft animals have been replaced by agricultural machinery. In addition, the breeding and utilization of domestic rabbits and wild animals have also developed greatly in recent years. However, compared with social demand, the development of animal husbandry is not fast, especially the slaughter rate is low. In 1986, the slaughter rate of pigs was 77.6%, that of sheep was 31.5%, and that of cattle was only 6.1%. The reason lies in backward feeding methods and underdeveloped feed industry. Cattle and sheep are largely due to the incompatibility of grassland construction. Therefore, although China's meat production increased from more than 3 million tons in the 1950s to 21.12 million tons in 1986, and milk production increased from 880,000 tons in 1978 to 2.899 million tons in 1986, the per capita share is lower than the average Economically developed countries. Since pork accounts for more than 90% of meat production, and pig breeding is concentrated in agricultural areas, 95% of meat is produced in agricultural areas. There is great development potential for animal husbandry in both agricultural and pastoral areas.
In addition to livestock and poultry breeding, animal production targeting insects such as silkworms and bees has also developed greatly. In particular, sericulture has not only always occupied an important position in history, but also still has high economic value. In 1986, the output of silkworm cocoons was 369,000 tons (of which the output of mulberry silkworm cocoons was 336,000 tons), which was nearly twice the amount in 1952.
Aquaculture is fishery. In 1952, the output value accounted for only 0.3% of the total agricultural output value. In 1986, the proportion had increased to 4.1%. It has experienced great development in more than 30 years. The total output of aquatic products was 1.666 million tons in 1952 and increased to 8.236 million tons in 1986, an increase of nearly four times. Looking at the output composition of aquatic products, in 1986, seawater products accounted for approximately 57.7%, and freshwater products accounted for approximately 42.3%. The vast majority of marine products come from fishing, mainly offshore fishing. Marine aquaculture and offshore fishing have not yet received their due development. In recent years, the aquaculture industry of freshwater products has developed to a certain extent.
Side hustle Side hustle in Chinese agriculture has different nature and content in different periods (see rural side hustle).
Before the 1960s, sideline industry refers to the production activities that farmers engage in in their spare time or with auxiliary labor in the family, including gathering, fishing and hunting, and cottage industries such as weaving and embroidery. Most of them are self-sufficient or semi-self-sufficient. Its proportion in the total agricultural output value is about 4%. As for the enterprises later organized by people's communes and production brigades, although they were still regarded as side businesses for a period of time, they were essentially industry, transportation and construction industries that were relatively independent of agriculture, breaking through the scope of side businesses; By the 1980s, it further evolved into a township enterprise.
Taiwan Province Agriculture Taiwan Province is located in the southeast of mainland China, across the sea from Fujian Province. The province includes nearly 80 islands, large and small. The total land area is 35,981 square kilometers, 2/3 is mountainous, and less than 1/3 is flat land. The cultivated land area is 13.37 million acres (1982), of which paddy fields account for about 56% and dry lands account for about 44%. The province is located between the tropical and temperate zones, with an average annual temperature of 24°C, an average annual precipitation of 2,400 mm, and no frost in all seasons. The agricultural population was 4.88 million in 1982, accounting for approximately 26.4% of the province's total population. In the 1940s, this proportion was as high as over 50%. The per capita cultivated land also dropped from about 1.5 acres in the 1950s to about 0.7 acres in the early 1980s. The province's original farming system and production tools are similar to those of Fujian and Guangdong provinces, with a high multiple cropping index. It is a rich agricultural production area in China. Historically, products such as rice and cane sugar were often exchanged with the southeastern coastal provinces of the mainland.
In the 1950s, Taiwan Province carried out land system reform (see land reform), and owner-cultivators accounted for the vast majority of agriculture. The management method has gradually changed to intensive management that saves labor and capital, and more agricultural machinery and modern cultivation techniques are used. After the 1960s, in order to meet market needs, specialized production areas for certain agricultural products were gradually formed, and agricultural production developed greatly. In 1984, the output of rice was 2.2442 million tons, sugar cane was 6.5453 million tons, banana was 203,300 tons, and pineapple was 123,600 tons, which were 43%, 12 times, 90% and 80% respectively higher than those in 1952. Other agricultural products include tobacco, tea, citrus, peanuts, etc. Soybeans, wheat and corn are rarely grown and are classified as cash crops. The forest area originally accounted for more than half of the province's total area. In the early 1950s, the annual wood production was about 450,000 cubic meters, which increased to 1.1 million cubic meters in the early 1970s. However, after years of logging, it has gradually declined. In 1982, the output was less than 500,000 cubic meters. The animal husbandry industry attaches great importance to pig breed improvement, promotion of compound feed and improvement of feeding technology in pig production, thus shortening the feeding period and increasing slaughter weight, and most of them are "lean" pigs.
Taiwan Province’s export agricultural products mainly include sugar, rice, bananas, pineapples, mushrooms, asparagus (canned), tea and aquatic products. Since the 1950s, the export volume of these products has grown rapidly, but their proportion in the total export value has gradually declined over the past 30 years; imported agricultural products include rice, soybeans, wheat and flour, raw cotton, tobacco, milk and dairy products, and rubber. Its products, wood, etc. are mainly used. Its share in total import value is on the rise.