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HISTORY Beginning in about 7,500 BC with prototypical millet agriculture, China's development of farming over the course of Its History has played a key role in supporting the growth of what is now the largest population in the world. Jared Diamond estimated that the earliest attested domestication of rice took place in China by 7500 B.C.1 Finds at the ruins of the Hemudu Culture in Yuyao and the site of the matriarchal society at Banpo Village near Xi'an , which all date back 6,000 to 7,000 years, include rice, millet and spade-like farm tools made of stone and bone. Farming method improvements Due to China's status as a Developing Country and its severe shortage of arable land, farming in China has always been very Labor-intensive . However, throughout its history various method have been developed or imported that enabled greater farming production and efficiency. During the (403-221 BC), culminating in the enormous Du Jiang Yan Irrigation System engineered by Li Bing by 256 BC for the State Of Qin in ancient Sichuan . For agricultural purposes the Chinese had invented the hydraulic-powered by the 1st century AD, powered by a Waterwheel or an Oxen pulling a on a system of mechanical wheels.Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 89, 110. Although the chain pump found use in Public Works of providing water for urban and palatial Pipe Systems ,Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 33. it was used largely to lift water from a lower to higher elevation in filling irrigation Canal s and Channel s for Farmland .Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 110. During the Eastern Jin (317-420) and the Northern And Southern Dynasties (420-589), the Silk Road and other international trade further spread farming technology throughout China. Political stability and a growing labor force led to economic growth, and people opened up large areas of wasteland and built irrigation works for expanded agricultural use. As land-use became more intensive and efficient, rice was grown twice a year and cattle began to be used for Plowing and Fertilization . By the Tang Dynasty (618-907), China had become a unified feudal agricultural society. Improvements in farming machinery during this era included the Moldboard Plough and Watermill . Later during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), cotton planting and weaving technology were extensively adopted and improved. Communism in China Following the Communist Party Of China 's victory in the Chinese Civil War , control of the farmlands was taken away from landlords and redistributed the land to the 300 million peasant farmers. In 1952, gradually consolidating its power following the civil war, the government began organizing the peasants into mutual aid teams. Three years later, the mutual aid teams were combined into producer cooperatives, enacting the Socialist goal of collective land ownership. In the following year, 1956, the government formally took control of the land, further structuring the farmland into large government-operated collective farms. Great Leap Forward In the 1958 ". Modern Reform Beginning in 1978, as part of the Four Modernizations campaign, the Family Production Responsibility System was created, dismantling communes and giving agricultural production responsibility back to individual households. Households are now given crop quotas that they were required to provide to their collective unit in return for tools, draft animals, seeds, and other essentials. Households, which now lease land from their collectives, are free to use their farmland however they see fit as long as they meet these quotas. This freedom has given more power to individual families to meet their individual needs. In addition to these structural changes, the Chinese government also engages in Irrigation projects (such as the Three Gorges Dam ), runs large state farms, and encourages Mechanization and Fertilizer use. OECD Review of Agricultural Policies - China By 1984, when about 99% of farm production teams had adopted the Family Production Responsibility System, the government began further economic reforms, aimed primarily at liberalizing agricultural pricing and marketing. In 1984, the government replaced mandatory procurement with voluntary contracts between farmers and the government. Later, in 1993, the government abolished the 40-year-old grain rationing system, leading to more than 90 percent of all annual agricultural produce to be sold at market-determined prices. Since 1994, the government has instituted a number of policy changes aimed at limiting grain importation and increasing economic stability. Among these policy changes was the artificial increase of grain prices above market levels. This has led to increased grain production, while placing the heavy burden of maintaining these prices on the government. In 1995, the "Governor’s Grain Bag Responsibility System" was instituted, holding provincial governors responsible for balancing grain supply and demand and stabilizing grain prices in their provinces. Later, in 1997, the "Four Separations and One Perfection" program was implemented to relieve some of the monetary burdens placed on the government by its grain policy. Critical Choices for China's Agricultural Policy As China continues to industrialize, vast swaths of agricultural land is being converted into industrial land. Farmers displaced by such urban expansion often become Migrant Labor for Factories , but other farmers feel disenfranchised and cheated by the encroachment of industry and the growing disparity between urban and rural lifestyles. NPR MAJOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS ]] Crop distribution Although China's agricultural output is the largest in the world, only about 10-15% of its total land area can be cultivated. China's arable land, which represents 10% of the total arable land in the world, supports over 20% of the world's population. Of this approximately 5 million square kilometers of land, only about half is irrigated. The land is divided into approximately 200 million households, with an average land allocation of just 0.65 Hectare s (1.6 Acre s). China's limited space for farming has been a problem throughout its history, leading to chronic food shortage. While the production efficiency of farmland has grown over time, efforts to expand to the west and the north have held limited success, as such land is generally colder and drier than traditional farmlands to the east. Since the 1950's, farm space has also been pressured by the increasing land needs of industry and cities. Peri-urban Agriculture |
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