|
AGRICULTURE IN CHINA 6
5. Advancements In Agricultural Technology 5.1 Agricultural Mechanization. Since reform and opening-up, agricultural mechanization has made fast progress. In 2003, with annual growth rate of 6.77 percent, the total power of agricultural machinery in China reached 604.47 million watt or more than 5 times that of 1978. At present, mechanized operations of ploughing accounts for 46.84 percent, sowing for 26.75 percent and harvesting for 17.97 percent, or 8.64 percent, 17.85 percent and 15.87 percent higher than 1978, respectively. Farm machines are widely put into farming operations like rice production machinery, corn combine harvesters, dry-land and water-saving farming machinery, machinery for putting straws and stalks back to farmland as fertilizer and for comprehensive utilization, food drying machinery at producing places, animal husbandry production machinery, so are technologies for farm produce processing and agro-aviation. Agro-mechanization has produced immense benefits. Improvement of Chinese Agricultural Production Conditions | Year | Total power of agro-machinery (0.1 billion wt) | Rural electricity consumption (0.1 million kw) | Irrigated area (10 000 ha) | Fertilizer Application (10 000 tons) | | 1978 | 1.1750 | 253.1 | 4 496.50 | 884.0 | | 1980 | 1.4746 | 320.8 | 4 488.80 | 1 269.4 | | 1985 | 2.0913 | 508.9 | 4 403.60 | 1 775.8 | | 1990 | 2.8708 | 844.5 | 4 740.31 | 2 590.3 | | 1995 | 3.6118 | 1 655.7 | 4 928.12 | 3 593.7 | | 2000 | 5.2574 | 2 421.3 | 5 382.03 | 4 146.4 | | 2001 | 5.5042 | 2 609.8 | 5 429.44 | 4 253.8 | | 2002 | 5.7930 | 2 993.4 | 5 435.5 | 4 339.4 | | 2003 | 6.0447 | 3 432.9 | 5 513.5 | 4 411.6 | 5.2 Advancement in agricultural science and technology. From 1978 to 2002, agricultural science and technology in the country made great accomplishments. The share contributed by agricultural science and technology to agricultural growth increased from around 20 percent to some 45 percent, of which crop planting accounted for 42.4 percent, forestry 31.4 percent, animal husbandry 42 percent and fisheries 45 percent. Science and technology have become fundamental driving forces for agricultural development, reflecting in the following three aspects. Firstly, in terms of agricultural research, scientists have developed a large number of new varieties of crops and breeds of livestock, poultry and aquatic. At present, the coverage ratio of improved seeds of major farm crops is up to 85 percent, laying a sound foundation for improving the comprehensive capability of agricultural production and for increasing farmers¡¯ income. Especially, technology for seed production of hybrid rice has contributed to the increased paddy rice yield from 6 000kg to over 8 000kg per hectare. Secondly, in terms of planting system improvement, farming practice of inter-planting and relay inter-planting crops like grain/oil, grain/cotton or grain/vegetables have been developed, and a ¡°vertical planting¡± mould of multiple-crop and multiple-layer cultivation created for making full use of space resources. Thirdly, in terms of crop farming, many advanced and operational techniques have been widely applied, such as the use of plastic film nursing, mulching, greenhouse cultivation, upland nursing of paddy rice and light transplanting, and rice seedling throwing for transplanting. The farming practice of plastic film mulching is extensively applied to more than 40 farm crops like grains, cotton, oil seeds, fruits, vegetables, sugar and tobacco, leading to 15-20 percent rise of increased output. Percentage of Scientific and Technical Contribution to Agriculture (%) | Year | Growth rate of agricultural production | Growth rate of input cost | Growth rate of rural labors | Growth rate of farmland | Rate of scientific & technical progress | Ratio of scientific & technical contribution | | 1953-1957 | 5.17 | 5.75 | 2.20 | 1.03 | 1.03 | 19.92 | | 1958-1965 | 1.28 | 2.41 | 2.00 | -0.96 | 0.21 | ¡ | | 1966-1970 | 2.62 | 3.41 | 3.65 | -0.16 | 0.06 | 2.29 | | 1971-1975 | 3.32 | 4.27 | 1.29 | 0.81 | 0.51 | 15.36 | | 1976-1980 | 3.71 | 4.83 | 0.76 | -0.35 | 0.99 | 26.68 | | 1981-1985 | 7.75 | 9.04 | 0.95 | -0.50 | 2.70 | 34.84 | | 1986-1990 | 4.75 | 5.99 | 1.02 | -0.25 | 1.31 | 27.66 | | 1991-1995 | 7.38 | 9.16 | -0.72 | -0.17 | 2.53 | 34.28 | | 1996-2000 | 5.74 | 5.90 | 0.28 | -0.61 | 2.59 | 45.16 | 5.3 Education and training of farmers. The Chinese government puts much emphasis on vocational education and technical training of farmers as well as the promotion of transfer and application of achievements of agricultural science and technology. To this end, the government has launched many activities since 1990s, such as Spark Training Project, Combination of Agricultural Research and Education Project, Green Certificate Project, Trans-Century Young Farmer Training Project and Farmer Training Plan for Development of Western Region. More than 400 million farmers have received training through these activities, and improved their quality scientifically and technologically as well as their production capacity. These activities have also promoted the service of technical know-how for farm labors, allowing them to have more opportunities to get better off and more technical support for increasing their income. Percentage Change of Educational Level of Rural Labors (%) | Year | Rural labors (10 000) | Illiterate or nearly illiterate | Primary school | Junior high school | Senior high school | Technical secondly school or above | | 1983 | 34 690 | 35.50 | 36.13 | 22.37 | 5.72 | 0.27 | | 1985 | 37 065 | 27.87 | 37.13 | |
