|
China OPERATIONAL METHODS AND INPUTS
China's farmers have long used techniques such as fertilization
and irrigation to increase the productivity of their scarce land.
Over time, many farming techniques have been modernized: chemical
fertilizers have supplemented organic fertilizers, and mechanical
pumps have come into use in irrigation. Government planners in the
1980s emphasized increased use of fertilizer, improved irrigation,
mechanization of agriculture, and extension of improved seed
varieties as leading features of the agricultural modernization
program.
Cropping Patterns
All of these elements of modern agriculture are used in the
context of the traditional intensive cropping patterns. To maximize
year-round use of the land, two or more crops are planted each year
where possible. Rice, wheat, cotton, vegetable, and other crop
seedlings are sometimes raised in special seedbeds and then
transplanted to fields. Transplanting shortens the time required
for a crop to mature, which allows farmers the opportunity to
squeeze in an additional crop each growing season. Another method
to make optimum use of scarce land is to plant seedlings in a
mature stand of another crop. For example, when planting winter
wheat in October, farmers in the north leave spaces among the rows
so that cotton seedlings can be planted or transplanted in April
and May. Without intercropping, farmers could raise only one crop
a year. Mechanization supports this intensive cropping pattern.
Despite a huge rural labor force, labor shortages occur each season
when farmers are required to harvest one crop and plant another in
its place, all within the space of a few weeks. In the 1980s
farmers invested in harvesting and planting machinery to overcome
the shortage of labor. Seed breeders also supported intensive
cropping patterns by selecting and breeding varieties that had
shorter growing seasons.
Data as of July 1987
|
