Successful Experience

5 min read

Since the founding the People’s Republic of China, Xinjiang’s agricultural production and development has gone through a tortuous road from growth to stagnation, then to growth again. There is a lot of experience to draw from that process, both positive andnegative. As summarized as follows, rich positive experience has been accumulated since 1978, when the reform and opening-up policy was introduced to China.

(1) It is the fundamental driving force for sustainable agricultural development to readjust agriculture and rural economic system and deepen rural reform so as to make the relations of production fit, in with the development of productive forces.

Since 1978, Xinjiang has been firm in carrying out a series of rural economic policies formulated by the Central Government to press ahead with rural reform vigorously and prudently. The starting point for formulating and implementing rural policies is to motivate farmers, guarantee their material interests and respect their independent right in production. While practicing household contract operation, Xin jiang has introduced the “unified services in five areas”in the light of its own agricultural features, which include “machine tilling, machine sowing, irrigation, yield-improving technology measures, disease and pest prevention and control”. It adheres to the principle of “combine unified and separate operation and apply either approach as required by the specific conditions”, thus successfully ensuring the stability of household contract operation and the improvement in the double-tier system of combining unified and separate approaches. At the same time, Xinjiang has gradually gone beyond the limit of planned economy and actively pursueddiverse economic undertakings, towns and villages enterprises (TVEs) in particular. The reform in the circulation system of agricultural produce has been deepened, restrictions on the business of most farming and sideline products have been lifted except grains and cotton. Farmers’ independent right to production and operation has been given into full play, enabling them to be extremely enthusiastic about production, which has in turn led to an unprecedented high-speed development period in agriculture and rural economy in Xinjiang. Bumper harvests have persisted for more than 30 years in a row, the history of long-term shortage in farming produce has ended. Grains are now more than self-sufficient, big national cotton and sugar beet production bases have been built, output of other farming and sideline products has also increased by a large margin, The integrated agricultural production capability has improved significantly, the unit yield and per capitapossession of ma jor crops rank in the front or above the middle level in China, and farmers in Xinjiang are now leading a much better life, as they are generally in the transition from a basic-need living style to a well-off life.

(2) It is the main direction for the sustainable agricultural development in Xinjiang to optimize the rural industrial structure based on the market.

Since 1978, Xin jiang has been working continuously to readjust and optimize the agricultural production structure and crop layout. While ensuring the steady growth of total grain output, Xinjiang has gradually reduced the sown areas of grain crops. Instead, cash crops are planted in a wider area, and the proportion of grains and cash crops in sown areas has changed from 86:14 in the past to 56:44. In terms of distribution,a pattern of “cotton in the south and grains in the north”has come into being in the autonomous region. The read justment to crop structure has led to the following results. First of all, grain production has been on steady rise. In 1984, the long-term pattern of living on grains provided by other provinces/regions persisting for many years was changed. In 1996, the total grain output exceeded 8 million tons, and the per capita grain possession was higherthan the national average. Second, Xin jiang’s advantages in cash crops such as cotton have been brought into full play. The planting area and yield of cotton keep going up year by year, making cotton growing a pillar industry that cannot be replaced by anything else in the agricultural and the entire economy in Xin jiang. In the main cotton-producing areas,”farmers get rich by cotton, industries increase their value by cotton, and the government improves revenue through cotton”. At the same time,a number of unique local agricultural produce such as bergamot pear, Hami melon, grape, hop, tomato, medlar and safflower, have developed rapidly to a cert ain proportion and become important exporting products.

Over the past two years, in response to changes in the market, the CPC Committee and People’s Government of Xinjiang have decided, in good time, on the approach of “stabilize the sown area of cotton, improve its unit yield and quality, participate in market competition with high-yielding quality products at low cost”. While stabilizing productionof cotton, Xin jiang has further readjusted the structure of the land farming industry and worked hard to develop marketable quality agricultural products and “famous, special, fine and rare”products, transform the grain production, advance animal husbandry and horticulture in farming areas, so as to generate bigger agricultural output and better rewards for farmers.

(3) It is the fundamental guarantee to sustainable agricultural development in Xinjiangto press ahead with various types of advanced agro-technology and improve agricultural production through science and technology.

Over the past years, the agro-technology promotion agencies at various levels have strengthened the promotion of applicable technologies and research on basic theories in the light of local production realities at the time, and combined experiments, exemplification and promotion efforts to spread all types of effective yield-improving technologies and measures. Many such technologies have been rapidly introduced to the entire autonomous region, such as fine new seed strains, model cultivation technologies centered on “mulching film”, integrated prevention and control of diseases, pest, weeds and other harms, mechanized planting technology, low-yield land improvement, and water-efficient irrigation technology. Following the Conference on Science and Technology in Xin jiang in August 1995, the scientific and technological promotion efforts have been remarkably reinforced. The promotion and application of a large number of integrated, advanced and practicable technologies has improved agricultural production in Xin jiang.

The contribution rate of scientific and technological progress in agricultural development has improved considerably.

The process of a previously agriculturally-weak Xinjiang getting increasingly stronger in that sector over the past 60-odd years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and particularly, in the past more than three decades since the introduction of reform and opening-up, has fully shown that Xin jiang’s agriculture and rural economy have already got the foundation for further advancement to a higher plane. In the future, so longas officials from various ethnic groups and the general public alike continue to endeavour in this regard, Xinjiang will have even more successful development in agriculture.