Shifeng, Sichuan: As dusk falls, the expressway from Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, is smooth as butter, newly built after the 2008 earthquake. But soon after leaving the city, traffic is slowing down. Is it smoke or fog that is drifting in from the open fields on both sides? Or, is it smog, for this is a heavily industrialized region?
Hao Yuenan, a knowledgeable and charmingly nationalistic official of the provincial government, snatches the mike on the bus and reassures everybody that this is not industrial pollution.
“It is farmers burning the agricultural waste and residue in their fields,” he announces rather sheepishly.
“There is a law against it, but who is going to implement it! And, the farmers get important minerals for their fields from the ash,” he adds.
The rapeseed crop has been harvested, the tiny mustard-like seeds threshed out manually, ready for the oil mill. The dry seedless plants can be seen piled up all along the road in small fields. Some are already burning furiously, as families stand by poking at the embers.
The scene is almost India-like except that the kisan doesn’t burn agricultural residue in such quantities. Perhaps the stubble of cut off stems and leaf litter may be burnt. But piles of dry plants have multiple uses in the subsistence economy of Indian farmers — from feeding cattle to mixing with cowdung for fuel to roofing material.
But in China, things are different. One hardly sees cows or buffaloes in the fields or roadsides — their cattle population is less than one- third of India’s. China has 108 million heads of cattle compared to 322 million in India. In any case, cattle is fed on more nutritive fodder than dry stems and leaves.
With better fodder, and genetics, milk yields are vastly different in the two countries. Under village conditions, an Indian cow yields about 956 liters per year and a buffalo 1,300 liters. Chinese cows yields as much as 3,700 kgs per year. The Chinese farmer works under the “household responsibility system”. All land is owned by the state. At various administrative levels authority is given to the corresponding government body to supervise land use. So, the village council, led by the village Communist Party branch works out a system of allocating land plots to families. These plots become the responsibility of the allottees — they cultivate whatever they want and sell it wherever they can for whatever price they get.
A Chinese farmer’s family of four earned about 1,973 yuan (about Rs17,500) per month in 2010 according to the National Statistics Bureau of China. This is about one fourth of an urban resident’s average income. In a small hamlet of post-earthquake resettled farmers, Zhou Zheng Ying confirms that he earns about 2,000 yuan from growing corn, vegetables and some fruits.
Tang Hua, a live-wire young woman turns out to be the village Party secretary. She carries out a staccato exchange with Zhou after which his wife is summoned from the kitchen. She clarifies she too is earning, by working in a factory. So their income is about 4,000 yuan.
Sichuan is a relatively more developed province and this particular region is also industrialized. Hence incomes are higher, says Hao. In remote provinces like Gansu, monthly income of a four member rural household may be as low as 993 yuan or about Rs 8,600 per month.
The village council provides highyield seeds, arranges fertilizers and pesticides (although in Sichuan a lot of “pollution-free” produce is also grown). Water for irrigation is no problem in the region because of canals, says Tang. And thereby hangs an incredible tale. “All water in the region is coming from the Dujiangyan system,” says Hao proudly. Built in 256 BCE, this gravity flow system is still functional, holding and redirecting water from the Min River to over 5,300sqkm of cultivated land. Dujiangyan is a Unesco World Heritage site today.
As we continue towards Mianyang city, vineyards and tobacco fields can be seen stretching towards the horizon. Like every city in China, Shifang too has several other names —“Hometown of Chinese Cigar” is the obvious one because it is one of the largest cigar production centers in China. It is also called the “Land of Chinese Mineral Water” because Dujiangyan sends mountain water into taps. But residents prefer this most — “Pearl of Western Sichuan”
Hao Yuenan, a knowledgeable and charmingly nationalistic official of the provincial government, snatches the mike on the bus and reassures everybody that this is not industrial pollution.
“It is farmers burning the agricultural waste and residue in their fields,” he announces rather sheepishly.
“There is a law against it, but who is going to implement it! And, the farmers get important minerals for their fields from the ash,” he adds.
The rapeseed crop has been harvested, the tiny mustard-like seeds threshed out manually, ready for the oil mill. The dry seedless plants can be seen piled up all along the road in small fields. Some are already burning furiously, as families stand by poking at the embers.
The scene is almost India-like except that the kisan doesn’t burn agricultural residue in such quantities. Perhaps the stubble of cut off stems and leaf litter may be burnt. But piles of dry plants have multiple uses in the subsistence economy of Indian farmers — from feeding cattle to mixing with cowdung for fuel to roofing material.
But in China, things are different. One hardly sees cows or buffaloes in the fields or roadsides — their cattle population is less than one- third of India’s. China has 108 million heads of cattle compared to 322 million in India. In any case, cattle is fed on more nutritive fodder than dry stems and leaves.
With better fodder, and genetics, milk yields are vastly different in the two countries. Under village conditions, an Indian cow yields about 956 liters per year and a buffalo 1,300 liters. Chinese cows yields as much as 3,700 kgs per year. The Chinese farmer works under the “household responsibility system”. All land is owned by the state. At various administrative levels authority is given to the corresponding government body to supervise land use. So, the village council, led by the village Communist Party branch works out a system of allocating land plots to families. These plots become the responsibility of the allottees — they cultivate whatever they want and sell it wherever they can for whatever price they get.
A Chinese farmer’s family of four earned about 1,973 yuan (about Rs17,500) per month in 2010 according to the National Statistics Bureau of China. This is about one fourth of an urban resident’s average income. In a small hamlet of post-earthquake resettled farmers, Zhou Zheng Ying confirms that he earns about 2,000 yuan from growing corn, vegetables and some fruits.
Tang Hua, a live-wire young woman turns out to be the village Party secretary. She carries out a staccato exchange with Zhou after which his wife is summoned from the kitchen. She clarifies she too is earning, by working in a factory. So their income is about 4,000 yuan.
Sichuan is a relatively more developed province and this particular region is also industrialized. Hence incomes are higher, says Hao. In remote provinces like Gansu, monthly income of a four member rural household may be as low as 993 yuan or about Rs 8,600 per month.
The village council provides highyield seeds, arranges fertilizers and pesticides (although in Sichuan a lot of “pollution-free” produce is also grown). Water for irrigation is no problem in the region because of canals, says Tang. And thereby hangs an incredible tale. “All water in the region is coming from the Dujiangyan system,” says Hao proudly. Built in 256 BCE, this gravity flow system is still functional, holding and redirecting water from the Min River to over 5,300sqkm of cultivated land. Dujiangyan is a Unesco World Heritage site today.
As we continue towards Mianyang city, vineyards and tobacco fields can be seen stretching towards the horizon. Like every city in China, Shifang too has several other names —“Hometown of Chinese Cigar” is the obvious one because it is one of the largest cigar production centers in China. It is also called the “Land of Chinese Mineral Water” because Dujiangyan sends mountain water into taps. But residents prefer this most — “Pearl of Western Sichuan”
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