Old farmer was area's biggest
By Staff Reporters |
August 29, 2009, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE Shanghai County Annals recorded the event in a matter-of-fact way. In October 1982, they say, "Yang's family of six from Yangjiawan Production Team of Xingdong Village, Xingzhuang County, contracting for farmland of 3.99 hectares, 53 percent of the entire team land, became the first big family of food production in the county."
It's regarded as a part of history that only exists in the deepest memory.
But for Yang Quanyu, head of the family, it's just like yesterday. Although he's now 81 and his son has to help him communicate because of Yang's poor hearing, the family patriarch can still fondly remember those long ago times.
The most frequent sentence he said is: "I remember the good times."
Contracting for the team's land really needed courage in the 1980s. But Yang said frankly that he didn't think so much about it at that time and he just wanted to be a diligent farmer.
Land is a farmer's lifeline, a lesson Yang learned long ago. His family moved from Xingguang Village to Xingdong Village in 1947 when Yang was just 19 because there wasn't enough land to farm.
He has experienced all three periods of land reform since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
In the early 1950s, reforms confirmed that land belonged to the farmers and Yang's family got a property certificate; in 1956, the family joined the Xingnan Cooperative and their land and farming tools became production team owned; in 1981, the third land reform gave land back to farmers, and his family got 0.33 hectares.
Nowadays, many people may think that the early 1980s' land reform which promoted the family contract system was very welcomed by farmers. But it wasn't always so.
The Shanghai County Annals show that farmers were not active in the process of contracting for land. They didn't want more land because the additional hard work required wouldn't necessarily bring more profit.
And that's what happened with the Yangjiawan Production Team. The group of dozens of farmers had about 7 hectares of land to work. The limited labor force meant harder work, but the profit was much less than if they were working in a factory. So most farmers didn't want to bid for the land contract.
The situation didn't please Yang who had been a farmer all his life and loved the land. After discussing the situation with community and county leaders, Yang and his family decided to contract for larger tracts of land.
Land contractor
Several days later, Yang signed the contract with Xingdong Village. His family of six would be responsible for about 4 hectares and pay four kinds of annual fees.
In addition, they contracted to deliver the food harvest as planned and sell it to the government. The contract signed in 1982 was valid for three years.
In the first year of the contract, Yang and his family reached their harvest goal of 40,000 kilograms of rice. At a price of 0.4 yuan (7 US cents) per kilogram, they earned 16,000 yuan. With fees and costs deducted, their net income for the whole year was over 10,000 yuan, less than 2,000 yuan per person.
Although it was not a large amount at the time when a factory worker could easily earn about 200 yuan a month, Yang was very satisfied.
"I hardly imagined that I could earn so much just by farming," he said.
On March 18, 1984, when Jiefang Daily reported on Yang, he knew that his family was already the largest land contractor in Shanghai. "I was a little famous," he said.
When recalling those times, there's one thing that makes Yang and his son Yang Baoguan very proud -- they used the most advanced farming technology in Shanghai at the time.
Supported by Zhu Sixue, head of the county, Yang got access to the most modern farming science, including tractors and harvesters. And agricultural experts would often visit to give advice.
So his great efforts and great support helped make great harvests. Six people farmed the 4-hectare property very well through greatly increased efficiencies.
But Yang never forgets the hard times.
After 1949, farmers' lives did improve a lot but the Great Leap Forward in 1958 almost ruined everything.
"It was chaos," is how Yang describes the period. He still recalls some "ridiculous" things from that time -- the community official who ordered them to plant crops of 7 hectares on 1 hectare, just to "improve the production efficiency."
Of course Yang knew that it was unreasonable, but at that time no one dared to raise any objection. The result was as expected -- no rice at all.
Another incident also stood out in his mind. It was in October 1958 when the whole country was busy killing sparrows which were considered harmful to crops.
But several days later, after almost all the sparrows were gone, farmers found that bugs began to show up. Yang still believes that such a grand slaughter of birds partly led to the later period of "Three Years of Natural Disasters."
However, he seldom tells others about such difficult times. Instead, he would rather talk about the good old days that he enjoyed later and now.
In June 1985, Yang had to stop farming because the land was to be put to commercial use. But he didn't begrudge it because the community would become richer as a result.
In 1993, all the land of Xingdong Village became state-owned and Yang began to receive a monthly pension.
In 1995, he and his wife moved into a new flat and he now gets 780 yuan pension a month. As well, his medicine costs are covered by the government.
No more hard work, getting a regular "salary" every month and being able to afford medicine -- this is a good life in the mind of the old farmer who has fed his community.
It's regarded as a part of history that only exists in the deepest memory.
But for Yang Quanyu, head of the family, it's just like yesterday. Although he's now 81 and his son has to help him communicate because of Yang's poor hearing, the family patriarch can still fondly remember those long ago times.
The most frequent sentence he said is: "I remember the good times."
Contracting for the team's land really needed courage in the 1980s. But Yang said frankly that he didn't think so much about it at that time and he just wanted to be a diligent farmer.
Land is a farmer's lifeline, a lesson Yang learned long ago. His family moved from Xingguang Village to Xingdong Village in 1947 when Yang was just 19 because there wasn't enough land to farm.
He has experienced all three periods of land reform since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.
In the early 1950s, reforms confirmed that land belonged to the farmers and Yang's family got a property certificate; in 1956, the family joined the Xingnan Cooperative and their land and farming tools became production team owned; in 1981, the third land reform gave land back to farmers, and his family got 0.33 hectares.
Nowadays, many people may think that the early 1980s' land reform which promoted the family contract system was very welcomed by farmers. But it wasn't always so.
The Shanghai County Annals show that farmers were not active in the process of contracting for land. They didn't want more land because the additional hard work required wouldn't necessarily bring more profit.
And that's what happened with the Yangjiawan Production Team. The group of dozens of farmers had about 7 hectares of land to work. The limited labor force meant harder work, but the profit was much less than if they were working in a factory. So most farmers didn't want to bid for the land contract.
The situation didn't please Yang who had been a farmer all his life and loved the land. After discussing the situation with community and county leaders, Yang and his family decided to contract for larger tracts of land.
Land contractor
Several days later, Yang signed the contract with Xingdong Village. His family of six would be responsible for about 4 hectares and pay four kinds of annual fees.
In addition, they contracted to deliver the food harvest as planned and sell it to the government. The contract signed in 1982 was valid for three years.
In the first year of the contract, Yang and his family reached their harvest goal of 40,000 kilograms of rice. At a price of 0.4 yuan (7 US cents) per kilogram, they earned 16,000 yuan. With fees and costs deducted, their net income for the whole year was over 10,000 yuan, less than 2,000 yuan per person.
Although it was not a large amount at the time when a factory worker could easily earn about 200 yuan a month, Yang was very satisfied.
"I hardly imagined that I could earn so much just by farming," he said.
On March 18, 1984, when Jiefang Daily reported on Yang, he knew that his family was already the largest land contractor in Shanghai. "I was a little famous," he said.
When recalling those times, there's one thing that makes Yang and his son Yang Baoguan very proud -- they used the most advanced farming technology in Shanghai at the time.
Supported by Zhu Sixue, head of the county, Yang got access to the most modern farming science, including tractors and harvesters. And agricultural experts would often visit to give advice.
So his great efforts and great support helped make great harvests. Six people farmed the 4-hectare property very well through greatly increased efficiencies.
But Yang never forgets the hard times.
After 1949, farmers' lives did improve a lot but the Great Leap Forward in 1958 almost ruined everything.
"It was chaos," is how Yang describes the period. He still recalls some "ridiculous" things from that time -- the community official who ordered them to plant crops of 7 hectares on 1 hectare, just to "improve the production efficiency."
Of course Yang knew that it was unreasonable, but at that time no one dared to raise any objection. The result was as expected -- no rice at all.
Another incident also stood out in his mind. It was in October 1958 when the whole country was busy killing sparrows which were considered harmful to crops.
But several days later, after almost all the sparrows were gone, farmers found that bugs began to show up. Yang still believes that such a grand slaughter of birds partly led to the later period of "Three Years of Natural Disasters."
However, he seldom tells others about such difficult times. Instead, he would rather talk about the good old days that he enjoyed later and now.
In June 1985, Yang had to stop farming because the land was to be put to commercial use. But he didn't begrudge it because the community would become richer as a result.
In 1993, all the land of Xingdong Village became state-owned and Yang began to receive a monthly pension.
In 1995, he and his wife moved into a new flat and he now gets 780 yuan pension a month. As well, his medicine costs are covered by the government.
No more hard work, getting a regular "salary" every month and being able to afford medicine -- this is a good life in the mind of the old farmer who has fed his community.
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