Achievements in A griculture

(1) Sustained Development in Agriculture, Diversification of Farming Products and Big Growth in the Output of Ma jor Agricultural Products From 1949 to 2012, the grain output in Xinjiang rose from 847,700 tons to 12.73 million tons, registering a 14-fold increase. Apart from providing for its own people, Xin jiang supplied a small portion of grains to inland provinces and regions or foreign countries through export. The output of cotton increased from 5,100 tons to 3.5395 million tons,a 693-fold growth, making Xin jiang’s cotton output take more than 50% of the national total. Xin jiang is now a significant cotton producing base in China. Xin jiang’s oil crops output rose from 28,700 tons to 590,400 tons, registering a growth of nearly 20-fold. Xinjiang ranks at the top among all provinces/regions in China in terms of per-capita amount of oil plants. Sugar beet production developed from zero to 5.7719 million tons in 2012, makingXinjiang the biggest beet sugar-making production base in the north of China. The total output of fruits rose from 100,600 tons to 12.221 million tons,120 times the figure in 1949.

Some “famous, special and fine”fruits, such as Hami melon, grape, bergamot pear, crisp pear and apple, are renowned both at home and abroad. The vegetable-planting area rosefrom 9,250 hectares to 322,600 hectares, producing 18,662 million tons of vegetables, enabling a self-sufficiency rate of 70% in providing fresh vegetables to major cities during winter time. Pollution-and harm-free “green”food production is developing rapidly. By the end of 2011,a total of 760 products of the autonomous region had been certified as green organic food. In recent years, the “red industry”has been developing very quickly in Xinjiang, with industry-use tomatoes and medlars(or Chinese wolfberries) both ranking the first in China in planting areas and total yield.

(2) Comprehensive Re juvenation of Rural Economy and Considerable Improvement in People’s Livelihood.

In 2012, Xinjiang’s output value in land farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery totalled RMB 227.6 billion yuan, up by 907.7 times the figure in 1949. The output value of the processing industries, which used agricultural and sideline products as the raw materials, ac-counted for over 85% of all the light industries. The export value of agricultural andsideline products as well as those processed products based on agricultural and sideline products took over 70% of the total export value in Xinjiang. Since 1980s, export of value of raw cotton, cotton yarn and cotton cloth has accounted for more than half of total exportof foreign trade. Moreover, both cotton and ketchup are bulk export agricultural products,whose export values exceed USD 100 million. And agriculture has made great contribution to the sustainable economic development of Xin jiang.

Over the past fifty-odd years, farmers’ per capita income has increased by a large margin in Xinjiang, from RMB 50 yuan to RMB 6,394 yuan in 2012. The basic need for foodand clothing has been met. Food production is more than self-sufficient. Drinking water and housing conditions have improved remarkably. The proportion of cultural-purpose spending in farmers’ total consumption rose from less than 1% in the past to over 12% now.

Durable consumer products such as televisions, tape recorders and bicycles have been household items in the rural areas. Quite a few farmer families are now leading a well-off life.

(3) Remarkable Improvement of Conditions for Agricultural Production and Gratifying Achievements in Capital Construction of Farmland As of the end of the 201h century, the following projects had been completed in Xin jiang: over 460 reservoirs, more than 320,000 kilometers of channels at four tiers, including over 60,000 kilometers of leakfree channels,250,000 channel-related buildings, more than 30,000 supporting motor-pumped wells, and over 3,200 kilometers of anti-flooding dikes and dams. The irrigated area has increased to over 60 million mu, farmland with stable yields irrespective of drought or excessive rain has risen to over 54 million mu.and the rural area of “five good elements”(good farmland, good channels, good forestry land, good roads and good residential places) centered around irrigation works totals about 20 million mu. Since the Seventh Five-Year Plan period, Xin jiang has built, or is in the process of building,24 provincial-level grain base counties,10 national-level grain base counties,22 national fine cotton base counties,2 sugar base counties,20 fruit base counties(farms and gardens), and 10″famous, special and fine”melon and fruit bases.

Massive comprehensive agricultural development began in 1988. By 2008,410,000hectares of low-and medium-yield farmland had been ameliorated,262,000 hectares of wasteland good for farming reclaimed,34,000 hectares of grassland transformed, 19,000 hectares of artificial fodder bases built,31,000 hectares of shelter and commercial forests planted, and 351,000 hectares of land improved in terms of irrigation.

In 2012, the total use of chemical fertilizers in Xin jiang reached 1.9227 million tons, the total motivity of agricultural machinery 19.6827 million kilowatts. There were 342,600 large-and medium-sized tractors, and 334,900 small ones, the machine-operated tilling, sowing and harvest ratios were 90%,80% and 30% respectively. The power used in the rural area totalled 7.581 billion kilowatt-hours.

To summarize, compared with 1949, Xinjiang has considerably improved its agricultural modernization level.

(4) Constant Development of Agro-Science, Technology and Education Over the past fifty years and more, Xin jiang has promoted and applied tens of thousands of applicable and advanced agricultural technologies and research products, which include: fine seed strains of various crops; mulching film technology, which was first used on melons, vegetables and fruit tree seedlings and is now widely used in major crops such as cotton, corn, sugar beet and wheat; fine-quality and high-yield modes of growing grains, cotton, oil plants, sugar crops, fruits, vegetables, tobacco and hemp, which include two maturity-cycle supporting planting technique, one-ton-yield grain production technology,”low, dense and dry”cotton growing technique,”100 kilograms per mu lint cotton”growing technique, deep application of chemical fertilizer, sowing with fertilizer, formula and balanced fertilization as well as the technology on adding potash or microelements; the comprehensive prevention and control of crop diseases, pests, weedsand other harms, chemical control technology, bio-pesticide, bio-fertilizer and growth regulating agent technology; and water-saving irrigation technology. The ratio of applying agro-science and agricultural research achievements is 50%, the proportion of land using fine seeds among ma jor crops is over 90%, and the contribution of scientific and technological progress to rural economic growth is 42%.

Education on agriculture has advanced a lot. There are now four tiers of agricultural educational system, covering agricultural education of higher learning, secondary agricultural education, knowledge updating for agricultural cadres at various levels, and technical training for farmers. At present, Xinjiang has 3 agricultural institutions of higher learning, including Xin jiang Agricultural University,A gricultural College of Shihezi University and Tarim Agricultural Cultivation University, as well as 10 secondary agricultural schools such as Xin jiang Agricultural School. These secondary schools’ graduates have become the ma jor forces on the front of agro-science and technology and been active in the frontline of production. Since it was founded in 1980s, Xinjiang Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School has opened branches in 12 prefectures and79 counties/cities in Xin jiang, run 32 departments in Uygur, Chinese and Kazakh languages, enrolled on an accumulative basis over 52,000 students, of whom 26,800 have graduated, and provided about 10,000 person times of training for grassroots officials and over 500,000 person times for ordinary farmers. The in-school students and trainees total 25,000 throughout the year. The agricultural agencies at different levels and relevant schools and colleges conduct the campaign of “Winter of Science and Technology”every year, when lectures on a wide spectrum of agricultural subjects are given.

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