How did agriculture develop in ancient China?
With a rapidly increasing population Ancient China must have had a very efficient farming method. The progression of agriculture can be divided up into six different stages. The Neolithic Age, where agriculture was developed of a picking and plucking method.
What is the main type of farming in China?
Farming in China. A farmer of the Hani minority, famous for their rice terraced mountains in Yuanyang County, Yunnan. Female tractor driver in China depicted in a 1964 poster. China primarily produces rice, wheat, potatoes, tomato, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, cotton, oilseed, corn and soybeans .
How was the classification of ancient Chinese agricultural technology developed?
The classification of ancient Chinese agricultural technology was developed based on the Chinese Classified Thesaurus (CCT) (China, 2010 ). The CCT was initially developed as an indexing thesaurus in 1996 and edited and digitised in 2005.
What is the history of rice farming in China?
Agriculture in China. Evidence of settled rice agriculture has been found at the Hemudu site of Tianluoshan (5000-4500 BCE), with rice becoming the backbone of the agricultural economy by the Majiabang culture in southern China.
When did agriculture start in China?
some 11,000 years agoThe Origins of Agriculture in China: From Hunting and Gathering to Early Farming. The transition from hunting and gathering to cultivation of wild plants was initiated by semi-sedentary communities some 11,000 years ago.
Where and when were agriculture first practiced in China?
The first evidence of agriculture appears in the archaeological record some 10,000 years ago. But the skills needed to cultivate and harvest crops weren’t learned overnight. Scientists have traced these roots back to 23,000-year-old tools used to grind seeds, found mostly in the Middle East.
What era did agriculture start in?
Farming started in the predynastic period at the end of the Paleolithic, after 10,000 BC. Staple food crops were grains such as wheat and barley, alongside industrial crops such as flax and papyrus. In India, wheat, barley and jujube were domesticated by 9,000 BC, soon followed by sheep and goats.
When did agriculture start * 2 points 4700 years ago 2700 years ago 8000 years ago 6000 years ago?
Indian agriculture began by 9000 BCE on north-west India with the first cultivation of plants, and domestication of crops and animals.
How did agriculture develop in ancient China?
Ancient Chinese began farming rice over 9,000 years ago. Farming made life easier because people no longer had to travel to hunt animals, but could grow their food where they lived. Rice and millet were the two main crops grown in Ancient China. Rice paddy (field) flooded from river.
When did agriculture start answer?
around 12,000 years agoSometime around 12,000 years ago, our hunter-gatherer ancestors began trying their hand at farming. First, they grew wild varieties of crops like peas, lentils and barley and herded wild animals like goats and wild oxen.
When did the Agricultural Revolution start and end?
These revolutions started in England around the beginning of the 18th century. They spread throughout the world and continued through the middle of the 19th century or about 150 years. During this time, land was privatized and controlled by a smaller number of farmers.
Where did the agriculture start?
Agriculture was developed at least 10,000 years ago, and it has undergone significant developments since the time of the earliest cultivation. Independent development of agriculture occurred in northern and southern China, Africa’s Sahel, New Guinea and several regions of the Americas.
What is the classification of ancient Chinese agricultural technology?
The classification of ancient Chinese agricultural technology was developed based on the Chinese Classified Thesaurus (CCT) (China, 2010 ). The CCT was initially developed as an indexing thesaurus in 1996 and edited and digitised in 2005.
When did agriculture start?
Originating between 10,000 and 8000 years ago, agriculture has been considered one of the most important stage developments in human history (Holdren and Ehrlich, 1974 ). Agriculture is the primary food source for our society (Conway, 1987 ).
What were the two pre-development stages of the Neolithic and XSZ periods?
The Neolithic and XSZ periods were the pre-development stages for the two regions, with stone and wooden Leisi, axes and limited copper containers used for farming, mainly in the North-western region.
What were the main crops in the Neolithic period?
4f ). Both food crops and cash crops were actively domesticated. The main crops planted were millet and its varieties. Rice planting was discovered at approximately the same time, mainly in the southern parts of China. There were also cash crops such as beans, ramie, and melons planted during this period. During the XSZ and CQZG periods, crops for dryland farming were dominant, including varieties of millet, barley, wheat, and soy beans.
What were primitive tools made of?
Primitive tools made of stone, bone and wood from the ‘agricultural engineering’ subsystem, slash-and-burn farming methods from the ‘agricultural practices’ subsystem , and the primitive millets from the ‘agricultural crop’ pre-developed in the Yellow River region during the Neolithic Period. These technologies formed the early stages of the agricultural technology system in the Yellow River region.
What was the agricultural practice of the Neolithic period?
4d ). All newly developed technologies focused on ‘furrowing’, which formed a standard procedure for farming: slashing the forests and burning them to fertilise the soil. The soil was then loosened before planting using Leisi or animals and then sickles were used to harvest and process the crops. However, lands that were not sufficiently fertilised were abandoned after a few years of farming when soil fertility was exhausted.
What is level 1 in agriculture?
Level 1 was referred to as ‘agriculture’ in general, with Levels 2 to 4 containing the theoretical understandings, engineering, practices, protection measures and crop varieties of the agricultural technology subsystems.
Why is farming so labor intensive in China?
Due to China’s status as a developing country and its severe shortage of arable land , farming in China has always been very labor-intensive. However, throughout its history, various methods have been developed or imported that enabled greater farming production and efficiency. They also utilized the seed drill to help improve on row farming.
What is the most important crop in China?
About 75% of China’s cultivated area is used for food crops. Rice is China’s most important crop, raised on about 25% of the cultivated area. The majority of rice is grown south of the Huai River, in the Zhu Jiang delta, and in the Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces.
What was the size of Beijing in 1956?
Such increases in the sizes of cities, such as the administrative district of Beijing ‘s increase from 4,822 km 2 (1,862 sq mi) in 1956 to 16,808 km 2 (6,490 sq mi) in 1958, has led to the increased adoption of peri-urban agriculture.
What were the improvements in the Tang Dynasty?
Improvements in farming machinery during this era included the moldboard plow and watermill. Later during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), cotton planting and weaving technology were extensively adopted and improved.
How much of China’s land is arable?
China’s arable land, which represents 10% of the total arable land in the world, supports over 20% of the world’s population. Of this approximately 1.4 million square kilometers of arable land, only about 1.2% (116,580 square kilometers) permanently supports crops and 525,800 square kilometers are irrigated.
When did the government stop rationing?
In 1984, the government replaced mandatory procurement with voluntary contracts between farmers and the government. Later, in 1993, the government abolished the 40-year-old grain rationing system, leading to more than 90 percent of all annual agricultural produce to be sold at market-determined prices.
Where was rice first discovered?
Excavations at Kuahuqiao, the earliest known Neolithic site in eastern China, have documented rice cultivation 7,700 years ago. Approximately half of the plant remains belonged to domesticated japonica species, whilst the other half were wild types of rice.
When did agriculture start in China?
The transition from hunting and gathering to cultivation of wild plants was initiated by semi-sedentary communities some 11,000 years ago .
When did the cultivation of wild plants begin?
60 George Street. The transition from hunting and gathering to cultivation of wild plants was initiated by semi-sedentary communities some 11,000 years ago. Among the earliest East Asian pioneering foragers were those who lived in North China who started cultivating wild millet. Within one or two millennia the annually cultivated millet became …
Overview
History before 1949
Wheat likely “appeared in the lower Yellow River around 2600 Before Common Era (BCE), followed by Gansu and Xinjiang around 1900 BCE and finally occurred in the middle Yellow River and Tibet regions by 1600 BCE”.
The population doubled as new lands were settled in Fujian, Guangzhou, and Guangxi provinces, new crops were introduced, and irrigation systems were improved. The mountainous areas in so…
Since 1949
Since 1949 China’s political leaders have tried a variety of large-scale social experiments to boost agricultural production. First, a massive land reform program eliminated landlords and gave land to those who farmed it. Next, farm families were progressively organized into cooperatives, collectives, and finally people’s communes. After more than twenty-five years of experience with communes, officials abolished these institutions, which had become too bureaucratic and rigid t…
Reform of the agricultural economy in the 1980s
In the late 1980s, China remained a predominantly agricultural country. As of 1985 about 63% [percent] of the population lived in rural areas, and nearly 63 percent of the national labor force was engaged in agriculture (see Migration in China). Modern technology had spread slowly in the vast farm areas, and the availability of modern supplies was less than adequate, causing growth in agricultural output to lag behind production increases in the rest of the economy. The proporti…
Resources endowment
Arable land in China was particularly scarce; little more than 10 percent of the total land area, most of it in the eastern third of the country, can be cultivated. This compares with more than 20 percent for the continental United States, which is around the same size as China, despite having one billion fewer people. Further agricultural expansion was relatively difficult because almost no land that could be profitably cultivated remained unused and because, despite intensive cultivati…
Agricultural policies
Agricultural policy has gone through three broad phases: the 1950s, when agriculture was collectivized, ending with the Great Leap Forward (1958–60); the period from 1961 to the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, when more agricultural progress came to depend on the supply of capital and modern inputs; and the period under the post-Mao leadership, which has been characterized by greater reliance on markets, prices, and incentives to boost production and to diversify output. (…
Planning and organization
The state’s role in the mid-1980s was chiefly to plan production and manage resources. Among state institutions at the national level, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, and Fishery was primarily responsible for coordinating agricultural programs. Other central bodies of importance in agricultural policy matters included the State Economic Commission; the State Planning Commission; the ministries of commerce, forestry, and the chemical industry; the State …
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 lea…
Overview
China primarily produces rice, wheat, potatoes, tomato, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, cotton, oilseed, corn and soybeans.
History
The development of farming over the course of China’s history has played a key role in supporting the growth of what is now the largest population in the world.
Analysis of stone tools by Professor Liu Li and others has shown that hunter-gatherers 23,000–19,500 years ago ground wild plants with the same tools that would later be used for millet and rice.
Major agricultural products
Although China’s agricultural output is the largest in the world, only 10% of its total land area can be cultivated. China’s arable land, which represents 10% of the total arable land in the world, supports over 20% of the world’s population. Of this approximately 1.4 million square kilometers of arable land, only about 1.2% (116,580 square kilometers) permanently supports crops and 525,800 square …
Production
In its first fifty years, the People’s Republic of China greatly increased agricultural production through organizational and technological improvements.
However, since 2000 the depletion of China’s main aquifers has led to an overall decrease in grain production, turning China into a net importer. The trend of Chinese dependence on imported food is expected to accelerate as the water shortage worsens. Despite their potential, desalination pla…
Challenges
Despite rapid growth in output, the Chinese agricultural sector still faces several challenges. Farmers in several provinces, such as Shandong, Zhejiang, Anhui, Liaoning, and Xinjiang often have a hard time selling their agricultural products to customers due to a lack of information about current conditions.
Between the producing farmer in the countryside and the end-consumer in the …
International trade
China is the world’s largest importer of soybeans and other food crops, and is expected to become the top importer of farm products within the next decade. In a speech in September 2020, CCP leader Xi Jinping lamented the country’s reliance on imported seed.
While most years China’s agricultural production is sufficient to feed the count…
See also
• History of China
• History of agriculture
• Population history of China
• History of canals in China
• Lettuce production in China
Further reading
• Chai, Joseph C. H. An economic history of modern China (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011).
• Perkins, Dwight H. Agricultural development in China, 1368-1968 (1969). pmline
• The Dragon and the Elephant: Agricultural and Rural Reforms in China and India Edited by Ashok Gulati and Shenggen Fan (2007), Johns Hopkins University Press