A Study On The Governor’s Leading Group Of Increasing Grain Yield In Sichuan Province During The Anti-Japanese War(1941-1945)

After comprehensively breaking out of the Anti-Japanese war,the Middle East of China was occupied on a large scale by the Japan,which led to a sharp reduction of arable land and grain yields in the jurisdiction controlled by the Nationalist Party.In this context,the rear area of the Anti-Japanese war had to undertake the responsibility of food supply.Sichuan was one of the most important provinces.However,due to the rapid population growth,the proliferation of fiat currencies,the reduction of labor,and the failure of the Nationalist Party ’s "free trade" food policy to adjust in a timely manner and other factors,These led to emerge the contradiction between supply and demand in grain market,and sharply rose of the grain price in Sichuan in 1940.In order to increase grain yields,the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry established the Increase Grain Yeild Committee in February 1941 as a temporary agency to manage the movement of increaseing grain yield in the rear area of the Anti-Japanese war.Following the requirements of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry,the Increase Grain Yield Committee of Sichuan was established in April 1941,which was reorganized into the Governor’s Leading Group of Increaesing Grain yield in Sichuan Province in 1942.The reorganization of it expanded the scope of supervision,improved the organizational procedures,and promoted the itinerant supervision systems to make the supervision work more effective.It worked closely with the Agricultural Improvement Institute of Sichuan,the Administration Commission for Increasing Grain Yield of Special Funds of Sichuan,Food Bureau of Sichuan and other departments.The ways of increasing arable land were consisted of limiting the arable land of unnecessary grain crops,reclaiming wasteland,using open land and popularizing winter farming systems.The grain yield of per unit area can be increased by popularizing the fine breed,enhancing soil capacity,preventing diseases and insect pests,and expaning of irrigation and water conservancy projects.The problem of labor shortage can be alleviated by supplementing cows and encouraging women and children take part in agricultural activities.The reduction waste of food was by means of limiting the degree of milling.On the one hand,the measures of the governor’s leading group of increasing grain yield in Sichuan Province have achieved remarkable achievements and made a great contribution to army and civilian in wartime.On the other hand,there were also many difficulties in the process of implementation,such as the too wide supervision area,the lack of supervisors,the poor cooperation of relevant departments at the grass-roots level,the lack of funds,the low level of farmers’ culture,the limited promotion of technology,the poor support of finance in rural and so on.Because the agricultural technology in Sichuan did not improve remarkablely,and the grain yield of per unit area did not increase significantly in wartime.The increase of grain yield was mainly achieved by expanding the area of cultivation land.In conclusion,the way of increase grain yield by expanding the area of the arable land made great contributions to the work of increase grain in Sichuan in wartime.The spirit of selfless and industrious of Sichuan farmers is still worth inherited and developed.But to realize the sustainable development of modern agriculture,we should vigorously develop agricultural science and technology,improve the knowledge level of farmers,then improve the grain yield of per unit area,perfect the agricultural ecology environment,and improve grain quality.