The Study Of Shaanxi Grain Problem(1937--1945)

Grain is one of the most important strategic supply,whose production has always been affected by natural environment,social political ecosystem,market circulation and so on.The grain production in Shaanxi Province generally was not enough and famine was severe in lands in parts of the province.When the Anti-Japanese War broke out,a huge number of army gathered in Shaanxi Province,what was worse,lots of refugee crowded into Shaanxi Province too.All these factors deepened the crises of grain shortage.Facing by how to produce more grain,how to control more grain,the government of Shaanxi Province strengthened the grain management policy and established Grain Management Bureau,Grain Administration Bureau and Land Tax And Grain Management Department to control grain gradually.In order to increase grain supply,the government of Shaanxi Province launched a large-scale movement to increase the production,for instance,to reclaim land,make full use of land to increasing the grain plantation area,improve crop variety,add fertilizer,build water conservancy projects,eliminate diseases and insect pests in order to improve the grain production,reduce unnecessary crops planting(like banning the plantation of poppy and boycott of flue-cured tobacco promotion).From the boycott of the flue-cured tobacco promotion,we could see dilemma between raising revenue and improving people's livelihood.During this period,the government used its administrative power to intervene in every link of the grain production.Obviously the movement made significant achievement and guaranteed the supply of army provisions.Meanwhile,we should not ignore some adverse effects that large scale of reclaiming land caused decrease of woodland,grassland,vegetation coverage,and soil erosion,causing bad effect on the local ecological environment.In the early stage of Anti-Japanese War,the main reason of the grain control failure is that the government got no grain in hand.Therefore,the government of Shaanxi Province introduced the policy of using grain to pay land tax,which made the government control large number of grain.After the government got grain,they improved the system of storage and transportation.But the shortage of warehouses and the high cost of transportation caused grain loss,besides that gave a lot of financial burden to the local government.During the process collecting of grain,different social strata like farmers,landowners,merchants etc would be responsible for different quota,causing conflict.During Anti-Japanese War,our country set a full system for grain management and opened a door to the modern management system.In order to got used to the special condition during war period,Shaanxi Province established the mechanism of increasing grain production,collecting,storage,transportation etc.Through launching grain increasing movement,introducing the policy of using grain to pay land tax and so on,all these ways guaranteed the grain supply and made great contribution to win the Anti-Japanese War.Achievement is obvious.But the modernization of grain management is a systematic evolution process which needs cooperation from other system in order to function efficiently.During the Anti-Japanese War,the special time we got special system which is set up in haste,so there were lots to be improved.What was worse,the grain management system during the wartime had lots of disadvantages exacerbating the differentiation of different social strata,making the national government loss its authority and in some extent foreshadowing the postwar political direction.