Communication And The Evolution Of Modern Agriculture In Guangxi Province

Agriculture is a fundamental sector of the national economy. Historically speaking, China was a typical agriculture-based society. Owing to the long-lasting of feudality, traditional agricultural economy used to stay in a state of self-circulation and self-development. Besides, peasants had little contact with the community outside of their own. As a result, traditional agricultural economy adopted backward and invariable planting methods hence production techniques stagnated or changed little. For productivity and communication are two significant factors that influence the whole process of the development of human society ,however, affected by traditional historical views and researching methods, scholars often lay focus on production relations while neglecting productivity and communication when they are conducting studies on the development of social economy. Therefore, this thesis takes productivity as its starting point though traditional agricultural economy was not prominent in its development of productivity. By synthesising rich historical literature and taking the theory on communication, this paper discusses the impacts of communication upon the development of agriculture in Guangxi region with the adoption of critical methods of induction, reasoning, comparison and calculation. From the discussion on communication, the change of agricultural techniques and the diversity of development deriving form the change of techniques in Guangxi in modern times, we hold that communication is the fundamental factors that promote the change and development of agricultural economy in Guangxi in modern times. The strategy of "great exploitation of the West" by the central government offers Guangxi an unprecedented opportunity for communication. Consequently, to exhabit the morden argriculture in Guangxi and to sumarize the historical experiences for breaking the self-contained situation in the southwest area of China are of great significance. It inspires us to make the best of this communication opportunity to realize the shift of agricultural economy.This thesis consists of four parts, which demonstrate from different perspectives the role of communication in the development of modern agriculture in Guangxi province.Part one analyzes the role of communication in the development of productivity in modern agriculture in Guangxi province by exploring from the following six aspects: the introduction of new crop seeds, the use of fertilizers, the development of irrigation systems, the change of tools, the improvement of farming methods and the evolution of cropping systems. With detailed and accurate data, this part reappears on the whole the actual situation in history and accesses in an all-round and objective manner the then productivity and regional diversity. Many viewpoints in this part help to answer some controversial questions in the study on this subject.Part two, taking as its starting point from the influence of migration, governmental action and market power, makes a more comprehensive study on the role of communication. In this part, migration, governmental action and market power are regarded as the motive force for the development and exchange of agricultural technology, in which the differentroles of three factors are fully displayed. Under the condition of low productivity, migration is an important force to break self-contained situation, while government plays a unique role in creating an atmosphere for communication and spreading culture. Market power, however, working to attaract people from different places, is the most distinctive factor that stimulates the development of agricultural technology.Part three, three indexes closely related to agriculture and communication, population density, the change of towns and cities, and land exploitation are applied. In the process of communication, the regional diversity in agriculture in Guangxi is exhibited from the changing law of these indexes. This research is the first to apply the three indexes to study the agricultural developmen...