Study On The Agricultural Scientific Progress In Chinese Cultural Revolution

The Great Cultural Revolution is a special historical period in China. It is generally believed that, Chinese agricultural science and technology had been in a stagnant or even retrogressive state during that time. But, is that really true? This thesis attempts to focus on the scientific progress of several main crops (paddy rice, corn, wheat, soybean) during the Great Cultural Revolution. With the theory and methods of technical philosophy, it makes a survey study on the innovation of agricultural science and technology in order to provide enlightenments for the future agricultural science and technology.From the perspective of agricultural production, during the Cultural Revolution, it can be easily found that modern agricultural science and technology had been widely adopted in agricultural production. For example, the breeds of several Chinese main crops had been renewed; major progress had been made in planting technology and cultivation system; great changes had been taken in the number and type of fertilizers and pesticides; great achievement had been made in mechanization. Especially, this period witnessed great increase of the average output of per unit of area, which is the prominent manifest of the agricultural technological progress.From the perspective of agricultural scientific research, it can be also found that this period had still witnessed the major breakthrough of agricultural research both in theory and practice. In the theoretical field, great achievement had been achieved in the researches on planting, cultivation, the fertility of soil and the rules of breakout o major insect pests. In the practical research, many new crops had been bred; the technique of cultivation had been improved; many new skills had been adopted to improve the soil. A great number of advanced technologies had got awards in the scientific convention in 1978.During the Cultural Revolution, the important technological progress had been made in both agricultural production and scientific research. The reasons are as follows. First, China had such a huge demand of food supplies that the government still paid a special attention to the agricultural production even in the turbulent period of the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese situation required that China had to improve the technological level in agricultural production in order to enhance the productivity of soil. Therefore, during this period, the central government still thought highly of the agricultural science and technology. It increased the investment in agriculture and emphasized the application of scientific research to agricultural production. It attached great importance to the scientific experiments and the function of the farmers. All these boosted the progress of agricultural science and technology during the Cultural Revolution.Although the institutions which are responsible for spreading the agricultural science and technology had been damaged during this period, the researchers and these institutions were generally stable in the municipal and provincial level. The four-level system of agricultural science and technology had been established in the prefectural level. This system had provided a favorable foundation in which agricultural scientific and technological research could be carried out and the results of it could be applied to the agricultural production. During the turbulent age, although some intellectuals had been persecuted, most researchers, including those persecuted ones, still persisted in the agricultural science and technology in the difficult condition. A great number of cadres and farmers had special enthusiasm for the agricultural scientific experiments. The planned economy also played a positive role in the agricultural scientific and technological work-Hence, the present thesis thinks that the agricultural science and technology have not stagnated or retrogressed but made a great progress. This progress mainly attributes to the thoughts, system and polices of science and technology and the functions of the mass researchers and farmers.