During The Period Of The Republic Of China In Anhui Province,Locust Plague

In a traditional society where the country was founded on the basis of agriculture,the overall ability to withstand natural disasters was relatively weak,limited by the low productivity.In the Republican period,Anhui suffered a great deal from various natural disasters,including floods,droughts and locust plague.In particular,locust plague,which was easily ignored,greatly hindered the economic and social development in Anhui area,causing farmers live in increasing poverty.During this period,Anhui was in a turbulent situation with continuous wars.Government mainly focused on politics and military affairs.In terms of providing relief,the relief allocated to locust elimination was very limited.Being around all year long,the locusts caused considerable economic loss.This paper mainly explores the basic situation,key features,causes,prevention and elimination measures of the locust plague and significant impact in Anhui area during the Republican period,each of which has been expounded.The first part focuses on the basic situation of the locust plague in Anhui area during the Republican period.The overall condition of the locust plague is grasped from its time and space distribution.Combining with flood,drought and other natural disasters,the paper studies the key characteristics of the locust plague.In this thesis,there are mainly three key features of the locust plague in Anhui during the Republican period,namely,multitude,-concurrency and seasonality.The second part mainly describes the natural and social causes of the outbreak of the locust plague during the Republican period.The natural causes are analyzed from climate,topography and hydrology.And the correlation among temperature,droughts,floods and locust plagues is also studied.The social causes are analyzed from the corrupt administration,continuous wars among warlords,unreasonable production mode and the disconnection between government and farmers.The locust plague is the result of both natural and social factors,especially the disconnection between government and farmers which led to the ineffective prevention and control,intensifying the locust plague.Under the circumstances,it is essential to build up necessary locust-eliminating mechanism and organize farmers to participate in locust elimination.The third part discusses the prevention and elimination of the locust plague in Anhui during the Republican period.The government worked on locust elimination from organization,promotion,funding and reward and punishment.During this period,it attached importance to perfect the law system and the plague statistics and research,gradually set up the locust-elimination council and other organizations,incorporated officials' performance in locust elimination into their evaluation,and aroused farmers'enthusiasm by means of reward and punishment,letting the government lead and the farmers play the subjective role.During locust elimination,the government changed its methods at the right time,guided farmers to participate in locust catch with rewards,work relief and other means.Farmers became positive in locust elimination.With joint effort,the locust elimination work achieved ideal effect.In terms of locust elimination method and technology,the traditional manual methods were adopted to eliminate locust eggs,locust nymphs and migratory locusts in stages.In addition,people began trying the new way of locust elimination with pesticides.With machines,drugs and other new methods,locust elimination made a breakthrough in both efficiency and effect,especially the outstanding achievement in the 1940s.The constant development of locust elimination techniques is closely related to the popularization of locust elimination knowledge,the deepening publicity and the effort of locust elimination personnel.In general,during this period,the government and farmers began to pay attention to the prevention before the plague arose,the active elimination during the plague and the summing up after the plague.The locust elimination idea grew more mature.Certainly,there were also problems.The lack of fund seriously limited the elimination progress.The inharmonious locust elimination organization,the scattered locust plague-stricken area,some officials and farmers'negativity in locust elimination and wars also influenced the locust elimination effect.The last part studies the significant impact of the locust plague on Anhui area,the most significant being the huge economic loss.The heavy agricultural loss led to the rising prices and a series of chain reaction,putting farmers' lives,production and villages' developmental belts in an unfavorable situation.The locust plague also caused the depression in industry,commerce and finance.Meanwhile,the locust plague brought epidemic diseases,increased wasteland,serious land reclamation and other social issues.These problems and the political,economic,cultural and social factors jointly influenced the modernization process of Anhui.Based on the above,the locust plague in Anhui area was more serious than other locust plague-stricken provinces during the Republican period and had the tendency of becoming even more severe.It had significant impact on Anhui's economic and social development.The government made some achievements in locust elimination.The locust elimination techniques also had certain breakthrough,which is of great advantage in future locust elimination.The locust plague in Anhui is an important part in the national locust plagues.Therefore,the research and summary of the locust plague in Anhui during the period can deepen our understanding of the locust plague in Anhui and even in the whole country during the Republican period.