Chapter 1693 - Excerpt from Rural Notes III
After visiting the farmers in the village, I felt that governance here remained too soft, with many policies not implemented in place. Old Huo enjoys good popularity in the village, but his authority is insufficient. Villagers universally describe him as "easy to talk to."
Having good popularity and being easy to talk to should technically be advantages. But in grassroots rural work, these traits instead become weaknesses. The fact that many policies failed to take hold in Tankou fully illustrates that the "governing consciousness" of grassroots cadres is insufficient. In policy execution, failure to implement and distortion of intent are universally existing problems.
I learned that Old Huo and most villagers came from several villages close to one another in Huang County, and quite a few people in the village are relatives or old acquaintances. These relationships cause "considering human feelings" and "feeling embarrassed because of being fellow villagers" to intrude into specific work. This is a problem requiring focus and overcoming in our education and training of grassroots cadres. Grassroots cadres should speak less of human feelings and more of principles. Especially in implementing policies, they should strive to be uncompromising.
During my tour, I discovered a relatively large-scale breeding farm at the village's edge, with "Heaven and Earth Society Intensive Pig Farm Project" painted on the wall. It occupied more than ten mu. However, it had not been put into use. A rusted lock barred the door. I asked Old Huo to open it, and stepping inside, I found the place overgrown with weeds and strewn with trash—not a single structure built. There was only a large pit said to have been prepared for a biogas digester, now filled with stagnant water.
Old Huo seemed to harbor some dissatisfaction himself. "The county told us to do this. The county allocated part of the funds first to 'set up the framework,' saying that would make it easier to secure Heaven and Earth Society projects. But the village's self-raised portion couldn't be fully collected. Our village is economically weak; asking everyone to contribute funds is too difficult. In the end, the whole thing fizzled out and was left here."
This abandoned project illustrates that the success rate of Heaven and Earth Society agricultural projects in previous years has not been high. Some projects were poorly managed and operated, leading to wasted investment and lost assets. I believe the reason some of our comrades had good intentions but failed to accomplish good deeds is mainly that two problems are often ignored. First: how can government investment projects be transformed into collective economic entities? Second: how can farmer cooperative economic organizations undertake government investment projects? I discussed with county comrades that we must find every means to "activate" these unsuccessful projects—to revive their function and generate benefits as far as possible.
In the afternoon, the sun grew hotter. Three or four people wearing straw sandals (local people typically go barefoot on ordinary days), red armbands, and bamboo hats walked in from outside the village. One was even a policeman. These turned out to be people from the township conducting a health and epidemic prevention inspection of the village. While we talked, one of them recognized me—it was the village head of Borang Village whom I had met before. This cadre had been temporarily drafted to participate in Longtang Town's township-wide inspection. He was very surprised to see me and turned to criticize Old Huo: "A Central Chief has come, and you didn't report it to the county?" Old Huo apologized repeatedly. I said, "Don't blame Old Huo—I forbade him from telling you."
Since the comrades in Longtang Town now knew I was here, I might as well go to the town government to conduct some research. The road from Tankou to Longtang Town is not far—only three kilometers—and we arrived after a short walk. The main cadres of the town had all gone to neighboring villages to do countryside work. What I was most concerned about was farmers' production and income. I found the cadre responsible for statistics in the town, reviewed some reports, and inquired about relevant situations.
To tell the truth, the town's statistical work is done poorly; reports are incomplete and filing is messy. This further reflects our current situation of severely insufficient qualified grassroots cadres.
I asked about statistical methods. The responsible comrade told me that statistics on immigrant village farmers' income mainly come from two channels: sampling surveys by the Rural Investigation Team and level-by-level reporting by villages and townships. On one hand, sampling scope is narrow and data coverage is poor. On the other hand, data reported by townships—and even counties and cities—are susceptible to human interference. For example, to launch high-yield "satellites" and strive for "Red Flag" recognition as advanced units, figures would be intentionally inflated.
This was expected. Regarding the problems in this area, the agricultural department is designing a new target assessment system focused on strengthening the policy orientation toward increasing farmers' income and striving to improve the accuracy of statistical data.
About an hour later, several main naturalized cadres of the town hurried back to the town office—obviously, colleagues in the town had passed along the news. This discounted my intention of "not disturbing officials."
I said to them, "Go quickly and get busy with your work. My purpose in staying in the village this time is to experience rural life personally—not to cause trouble for grassroots comrades, let alone to require your accompaniment." Several cadres still wanted to accompany me for dinner in town. I said, "If you truly want to accompany me, then come tonight to the villager symposium where we'll discuss the plan for doubling farmers' income. We'll dissect the 'Shandong Sparrow' of Tankou Village together."
My landlord for the night was also surnamed Huo. Dinner had slightly more "content" than lunch—besides rice and sweet potato meal, there was dried fish. Without anyone accompanying me, the farm meal tasted delicious no matter what.
At 6:30 in the evening, the symposium was held in the central room of the farming household where I lodged. The landlord had specially borrowed an Australian oil lamp from the village office, illuminating a room full of people. Though everyone was tired from the day's work, spirits ran high. Villagers spoke enthusiastically. They all reflected that coming south from Shandong was the great grace of the Senate, and they wanted to work hard to repay it.
Regarding how to develop the countryside, most said that the climate and soil in Shandong and Hainan are different, and they are not skilled at rice cultivation—they need support from the Heaven and Earth Society. But there are too few Heaven and Earth Society agricultural technicians, visiting not even once or twice a month. When crops encounter problems, they won't wait for people! Some villagers have developed blind faith in Heaven and Earth Society technology, wanting to ask the Society to help solve everything. Others reflected that summers here are too hot, with many mosquitoes, and many people suffer from malaria. Though the township health center provides free medicine, traveling to town to get it is troublesome—could health workers be sent for mobile treatment? Concerning the farmer mutual aid associations being promoted by the Heaven and Earth Society and the concept of intensive farming, villagers had numerous questions, both policy-related and economic.
I could roughly understand the local dialect spoken by the villagers. Their greatest concerns seemed to focus on two aspects. First: after the establishment of the Agricultural Association, does the land joined into the association still belong to them? Second: in intensive management, how is the harvest distribution calculated?
From these two points, it was clear that everyone was interested in increasing income through intensive management. Farming households in this village generally have low economic capacity. Though they have achieved "warmth and sufficiency," the level is relatively low, and the proportion of households using "vegetables as grain substitutes" is large. Their motivation to improve their situation is actually greater than in several model and advanced villages.
At the meeting, everyone discussed many issues related to improving production. Whether intensive management or sideline businesses, after much discussion, the hardest part always came back to lack of startup capital. Each family basically has no savings. Mosquitoes and insects were plentiful at night. I asked the guard to give each fellow villager a bottle of floral water, and they were very happy.
The symposium continued until past ten o'clock, with occasional arguments and occasional laughter. Village cadres and villagers formed a consensus on emphasizing production and promoting development. I promised to help Tankou Village coordinate the implementation of the water pump installation project and complete the supporting engineering for the Thousand Women Embankment as quickly as possible. The task of driving implementation of these two projects weighs heavily.
This was a fine sunny day.
At past four in the morning, the gong for going to work sounded in the village. We ate breakfast with the landlord: rice porridge and salted vegetables. After the meal, I paid two days' board according to regulations.
My stay in the village this time covered both a specific point and a broader surface. Just past eight in the morning, I departed Tankou and set off by boat along the river to conduct surface research on three other villages in Longtang Town. Near noon, I arrived at Meibao Village. Because the town mayor accompanied our research, lunch even included a small plate of "Heavenly Kitchen Pickles" produced in Lingao—probably purchased hastily from Qiongshan. This meal was not as comfortable as those in Tankou; with someone accompanying, even arranged meals changed flavor.
Six kilometers east of Meibao Village, I arrived at the area of the Tropical Crops Institute in the original timeline. From the Great Library's materials, I found and read some development documents about the Tropical Crops Institute and its Qingfeng Class, Team 6, Team 4, Team 1, and Reform Class.
Here, I unexpectedly encountered students from the Senate Communist Youth League Cadre Training Class. After speaking with the leading Senator Lin Ziqi, I learned they were conducting field inspections—an important course of the Senate Communist Youth League Cadre Training Class.
"Although the students are almost all children of peasant families, they rarely leave their own villages—some have never even been to the township seat," Lin Ziqi told me. "Such inspections help them broaden their horizons and expand their knowledge."
They had already inspected Qiongshan for a week. Their next destination was Wenchang, where they would compare the similarities and differences of the natural and social environments of the two places and prepare an inspection report.
Seeing these young boys and girls so full of thirst for knowledge, I felt deeply that our future rests upon them.
After bidding farewell to the students, I climbed Lingjiao Ridge and sketched the landscape of the Tropical Crops Institute area. When I finished, I came to a spring said to have been famous since the Song Dynasty. Women were washing clothes beside it. I asked, "Was the spring water larger in the past than now?"
They eagerly replied that when they were young, the spring water was much more abundant. When they were young—during the Wanli era—it never snowed on Hainan Island. But since the Tianqi era, winters have grown colder and colder, and it has actually snowed. The spring water has diminished too.
Standing by the spring, my sense of the extreme climate of the Little Ice Age at the end of the Ming Dynasty deepened. If Hainan can feel the extreme climate, how terrible must it be in the Nine Borders region? Thus I became more determined and confident in accelerating the development of modern agriculture and building a disaster prevention and relief system.
The sun was about to set. I bid farewell to the fellow villagers and took a boat back to Qiongshan along the Nandu River. This village stay of two days and one night was short in duration but great in harvest. Goodbye, Tankou! Goodbye, Longtang! I will come again in a few days, striving to help Tankou translate rural development into reality.
(End of Chapter)