Noel Dube 12R The Reform of Agriculture Land reform was a policy introduced to go along with Maos industrialization plans Not enough people working in urban areas N ot enough food being produced to feed people working in urban areas ID: 542962
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Slide1
How Successful were Mao’s Agricultural policies?
Noel Dube 12RSlide2
The Reform of Agriculture
Land reform was a policy introduced to go along with Mao’s industrialization plans
Not enough people working in
urban areas
N
ot enough food being produced to feed people working in urban areas
Peasants blamed for eating the food
“Educate peasants to eat less, and have more thin gruel. The state should try it’s hardest to prevent peasants eating too much
”
Peasants were put into collective farms-communesSlide3
Collectivization 1949-1956
After the 1949 revolution and overthrowing of the landlords, the government began taking land backPeasants had to pool their resources and form farm collectives
Collective principles were gradually forcibly extendedSlide4
Collectivization During the Great Leap Forward
agricultural land was divided into
70,000
communes
each commune had about
750,000
brigades
each brigade had
200
households
the whole system wa
s
under PRC control
(farming methods, pricing, sale & distribution)
private farms
no longer existed
peasants needed a passport to move from one commune to anotherSlide5
Mao’s agricultural Policies
“Lysenkoism”“the voice of scientific truth”
He developed techniques that would result in yields 16 times better than using traditional methods
Mao’s 8 point agricultural constitution based on Lysenko’s theories
Popularization of new breeds of seeds
Close planting
Deep ploughing
Increased fertilization
Improved field management
Pest control
Increased irrigationSlide6
Effects of Mao’s agricultural Policies
The Great Famine:
Life had been disturbed too much by collectivization, famine couldn’t be prevented
Forced labor camps had to be expanded to take in the starving peasants who fell afoul of the authorities
Hundreds of thousands (possibly millions) starved to death in these camps)
50 million people died throughout China
Cases of cannibalism, slavery in exchange of food, and prostitution were commonSlide7
1 mill.
1 mill.
9 mill.
7.5 mill.
8 mill.
7.8 mill.
Provinces with the highest death tollsSlide8
Conspiracy of Silence
Party cadres reported back to Beijing that production targets were being metIn turn the government would take the reported quantitiesOfficials ignored the starvation and poverty
Party members too worried to speak out against Mao’s policies
Lushan
Conference 1959
Peng
Dehuai
spoke about his first hand experience with the famine
“I saw my people lying dead and dying in the field and by the roadside”
He was
putsched
and brought out Mao’s anger, leading all other party members to be too scared to imply that the Great Leap Forward was a failure,Slide9
Reversing the Damage
Lui & Deng, in the absence of Mao, reinitiated private farming, and opened the marketsGave the peasants incentive to produce surplus stocks
This essentially represented the unspoken failure of the commune systemSlide10
Was it Mao’s Fault?
Ultimately-yes, without any doubt.He refused to acknowledge the disaster as result of his policies of collectivization and applied socialist science, instead coming up with 3 main reasons
Bad weather
Peasants hoarded grain
M
istakes of local officials due to incompetence and misunderstanding/miscommunication
Mao’s pursuit of his instructions regarding the collectivization of the peasants, and his mistaken notions of science that lead to the death of millions.
Mao felt his reputation had been hurt so he retreated from public view, leaving the crisis in the hands of Liu and Deng.Slide11
Impact of the Great Famine
“arc of misery”
Social disruption
Causes
Collectivization
Lysenkoism
Bad Weather
Deliberate Policy
Why was it so severe?
Disorientation of the peasants
Refusal of officials to admit scale of hunger
A conspiracy of silence
Lushan
conference suppressed the truth
Mao’s refusal to face
facts
Deliberate genocide