Crossing the"Yangtze River" in A Year Of Severe Drought

Abstract

Upon entering Luan-ch'eng hsien in Hopei, the first thing that catches one's eye from the walls of large and small villages are the big character posters saying,"One who cannot reach the Great Wall is no hero; we vow to turn Luan-ch'eng into a fertile land like that south of Yangtze." This is the call to battle of the people of Luan-ch'eng to learn from Tachai and catch up with Hsi-yang. In 1972 Luan-ch'eng hsien suffered from a very severe drought. The Luan-ch'eng hsien CCP committee led the people of the whole hsien to turn this slogan into a reality through self-reliance and arduous struggle. On the basis of big-margin increases in successive years, the yield of food grains crossed the"Yangtze." The average per-mou yield increased from 701 catties in 1971 to 902 catties. Total yield increased from 210 million-odd catties of the previous year to 270 million-odd catties. Good harvests were reaped from 130,000 mou of cotton. And substantial development in forestry, livestock, and sideline production was achieved.