West meets East
By: Elizabeth Anderson
Elizabeth Anderson
The following is the second in a series of reports that Elizabeth Anderson, a CoAg alumnae who is teaching in China, is sending that chronicle her experiences in China.
In this issue she offers an essay from one of her students, Yang Ning. She chose his essay from among 100 of her Chinese sophomore agriculture students because he knows the conditions faced by Chinese farmers and yet has a positive attitude about the progress made and for the future of agriculture here and in the world.
His message is especially powerful when you consider that, of the 1.3 billion people in China, approximately 750 million are farmers who tend small family farm tracts often less than an acre in size. Approximately 250 million of these farmers were elevated out of extreme poverty in the last 15 years due to governmental policies, but a significant portion remain below the poverty line, which is an international limit set at $1 per day. Some small industries have moved to villages to provide extra income. The government has policies in place to continue to upgrade agriculture and to slow the expanding gap between urban and rural incomes.
Development and Implications of Chinese Agriculture
My name is Yang Ning, of course, you can also call me by my English name, Albert! I'm a student of Northwest A&F University of Shaanxi Province, China. My hometown is in a poor village. My parents and all the people around me every day are almost all farmers. To develop Chinese agriculture, to change my hometown for the better, I chose this agricultural university on purpose.
As a farmer's son, I think I have more right to talk about the agriculture at present in China than someone else! As we all know, China is a country with the largest population, meanwhile; China is the largest developing country in the world. For those developing countries, agriculture is always the first productivity. Like any other country, agricultural problems are equal to the problems of development and survive or perish!
According to these, the Chinese government has already made more and more policies to change these bad conditions. With the government taking agriculture seriously, a tendency for wellness is emerging in Chinese agriculture. On the one hand, the Chinese government has already taken many measures to encourage the agricultural scientists and universities to do research to develop agriculture. On the other hand, as a replacement for neglecting agriculture years ago, the Chinese government pours all the energy and time into developing agriculture. There is a will, there is a way. Now, China is proud of the agriculture!
Taking my university for example, every year, many agricultural professors and experts are asked to solve the problems and confusions farmers met during their farming and cultivation. They teach them much about high-tech agriculture for free to let them do much better than before.
Yangling, in an Agricultural High-Tech Demonstration Area of China, is a beautiful and famous place, where the people are outstanding and clever, breeding tomorrow's great hopes, producing more and more new skills, new technologies and new experiences. Scientists here created many new seeds by biotechnology and genetic engineering. The most famous kind of seed is wheat. The High-Tech Agricultural Fair of Yangling is held annually. It is always so attractive and charming that many enterprises at home or abroad put their eyes on it and invest a large amount of money into it.
However, every coin has two sides. Because of the traditional thoughts of Chinese people, there exists the discrimination to the students and scientists or experts who learn or do research in agriculture. They often are looked down upon. It is hard for them to live or find jobs. And last, but not least, the agricultural pollution is a real problem in China these days.
As a student, I must try my best to contribute to society as much as possible. I hope for a no-starvation, no-pollution world. It's my dream. I hope you can make it with me!