Era: I was a farmer at the foot of Yaoling Mountain

Chapter 6 Production Cuts
[Owned Land] → [Farmland] → [Planting Area]

【Area: 10 square meters】

[Area Level: (Level 2, 0\50)]

[Regional attributes: drought resistance, flood resistance, disease and pest resistance, accelerated growth, increased production and income]

[Planting in this area increases all attributes by 20%]

【Points: 9】

"Let's go, Third Brother, to the meeting."

We were notified today that a meeting would be held in front of the team headquarters in the evening. After every household had dinner, men, women, and children rushed there.

Now the entire team doesn’t even have a radio, and there are no entertainment activities at all, so everyone is quite enthusiastic about attending meetings.

Fang Wei led the two little ones and followed his brother and sister-in-law, bringing their own benches, and slowly came to the threshing ground.

Soon, all the members arrived. The children were playing outside, and the team leader began to speak: "Today's meeting will begin. I will read the documents from the higher-ups first, and then we can discuss it."

This year's severe drought attracted the attention of the county, which issued a document requiring all communes, production brigades, and production teams to take active action to fight the drought and save themselves.

Fang Wei shook his head as he listened. There was too much official jargon and no practical solution. He couldn't just ask everyone to carry water to irrigate the fields, right?
Rice cultivation consumes a lot of water resources, and rivers are almost dry. How can we produce water to save ourselves?
There are only a few wells in the team, and we have to prioritize ensuring everyone's daily water supply, and then irrigate each family's private plots. That's the end of it.

"Captain, if it doesn't rain, how can we fight the drought and save ourselves? Why don't you talk to the county and ask them to drill a few more wells for us? That would be more realistic."

"Yes, our county has always been short of water. If a drought hits us, it will be fatal!"

"You can't say there's a water shortage. There's plenty of groundwater, and digging a well isn't easy."

Everyone was talking about it, but Zheng Xianfa listened for a long time but didn't hear any constructive opinions.

He clapped his hands and shouted:
"Quiet! Tomorrow I'll go to the brigade and the commune to ask if the county can send people to help us dig a few wells.

In addition, every household should try to store as much sweet potatoes, dried vegetables, etc. as possible."

Zheng Xianfa wanted to mobilize everyone to fetch water from a small river ten miles away, but the problem was that the river was almost dry, so this idea was not feasible.

Previous geological surveys conducted by technicians here revealed a shortage of surface water, long dry seasons in rivers, and high incidence of droughts in summer and autumn. However, groundwater resources are exceptionally abundant.

However, due to the influence of geological structure, digging wells is very difficult. In any case, it is impossible to dig deep wells with the county's technical conditions.

After Zheng Xianfa finished speaking, the production team accountant cleared his throat and began to introduce the summer harvest situation to everyone.

"During this year's summer harvest, the average yield of early rice was 136 kilograms per mu, a decrease from last year. Given the current situation, late rice production will certainly decrease as well, and may even fall short of the summer harvest."

The production team accountant was not exaggerating. The drought this year was getting worse and worse, and it would be strange if the autumn harvest was good.

The local natural conditions are poor, with many mountains and hills, and the rice yield per mu is at most 300-330 kilograms (the output of two seasons of rice combined).

Generally speaking, the yield of late rice is slightly higher than that of early rice, but this year the yield may be reversed.

After listening to the accountant's introduction, Fang Wei couldn't help but recall some knowledge in his mind.

After all, he studied at an agricultural university and had a certain understanding of the cultivation and development of grain crops in various places.

He didn't know the specific situation in the county or commune, but he had an impression of the basic agricultural data of the entire southern Hunan Province from the 50s to the 70s.

The current per-acre rice yield is so low. It was probably after 63 that the province began to promote the "early dwarf late japonica" rice on a large scale, especially the introduction of the rice variety [Nongken 58]. The per-acre yield of two-season rice finally exceeded 1973 jin in 1000.

This was a major event that caused a sensation at the time, and the textbooks even devoted a considerable amount of space to describing it.

Thinking of this, just as the accountant finished his speech, Fang Wei stood up and shouted, "Captain Zheng, can we introduce some improved rice varieties next year?"

"There's nothing good about the good breeds in this county! But your idea is good. You're worthy of being an educated person. I'll think of a solution later."

Zheng Xianfa was stunned for a moment. Is this the taciturn third son of Fang Ping's family?

He responded immediately, and his impression of Fang Wei improved. Although he only attended elementary school, he had considerable agricultural experience and understood that Fang Wei had made a good suggestion. In reality, seed reserves required careful screening each year, and seed breeding involved many complexities.

Zheng Xianfa read in the newspaper that the country had developed some improved rice varieties, but he couldn't get them, so it would be a waste of time to say more.

The reason I said this was also to avoid discouraging the enthusiasm of the third son of the Fang family.

Fang Wei curled his lips, said no more, stood up and carried a small stool to look for his nephew and niece.

The two little guys were now covered in sweat and dirt, with dirty faces, and he called them home to take a bath.

After Zheng Xianfa adjourned the meeting, he walked into the team headquarters. Turning around and seeing Liang Honggang, he smiled and said:

"Lao Liang, Fang Ping's third brother has changed a lot! He used to be just like his brother, stubborn and quiet, but now he seems much more cheerful."

"Isn't it? Ever since that kid failed the high school entrance exam, his personality has changed. I asked him if he often went up the mountain to catch rabbits. Guess what he said?"

When Liang Honggang heard the captain's question, he couldn't help laughing and deliberately kept the question in suspense.

"How did he say?"

Zheng Xianfa cooperated very well, otherwise it would have been boring.

"He said a lot of nonsense, which was as good as saying nothing, and it was hard to find any evidence against him."

Liang Honggang laughed and repeated Fang Wei's original words.

Zheng Xianfa nodded but did not comment.

It’s not a big deal to go to the mountains to get some wild game occasionally. As the team leader, he won’t care about these trivial matters.

"Lao Liang, I'm going to the commune and the county in the next two days. When I come back, I'll ask about the improved seeds."

Food was the most important thing right now. Working hard was one thing, but what could he do in the face of a natural disaster? His only hope was to seek help from the county.

Liang Honggang was nodding at first, but after hearing the latter part, his expression suddenly became serious: "Captain, do you want to go find that person? You'd better think about it carefully and don't let it cause trouble for yourself."

"Not really! I'm just going to ask about the planting. What can anyone do to me? Besides, the mistakes Professor Wu made a few years ago weren't serious. He was sent here for education. If he changes, he'll still be a good comrade."

Zheng Xianfa waved his hand disapprovingly, turned around and went home to rest.

Fang Wei didn't know that he almost got into big trouble because of his words. He lay on the bed and began to plan his future path.

Now that he has the "golden finger", he has a certain amount of capital even in the 60s. He can't just muddle through life all the time.

The hard times have lasted for about three years since last year, and the most urgent thing is to avoid going hungry.

Therefore, food is the foundation.

Next, Fang Wei needs to upgrade the levels of his private plots, hunting areas, and picking areas as soon as possible, expand the area, and stockpile more sweet potatoes, yams, dried vegetables, pickles, etc.

The team’s task of handing over grain this year is not easy. Imagine that in a poor county like this, we have to rely on “returned grain” in normal years, let alone in a disaster year?
"Resold grain" refers to the food rations, seeds and feed grains that the state sells back to agricultural production units in the same year in rural food-deficient areas (such as those caused by poor harvests due to natural disasters or poor and backward areas that are unable to achieve food self-sufficiency, or because the state has procured too much grain).

Today's rural production units can be summarized in one sentence: "Three-level management, team-based."

There were communes, production brigades, and production teams, and the production team was the smallest agricultural production unit.

"Alas, this year may be passable, but next year will be very difficult."

Due to the reduction in production, the food rations left after paying the public grain were far from enough, which required the "returned grain" to make up for it. But what if the "returned grain" could not arrive in time?

This is not Fang Wei's unfounded worry, it is something that is likely to happen.

He sighed, closed his eyes and fell asleep.

(End of this chapter)