Stanley recently returned to China to work. As the grandson of the agricultural veteran Shi Qinjie, Stanley's starting point in politics was a clerk of the Ministry of Agriculture. After working for some years, he took the initiative to apply for a job in New Huaxia Island. He did not do well in his tenure, at least he made the agricultural work in his jurisdiction (Shangdang County) exciting. Not only did the farmland reclamation area increase significantly, but the yield per mu has also increased to a certain extent, and he was praised by his superiors.

After the county magistrate's term expired, Stanley had no further opportunity and returned to the local area to serve as deputy director of the Hexi Regional Branch of the State Administration of Development, focusing on increasing farmers' income.

To be honest, being responsible for agriculture is definitely a thankless job on the East Coast today. Now that the East Coast is developing greatly, the government and social funds are inflowing in large quantities, all sub-industries are showing a thriving scene, the actual income of the working class has increased significantly, and the sense of happiness has increased greatly.

In comparison, the life of the peasant class who once had an income in the country was very difficult. After decades of loss, they have now clearly widened the living standards of the working class. The backward medical conditions, educational conditions, relatively few commodity choices, pitifully few entertainment activities, etc. All of this made them complain. Of course, more importantly, the money they actually got was much less, which was even more unbearable!

If the first generation of farmers can still endure it, then when their descendants grow up and see the prosperity of the city, it will be really difficult to return to the relatively closed, boring and monotonous rural life. Perhaps some people will continue to live in rural life with the insistence of their parents, but there are always people who are unwilling to continue to suffer in the countryside and turn to the city to find a job to rent a house in the old city. This is the only thing that can prevent these rural youth from entering the city. Perhaps it is whether they can find a job that can support them in the city. This is the key to the problem.

In fact, according to the logic of a normal government, when industry is developing greatly, farmers should be encouraged to enter the city to obtain sufficient labor sources, just like the land enclosure movement in the UK is in full swing. However, the East Coast government is really not a normal government. The East Coast has special national conditions, and there are large areas of uninhabited virgin land in the country that need to be developed. The government is also very willing to develop these areas and then use one settlement after another to actually control them. For this reason, they allocate astronomical funds from the national finance every year for resettlement of immigrants, the construction of new settlements, etc.

Considering that the newly controlled land is deserted and has no foundation, the best way is to open up agriculture, that is, to absorb and resettle past immigrants through agriculture, to find employment, and then manage these land bit by bit, slowly becoming prosperous and prosperous. It can be said that most areas of the East Coast have come here today, even some so-called economically developed areas, which were also grasslands, forests and swamps decades ago. Their current achievements were obtained through the hard struggle of generations, rather than existed from the beginning.

So, you can understand now why many policies of the East Coast government look schizophrenia. That is, they need to develop industry and commerce, make agriculture a foil, and be exploited by industry and commerce, and on the other hand, they have to try their best to increase farmers' income. They have given many policies, institutional and financial support. The national finance also allocates funds every year to help them improve water conservancy and irrigation. Rural roads and other infrastructure are not like a major oriental country in the later generations. Not much allocation of rural water conservancy for 30 years is completely contrary to the spirit of developing industry and commerce. After all, the East Coast industry is not strong enough to greatly feed back agriculture!

To be honest, the Hexi area where Stanley works now is no longer a wild place. Although the land reclamation here is still in progress, some towns have been built one after another, and a few young industries have also sprouted, which is much stronger than those areas with nothing deep in the Pampa Plain.

Stanley is also a practical man, not a bureaucrat who likes to sit in the office and listen to reports from his subordinates. He prefers to go to the countryside to see what local grassroots officials and even farmers say. Today is April 2, 1694, the second week after taking office, and he couldn't sit still in his office in Hexi County, so he took his secretary and several department officials to visit the rural areas in the suburbs.

"Markened beef is still the most mainstream meat product on the market, with total sales exceeding the sum of mutton, pork, ostrich meat and horse meat. However, breeding pigs and ostrich is still profitable, and farmers are working in this direction. Now road, railway and water transportation are quite developed. On the well-organized transportation routes, the transportation costs of all food have been greatly reduced. There is actually not much difference between inter-county transportation and cross-regional transportation. Moreover, with the mass production of refrigerants such as ethyl ether, the long-distance transportation costs of frozen meat are gradually reduced. Of course, this requires additional costs, and cured meat is still the mainstream." The secretary followed Stanley and explained to him softly.

"Raising pigs, ostrichs, rabbits, crocodiles, etc. now seems to be a way to increase income. If it is proven to be effective in the long run, it is worth promoting throughout the region. Of course, this requires coordination with the regional administration and county government. The issue of farmers' income growth should not be worrying about our development. As parents, they should have greater efforts." Stanley held a pipe in his right hand, swaying with all his might, and said, "By the way, the soil in Hexi County is relatively fertile, and it will not be bad whether it is planting grains or grass harvest. But in the inland areas to the west, it is probably not that simple, right?"

"Yes, Director, you are so keen." The secretary said: "In fact, corn is more planted in the inland areas than inland areas. The grasslands there are also large, so they provide great support for the livestock industry. As far as I have found out, farmers in the inland areas generally shepherd more cows. They obtain fresh milk from the cows, and then process them into various colors of cheeses to sell them out for profit."

"Can it be sold? Is the impact of market fluctuations great? I remember that our country has no protection for dairy products, and this is a completely highly market-oriented commodity." Stanley keenly grasped the key and asked.

"Generally speaking, there is no big problem." The secretary explained: "If fresh milk is more likely to be affected by transportation and market fluctuations, then cheese, milk powder and other commodities that can be stored for longer periods will be much less affected in this regard. Moreover, for the self-employed farmers and small rural workshops who make cheese, there are short-term price fluctuations, but in the long run any force that drives prices to fall will be offset by the growing consumption demand of urban residents, the population is growing, and consumption is also growing."

"Yeah." Stanley nodded and asked randomly, "How is the potato market?"

"It's OK," the secretary replied: "In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, potatoes were once used as staple food, but today in the 1990s, this crop was increasingly regarded as a vegetable. Potato stewed beef is a favorite dish for most urban residents. In addition, many other potato dishes have been developed one after another. Overall, the market demand is still very large, as long as the transportation cost can be reduced. In addition, derivative foods such as chips, potato chips, potato vermicelli are becoming more and more popular among urban residents. The total market volume is expanding year by year. These are good news for farmers who grow potatoes."

"It seems that the improvement of rural transportation conditions is an important factor in promoting farmers' income growth. When the road is good, the freight will be lower, the agricultural products can be sold further, and the prices will be more acceptable. Well, it seems that we have to bear greater responsibility for building rural roads and water transport terminals. After all, a lot of these infrastructure funds are in our hands." Stanley instructed the secretary to draw this post and then run along the countryside dirt road.

There are large grasslands on both sides of the road, and some cows are wandering around, leisurely chewing the tender grass. Stanley looked at it and suddenly turned around and asked, "What should we do if the livestock gets sick?"

"This can only be relied on animal husbandry stations in each township, where there is a full-time veterinarian. Generally speaking, livestock epidemics mainly rely on prevention, that is, cull them immediately when they find out that there is something wrong, and at the same time, the import of foreign livestock should be minimized, or even if it is imported, it must go through strict quarantine procedures." The secretary replied quickly: "Of course, in order to protect the interests of farmers, local governments still encourage them to take insurance in the name of cooperatives. This is the best solution, although many farmers refuse to join this system because they are reluctant to give up insurance premiums."

Stanley nodded and continued to walk forward. Now they have reached the farmland area where a large amount of wheat is planted. Stanley went deep into the farmland along the ridges. After careful observation for a long time, he sighed: "These wheat fields are actually not well-maintained, as if they have only carried out simple farming and field management. Is it really a burden for our country's farmers?"

The secretary was not very good at answering this question. After thinking about it, he said: "Maybe the farmers think that it is not worth it to spend too much energy and physical strength on cereal cultivation. However, this is a wheat planting area. In fact, farmers are still very worried in the fields where oats are grown. Although the oat yield is not high enough, the market price is high enough, and farmers are more motivated to take care of this crop."

"Yes, everything is economically oriented." Stanley smiled self-deprecatingly and said, "Actually I don't need to be so surprised. Isn't our purpose just to increase farmers' income? They have chosen crops that are most economically valuable to them, and we have no idea. Anyway, there is an oversupply of grain in China and we can't finish eating. Potatoes, alfalfa, oats, vegetables, sesame, peanuts, and beans are their favorites."

In fact, as Stanley saw, the eastern rural areas are undergoing very profound changes. Even in semi-baked places like Hexi, the cultivation of rural crops near the county towns is undergoing tremendous changes. Wheat and rice vegetation is abandoned in large quantities, and even the hard-harvest root crops are gradually declining because farmers are not sure whether they can hire enough non-national laborers to help during the harvest season. Instead, they are vegetable planting, nursery gardening and characteristic breeding, as well as rural handicrafts derived from this, such as cheese making, shoe boots (using livestock leather as raw materials), etc. These business activities can provide them with more income and make their labor more valuable. Therefore, the wheat and rice fields are not well cared for, and even the sowing area is reduced, which is understandable.

No wonder local governments complain that the land finance cannot be maintained anymore, and farmers are not very enthusiastic about purchasing land, so they really don’t need so much land. So what if the land grows grass? Anyway, it is commons that can still be used for grazing and without paying taxes. This is a great thing for farmers. Nowadays, basically, only the East immigrants and non-national labor workers who have become regular workers have a strong tendency to purchase land. They have always rented other people’s land in the old continent and suffered a lot. Therefore, they have a desire and obsession for land in their hearts. A considerable part of the land sales income of local governments comes from them.

Therefore, immigrants cannot be stopped! After all, second-generation people born in their country are not very enthusiastic about purchasing land!

After wandering around the rural areas in the suburbs for three days, Stanley returned to the county town with his entourage. He has now deeply realized that unlike the more precious situation of food in New China, the local area with a large amount of grain surplus is another situation. It must be planned and arranged reasonably so that farmers can better increase their income, so as to keep them in the countryside as much as possible, so as not to cause large-scale destruction of the countryside, and the already controlled land will once again become a paradise for wildlife and indigenous people.

Stanley tried to analyze it and felt that in a rapidly developing industrial country like the East Coast, if it wants to safeguard the interests of the peasant class to a certain extent, it is generally necessary to do the following: First, encourage the expansion of cooperatives, develop intensive agriculture, reduce farmers' operating costs, and enhance their bargaining power; Second, guide farmers to plant marketable goods, and provide them with good varieties and planting guidance to ensure that they obtain stable harvests; Third, strengthen the construction of infrastructure such as highways and docks, reduce the transportation costs of agricultural products, and expand the market scope of their radiation; Fourth, do a good job in preventing and controlling livestock epidemics, and develop rural handicrafts with livestock as raw materials, such as milk.

5. Production of high-quality agricultural tools and agricultural machinery at low cost to improve farmers' production efficiency and reduce costs; 6. Promote new agricultural technologies, such as the growing of greenhouse vegetables and fruits that are currently popular in a small range; 7. Encourage the development of rural forestry, fishery, stone processing, etc., so that farmers can work nearby, which will help them obtain stable cash income; 8. Strengthen rural financial services, continue to provide low-interest or even interest-free loans, and encourage farmers to carry out diversified operations; 9. Increase import tariffs on foreign agricultural products and block them as much as possible; 10. Implement tax cuts on farmers.

Stanley believes that if these ten items can be well implemented, the rural areas on the east coast can still continue. Even in a country where industries are booming and have a strangling effect on the rural areas, these ten policies can play a considerable role!
Chapter completed!