The year 2006 saw the beginning of the drive to build a new socialist countryside in China, when its agriculture achieved great progress.

In 2006, the sown area of grain was 105.38 million hectares, an increase of 1.1 million hectares on an annual basis; that of cotton was 5.4 million hectares, an increase of 340,000 hectares; that of oil-bearing crops was 13.8 million hectares, a decline of 520,000 hectares; that of sugar crops was 1.78 million hectares, an increase of 220,000 hectares; and that of vegetables stood at 18.18 million hectares, an increase of 460,000 hectares.

Women in Guangchang County, Jiangxi Province, pick white lotus seeds in the harvest season.

The total output of grain in 2006 was 497.46 million tons, up 13.44 million tons or 2.8 percent over the previous year; that of cotton was 6.73 million tons, up 17.8 percent; that of oil-bearing crops was 30.62 million tons, down 0.5 percent; and that of sugar crops was 109.87 million tons, an increase of 16.2 percent.

Output of Major Farming Produce and the Growth Rates in 2006

The total output of meat in the year reached 81 million tons, up 4.6 percent. Of this total, the output of pork, beef and mutton gained 4.3 percent, 5.3 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively. The total output of aquatic products was 52.5 million tons, up 2.8 percent. The total production of timber in 2006 amounted to 78 million cubic meters, an increase of 40.3 percent over the previous year.

Over 1.08 million hectares of farmland was increased with effective irrigation systems and another additional 1.28 million hectares of farmland was covered by water-saving irrigation systems in 2006.

China scraped agricultural taxes as of January 1, 2006. This policy relieved burdens on farmers worth 126.5 billion yuan or 120 yuan per capita on average. To support agricultural development, the government invested 339.7 billion yuan in projects concerning agriculture, rural areas and farmers in the year.