It’s terrifying to think about!
Recently, “Banyuetan” revealed that some local agricultural experimental fields have fabricated yield data, with high-yield data chasing each other, and various “records” are constantly being refreshed. Today, the yield of rice per mu is 1200 kilograms, and tomorrow it can break through 1300 kilograms.
The methods of fraud are varied. The following is a quote from a previous report—
“When an agricultural enterprise in a certain place in North China was experimenting, it deliberately left a large spacing between rice plants during the sowing stage. A few days before the harvest, it secretly transplanted the same variety sown elsewhere into the experimental field, and the data naturally became more attractive. Some agricultural enterprises also hid the prepared rice in ditches, harvesters, or ground cloths, and secretly mixed it into the measured rice during the busy time on the spot. Banyuetan reporters learned that this kind of direct manipulation in the experimental field is not uncommon.”
More concealed cheating methods occur in the planting stage: it is said to be “sea rice”, but in fact, it is not restrained in using fresh water for irrigation; in order to pursue good-looking data, a large amount of chemical fertilizer and yield-increasing agents are invested in the experimental field, and many professional technicians are arranged to manage… “An income of two or three thousand per mu, a cost of five or six thousand, does this ultra-high yield have any significance for promotion?”
“Banyuetan” raised this question: Agricultural experiments are originally a rigorous scientific research method, where did the strange phenomenon of “breaking records once measured” arise?
In a daze, the absurd era of ten thousand catties per mu seems to have returned.
二
At this time, I easily thought of that famous photo, a little girl sitting on dense rice ears.
That was 1958, a crazy era in which common sense was distorted, and the whole country began to launch satellites. That photo was taken in a “satellite field” in Zongyang County, Anhui Province, which claimed a yield of 16,000 catties per mu. The rice that could support the little girl was actually transplanted from various places—the fraud methods exposed in “Banyuetan”, “secretly transplanting the same variety sown elsewhere into the experimental field”, are exactly the same.
The record of Zongyang, Anhui Province was soon broken. Not long after, the “No. 1 Field in the World” appeared in the Xijianyuan Commune of Macheng County, Hubei Province, with an early rice yield of 36,900 catties per mu. The report at that time wrote—
“The early rice production in Macheng County, Hubei Province has once again shone. According to the joint verification of the high-yield acceptance team of Hubei Province, Huanggang Prefecture, and Macheng County, the Jianguo No. 1 Agricultural Cooperative of the Muxi River Township in this county created an amazing record of an average yield of 36,956 catties of dry grain per mu in the early rice field sown with ‘Jiangxi Early’ seeds. As of now, this is the ‘champion’ among the large number of high-yield ‘satellites’ emitted in the great harvest of early rice in our country, which is more than twice as high as the early rice high-yield records successively created by the Gaofeng Agricultural Cooperative of Shima Township and the Second Agricultural Cooperative of Pingjing Township in this county.”
In coordination with such reports, another equally famous photo was also published, with four children jumping on dense rice ears, just like standing on a sofa. Obviously, it easily defeated the photo of the little girl sitting on the rice ears.
The power of example is infinite. It is said that the Huanjiang County Party Committee of Guangxi found that they were far behind their brother counties and cities, and they were very anxious, so they decided to “strive for the first in the whole district, the first in the country, and the first in the world”. Therefore, on September 12, 1958, the front page of the “Guangxi Daily” published a giant satellite, with a rice yield of 130,000 catties per mu in the Hongqi Commune of Huanjiang, Guangxi!
This was also the peak of the “boasting competition” that year.
But what I am curious about is that this yield of 130,000 catties per mu did not leave a photo, which is a bit of a pity. It is very likely that, with their imagination, they could not find a suitable way to express it with pictures. If I were to say, try putting a harvester on it?
Here, I would like to mention that after Huanjiang County launched this giant satellite, the superior authorities assigned Huanjiang a grain requisition task of 0.71 billion catties. This number is 4.8 times the amount of Huanjiang County’s task in 1957. In order to complete the task, the county party committee handed over the rations of each commune and the grain stored in the farmers’ homes.
In 1959, the total grain output target assigned to Huanjiang County by the superior authorities was 960 million catties, and the requisition task was 100 million catties of grain. The people had no grain to hand over, and the county party committee even incorporated the feed grain for pigs and cattle into the national warehouse. In the first half of 1959, the phenomenon of people starving to death began to appear in various parts of Huanjiang. County Party Secretary Hong Hua stated: “What’s so surprising about a few people dying? There is life and death, life and death, death and life, this is a natural law.”
In January 1960, Hong Hua was promoted to Secretary of the Liuzhou Prefectural Committee. In October 1963, Hong Hua was sentenced to five years in prison by the Autonomous Region Higher People’s Court.
三
Going back to the fraud in agricultural experimental fields revealed by “Banyuetan”, how many years have passed, and the little girl sitting on the rice is still alive, but that familiar taste, that familiar formula, seems to have returned.
It is said that such fraud can achieve multiple goals. For agricultural enterprises, it can promote seeds and obtain subsidies and funding. For relevant experts, it can bring both fame and fortune, and they can get high consulting fees. For relevant government departments, it is a display of political achievements—but, if this trend continues to spread, what does it mean for our society?
If boasting is positive energy, everyone will tacitly carry out a boasting competition; if pointing out problems and making criticisms are regarded as negative energy, and even labeled with big hats like ulterior motives, making people tremble with fear, what we face will be a huge and disturbing silence.
In any case, I want to loudly express my weak voice here: history is not far away, and the fraudulent wind must not last long! I would also like to once again express my respect to “Banyuetan”—the last time, it disclosed that the number of people supported by the local finance exceeded five times the tax revenue—this time, it exposed the fraudulent tricks of you fooling me and me fooling you, demonstrating the mission of the media. After all, revealing the truth is the first step in helping society return to the right path.
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