Chapter 86 A Letter Concerning the Problem of Agricultural Mechanization

(March 12, 1966) Comrade Shaoqi: March 11 letter [1] received.The Small Planning Commission[2] sent people to Hubei to jointly study with the Hubei Provincial Party Committee the five-year, seven-year, and ten-year plans for agricultural mechanization, and to visit the pilot projects of mechanization by self-reliance there. This is a very good idea.It is suggested that the bureaus of the Central Committee and the party committees of all provinces and municipalities also send people to Hubei for joint research.Seven to ten days will do.After returning home, each made a preliminary draft of a five-, seven-, and ten-year plan, brewed it for a few months, and then discussed it at a work conference held around August or September this year.If there is no preparation in advance, I am afraid that the meeting will not be good at that time.In this matter, the provinces, cities, and districts are mainly self-reliant. The central government can only help areas with insufficient raw materials and so on. Conditions, don't rush into action, everyone reaches out.Otherwise, delay the time and talk about it in a few years.For this reason, for raw materials (steel), machine tools, and agricultural machinery, where state management, local manufacturing, and those that exceed the national plan (for example, more than double the amount), 30% to 50% of the excess is allowed to be retained, so that Place to buy and use.If this system is not established, local enthusiasm cannot be mobilized.In order to mechanize agriculture and produce more categories of agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline fishery, etc., it is necessary to fight for a part of machinery manufacturing rights for the local area.The so-called part of machinery manufacturing rights refers to the right to share large excesses, excluding small excesses.It is not a good idea to unify everything in the center and get stuck.And this matter should be linked with preparing for war, preparing for famine, and serving the people, otherwise the localities will not be enthusiastic about it if they have the conditions.The first is to prepare for war. The people and the army must have food and clothing before they can fight. Otherwise, even though they have guns, they are useless.The second is to prepare for a famine. In a famine year, the locality has no savings such as grain, cotton, oil, etc., and relying on other provinces for relief is not a long-term solution.In case of war, the difficulty is even greater.However, famine years in local areas are often unavoidable in any province.Looking at several provinces together, it is even more inevitable.The third is that the national accumulation should not be too much. It is necessary to consider that some people do not have enough rations to eat and have little clothing; secondly, it is necessary to disperse the reserves for the whole people to prepare for war and famine; thirdly, it is even more necessary to accumulate funds for local use. For the sake of expanding reproduction.Therefore, agricultural mechanization must be connected with these aspects in order to mobilize the masses to strive for the rapid but steady realization of this plan.The Soviet Union's agricultural policy has always been erroneous. It used all resources to catch fish and lost touch with the masses. As a result, the present predicament is mainly caused by being trapped in the pit of simple reproduction for a long time. In times of famine, even simple reproduction cannot be maintained.We have also experienced several years of exhaustion and fishing (high procurement) and the experience that simple reproduction cannot be maintained in many areas of famine, so we should always take precautions.Although the slogan of "preparing for war, preparing for famine, and serving the people" (this is the best way to serve the country at the same time, or the old saying "the people are satisfied, the ruler is the one who is insufficient" [3]) has been put forward, whether it can be implemented in a long-term and earnest manner? I think it is still a problem, and it will be seen in the future whether it can be solved.Wasn't Soviet agriculture basically mechanized? Why is it so far in trouble? This matter is worth thinking about.

Please decide whether the above points are feasible or not.As for who from the Small Planning Committee should go to Hubei, it seems that Comrades Yu Qiuli and Lin Hujia[4] should go there.If the bureaus of the Central Committee and the party committees of the provinces and municipalities are also sent there, it seems that it would be appropriate for the Secretary of Agriculture and the Planning Committee to go there.In total, only about 70 people went there to hold an on-site meeting for seven to ten days.Please consider whether it is feasible. Mao Zedong March 12 Printed from manuscript.

-------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Refers to Liu Shaoqi's letter to Mao Zedong dated March 11, 1966.The letter said: The document of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China on the gradual realization of the idea of ​​agricultural mechanization and the chairman's comments have been printed and distributed to comrades in the Politburo and the Secretariat, and to relevant ministries and commissions including the Planning Commission, Economic Commission, and North China Bureau. Research.This issue was discussed at the Standing Committee of the Central Committee with the participation of the deputy prime ministers in Beijing. Everyone agreed that the Small Planning Committee should first take a look at the situation on this issue and propose a plan. The Central Committee will discuss it and submit it to the next time. Discuss it at the Central Work Conference to make local efforts more realistic.Comrade Zhou Enlai has asked Xiaoji to send people to Hubei to study their proposals with the Provincial Party Committee and conduct experiments in Hubei first.

[2] The Small Planning Committee is a working organization established by Mao Zedong in early 1965 and directly led by Zhou Enlai.Later, in the process of compiling the third five-year plan, the Small Planning Commission actually presided over the work of the State Planning Commission. [3] See "The Analects of Confucius Yan Yuan". [4] Yu Qiuli (1914-1999), born in Ji'an, Jiangxi, was the first deputy director and secretary-general of the State Planning Commission, and the head of the Small Planning Commission.Lin Hujia, born in 1916 in Changdao, Shandong, was a member of the Small Planning Committee at that time.