How much water does rice need? - adron.sr

China 1976species that Ou had collected.We had our first glimpse ofagriculture at the Double-BridgeCommune 25 km east of Beijing. Thepopulation of 40,000 was situatedon 90 square kilometers, including3,600 hectares under cultivation.There were six production brigadesand 62 production teams—a structurethat to me seemed comparable withthat of the U.S. army. The main cropswere wheat, rice, vegetables, andfruits. Livestock included dairy, pigs,ducks, and fishponds. Vegetable, fruit,and livestock products were shippedto nearby Beijing. At harvest time,the factories were required to providelabor to the commune free of charge.From Beijing,we took the nighttrain to Nanjing.Except for us, the onlyother passengers on thetrain were soldiers. At thetime, movement in China wasstrictly controlled. Most people wereassigned to communes and givenration cards for food. Grain wasrationed—about 15 kg per month forcity folk and double that for a persondoing hard work in the commune.There was almost no opportunityfor civilians to travel. At 6 a.m., wewere woken by loudspeakers blaringwords of wisdom from Mao Zedong.Later in the morning, we passedthrough AnhuiProvince, historicallyone of the poorest areasin China and the setting forPearl Buck’s book The Good Earth.Nanjing, 13-15 OctoberIn Nanjing, we visited the SoilsInstitute of the Chinese Academy ofSciences, which had been protectedfrom the Cultural Revolution. Staffmembers there were particularlyproud of their library, whichcontained some foreign publications.This raises an interesting point: itseems that before and during theTHE IRRI TEAM with some of their Chinese hosts at Tai Lake, Wuxi, on 17 October 1976.Front row: S.K. De Datta (far left), S.H. Ou (third from left), then-IRRI Director GeneralNyle Brady (center), Randy Barker (fourth from right), and Mano Pathak (third from right).Back row: Gurdev Khush (left) and plant physiologist Shouichi Yoshida (right).IRRI (6)Rice Today January-March 200925