Because his one acre of land yielded 850 kilograms this year, this was considered high yield among hybrid rice crops. Thɪs chapter is updated by novel•fire.net
Indeed, Southern had now begun popularizing hybrid rice, so for her family to achieve a yield of 850 kilograms per acre was already a high yield.
And other people’s rice fields, using the same seeds, were yielding between 750 and 800 kilograms per acre. That is to say, did his method of fish farming in the rice fields really increase the yield?
So this year, Zheng Long generously bought seventy to eighty yuan’s worth of loach fry to scatter into the rice fields. By doing this, once the loaches grew up, the root-knot nematodes, aquatic earthworms, mosquito larvae, and other aquatic pests became natural food for the loaches. The tiny loaches not only devoured the pests harming the rice but also loosened the soil around the rice roots, promoting rice growth and making an "indispensable" contribution to the increased yield.
This was certainly much healthier than using large amounts of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, and the pleasant sound of frogs was an added bonus.
After the fish fry had grown, he let the family’s ducks free-range in the rice fields. Because the number of ducks was small, their impact was limited. It wasn’t that he was stingy, raising only three ducks, but rather because policies had not been loosened yet. Being able to participate in the first batch of land reforms was already fortunate. Although other policies were expected to gradually open up, for now, one still had to comply with the rules.
As soon as the crops were planted, the village’s loudspeakers began to blare, "Attention all villagers, the township has issued a notice that starting from tomorrow, we must deliver our public grain quota, which must be completed within three days. Some people should not hold out hope of avoiding this duty, believing they can withhold grain. Paying the imperial grain tax is an old ancestral rule, one that cannot be shirked."
Public grain is typically fifty pounds per acre, and it must be pure, dry, and full. Half of it counts towards the agricultural tax, and the other half is d to the state without compensation.
Delivering public grain was done individually, unlike during the production team era when it was a collective effort. Back then, the collective contributed fifteen percent of the total yield, but now, each family growing their own land had to contribute fifty pounds per acre. Since his family had only two acres, he needed to deliver one hundred pounds of public grain.
His family’s rice harvest was 850 pounds, and the wheat harvest was 650 pounds. The remaining one thousand four hundred pounds were theirs to keep.
He had made a four-wheeled cart out of wood, and for the harvest and delivery of the public grain, he pushed this cart.
Since the timing was uncertain and the daughter was getting older, he decided to take her along. She could already walk, so he secured a protective circle for her in the cart, which was pretty solid, and then, like other farmers, he pulled the cart toward the commune’s grain station.
Delivering public grain was a big event; people had to go early to line up due to the many villagers from nearby villages coming to deliver, and the process was complicated and time-consuming. If you arrived late, you had to wait a long time.
So they had to set out before dawn, but even doing so meant you might not get your turn until Noon. Then, what she dreaded most was someone saying, "It’s time now; those who haven’t had their turn will have to come back this afternoon."
Luckily, he managed his time well and didn’t end up queuing until Noon. It was probably around eleven o’clock, and only three or four people were ahead of him.
He noticed that the Quality Inspector always used a hollow iron rod to unceremoniously jab into the bags of grain, which looked quite cool. The grains were then extracted, and, listening to the practiced crunching sounds in his mouth before tossing the rest and saying indifferently, "No good, take it back and dry it more before bringing it here again."
The meaning was clear; someone’s grain wasn’t dry enough. Fortunately, he had thoroughly sun-dried his, so amidst his anxiety, they accepted his grain and issued a purchase receipt, which served as proof of tax payment.