Fast-growing Rural Economy

The development of the rural economy is rapid, due to the steady growth in agricultural production, enhanced benefits from the township and village enterprise, and the growing momentum of the private business and the tertiary sector. In 2001, the gross value of rural social products (GVRSP) in Jiangsu was 1,543.1 billion Yuan, including 195.6 billion Yuan from crop production, forestry, livestock and fishery (12.6% of GVRSP) sub-sectors, 1,211.8 billion Yuan from the rural industry and civil construction (78.5% of GVRSP) and 135.7 billion Yuan from the rural transportation, the rural wholesales and retails, and the catering (8.9% of GVRSP).

Sector Structure Optimization

The steady growth in crop production and the rapid growth of livestock and fishery have optimized product structure and product regional distribution. Currently the crop production, the forestry, the livestock and the fishery sub-sectors represent 58.46%, 1.6%, 22.9% and 17.1% of the Gross Value of Agricultural Output (GVAO).

The food crop production is giving way to the more profitable cash crop production. As a result, the ratio of food crop to cash crop acreage has changed to 63: 37, the product quality and the product specialization has kept improving. Now the 30% of rice, 20% of wheat, and 82% of rapeseeds have been upgraded, and the three-way crossed lean pigs, the improved local poultry breeds and the hybrid descendents of Boars goats account for 45%, 42% and 12% of their respective inventory.

 Top Crop Producer

Jiangsu stays on the top for both the major crop yield and the crop output: Jiangsu tops all the rice producing provinces in China for rice yield (36.7% above the national average), ranks the second in China for the cotton lint yield, ranks the first in China for the oilseeds yield (28.1% above the national average and with the rapeseed yield at 34.1% above the national average) and ranks the third in China for the food grain output. Currently Jiangsu is producing 6.5% of China’s food grain, 8.7% of China’s cotton and 8.1% of China’s oilseeds every year from merely 3.9% of China’s arable land.