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In 1990 the Directory of Chinese Learned Organizations listed altogether 375 research institutes, universities, institutions of higher education, societies, and associations which are occupied with the sciences of agriculture and forestry in the PRC today. The reforms of the 1890s (Reform Movement of 1898) led to the first concrete measures towards agricultural modernization in line with Western or Japanese standards of knowledge. In 1899 the state gave permission for the first study-abroad programs in…

The multidimensional cultural influence of rice cultivation on historical and present-day China, on the numerous local cultures and ethic groups, and its relevance within the various agricultural regions constitutes an enormously complex topic. A multitude of social and pure science disciplines would find themselves involved in its comprehensive depiction. There is an awe-inspiring body of primary historical sources, the most important being the "agricultural manuals" (nongshu) as well as the regional descriptions (fangzhi) from the time before 1949, which encompass…

First attempts to divide the Chinese agricultural space according to modern scientific insights into large-scale regions or zones (not a belt-shaped order) date back to the 1930s. In his book Land Utilization in China (1937) John Lossing Buck divided China into ten "agricultural regions" (arable zones), a division which in the West was considered valid until the early 1980s. From 1953 to 1955 and from 1963 to 1966 the People's Republic made efforts towards a restructuring of the agricultural space, not least in order to be able…