Fengjie

One of the reasons for the decline of the peasants’ income from subsidiary occupations in 1955 was the low purchasing prices offered by the state for many agricultural side-products. For example, the price set for dried sunflower in Fengchieh county, Szechuan province (in 1955) was 5 yuan per 110 lbs., which was only one-third the pre-war price. As a result there was a decline of 60 per cent in the total value of sunflowers sold by the peasants in 1955 as against 1954.¹⁵⁵

¹⁵⁵ Party Secretariat, Fengchieh county, Szechuan, “Problems in the Production of Special Native Products,” HPYK, No. 19, October 6, 1956, p. 65.]