Study On Agroforestry In Southeast Guizhou During The Period From Qing Dynasty To Republic Of China

From the perspective of the history of forestry, agroforestry is one of the most important forms of complex agricultural forestry. Since the middle of the nineteenth Century, agroforestry has been seen around the world. Compared with the rest of the world, agroforestry in China has a longer history. Even in the early period of Ming to pre-Qing dynasties, agroforestry was very common in the Qingshuijiang River Basin in Southeast Guizhou of China(Hereafter called Qiandongnan). In the context of period of time between from Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, agroforestry, as a term, contains two meanings: one refers to the two kinds of economic life styles which include forestry economy and agricultural economy; the other refers to Forest Intercropping. Forestry economy mainly refers to commercialization of planting forest crops, such as Chinese fir forest, Camellia oil crops, as well as other economic systems attached to it. Agricultural economy here refers to the interdependence and inter-complement of traditional agricultural production. Intercropping means millet, corn, wheat "and other crops were planted in the space between planting Chinese fir, and Camellia. As to the time-orders, i.e. what were planted in the very beginning, what were planted then, and what were planted in the last step, it is observed that the local people have much in common though some differ.The rise of Qiandongnan forest "agroforestry" is not accidental. its unique natural surrounding and social environment are parts of the factors. Its unique geological features, soil, climate and water conditions makes it the heaven for Chinese fir, pine and other species to grow. This area proved the most favorable natural environment for Chinese fir to be planted and to grow. As a result, the Chinese fir grown here has much better quality than those in any other provinces in China. The local inhabitants are Miao and Dong whose ancestors are believed to be Nanman people and Guyue people in ancient time. Nanman people and Guyue they invented and mastered sprout regeneration, coping technology of Chinese fir in Pre-Qin Dynasty. And this laid the technical foundation for the prosperity of Artificial forestation. According to Jiang Family Genealogy, Wendou village area were densely covered with boundless virgin forest by mid-Yuan Dynasty. And this huge virgin forest were not know to the outside world until 1506-1521 AD when Emperor Zheng De ruled China and ordered to build the royal palace. In Qing Dynasty, the royal family continued to purchase the wood in Qiandongnan. Thus, the official wood procurements boomed the timber trade. So much so that the virgin forest in Qiandongnan were destroyed completely. In order to meet the market demand from the royal family, people began the process of artificial forestation in large scale. In the reign of Emperor Qiandongnan,the local authorities came to realize the importance of artificial forestation. The local government encouraged the residents to plant trees in large scale. Because it takes a long time for trees to grow up. Conflicts between immigrants and the local inhabitants emerged, and needed to be solved out. After a while, people came to discover that intercropping enable to relieve, even to solve the problem of food supply, such as the shortage of grain and oil crop. This made it much easier for the people to survive before the trees grow tall and big enough to be cut down. In addition, people also found that intercropping could protect the baby tress to survive more easily and as well to preserve the environment. Thus intercropping became more widely accepted.The Literature data such as ancient contact texts and local records shows that people in Southeast Guizhou apply seedlings and sprout regeneration to planting economic trees. However, because Coniferous tree species including Chinese fir usually secrete an aromatic chemical, most species are afraid of this material while only a few broad leaved tree species can resist this chemical. So, when Chinese fir, Bionic effects such as allelopathy and antiinsects are produced. Though this method doest increase forest peasants’ income, but it is not the direct reason why people interbreed these plants. According to the local official documents, it often takes for local peasants to reach forest-establishment level. It is possible that some forest peasants may ignore the forest commercialization process, and spend more time in agriculture activities. In order to make forest peasants attaché enough importance to developing forests for the sake of protecting his own benefits, Planters usually have specific articles about years by which that forest peasants have to ensure the planted forest to grow mature enough be profitable. Thus additional terms relevant to that are commonly seen in the contracts. These contracts also tell readers that both planters and forest peasant attach great importance to Contiguous operation in order to achieve scale effect.In agroforestry, mountain owners run their forests by various forms and methods: mountain owners may rent mountain areas to forest peasants to run, they also my rent mountainous area to peasants to inter-plants crops and woods, etc. It is worth mentioning that most of influential scholars in academic circle think there are a big gap in social ladder, which means that the local inhabitants as forest peasant have much higher social position than immigrant forest peasants including foresters. But the ancient contacts texts and local official document clearly prove that there is no obvious gap in social position between them. Actually they share equal rights and equal social status in most cases. Compared to the role of mountain owners as renters, forest peasants not only are responsible for planting and managing the forests, but also are obliged to nurture the forests as well as fire safety and security work.In the mode of agroforestry, both owners of mountains and foresters can obtain income by trading mountains, woods, forested area and or simply remising forest rights. In most cases, the planters of forests and theirs workers share profit according contracts. As for the profit sharing ratio, the reign of Emperor Daoguang was the dividing line. Since the period of reign of Emperor Daoguang, 3:2 had became the most accepted sharing ratio while some planters and workers distribute profits in accordance with the amounts of their shares in the business. Certainly, they have other profits sharing approaches.