【正文】 ral labour. （ 1） The root cause is the smallscale farming mode of production and the low level of productive technology formed through China39。s average life expectancy of 59 years. The death rate decreased from per cent in 1950 to per cent in 1981. For a long period after liberation, the annual growth rate of the population remained above two per cent. Since the 1970s, family planning has been energetically advocated and the growth rate has decreased significantly. In 1981, for example, the growth rate was per cent, but because of the large base, the absolute increase of the population is still remarkable. (9) Another main cause of surplus agricultural labour is that farm workers have not transferred in a timely fashion to other activities. There are already too many labourers in cities and the channels for transfer are blocked. The Solution to Surplus Agricultural Labour What is the solution to surplus agricultural labour in the course of modernisation of agriculture? In general, the solution lies in the diversification of production. Specifically, there are the following aspects. First of all, the internal structures of agriculture should be changed so as to find a solution to the surplus labour. As far as the internal structures of agriculture are concerned, the first thing to do is to break out of the smallscale farm economy and, with largescale agriculture in mind, carry out an allround development policy. This should enable surplus labour to transfer to sectors other than planting. In cultivation, we must move from onecrop farming to diversification. Meanwhile we must practise intensive and scientific farming. Here, largescale agriculture must make full use of all natural resources and not only rely on the farmland. There are many mountain ranges across China, storing up extensive forests and various kinds of vegetation, and four billion mu of inland waters and rivers, lakes and reservoirs providing favourable conditions for irrigation and fisheries. China extends across 55 degrees of latitude, ranging from frigid, temperate to subtropical zones from north to south. With respect to plant resources, China has about 32,000 kinds of high quality plants, about 3,000 kinds of edible plants, and over 2,800 kinds of trees. In addition, there are many kinds of rare medicinal herbs. Located in such a natural environment, China has the ability to develop farming, forestry, husbandry, fisheries and sideline production. Readjusting the internal structures of agriculture is an objective requirement for its development. Only in this way can the irrational employment structure be changed. China has thousands of millions of mu of waste land and mountain areas. We can draw on large resources of labour to plant economic forests, fastgrowing timber and fuel forests. China has 75 million mu of fresh waters suitable for fishfarming, only 54 per cent of which has been used until now. So, although there is less farmland, the extensive prairie and mountain waste lands, rich natural resources and large quantities of labour allow bright prospects for the allround development of China39。s agriculture has been in a backward state for so many hundreds of years that natural economy has occupied a dominant position. In order to withstand natural calamities, people always relied on more workers, instead of on the improvement of the tools of production. Heavy manual work was the chief mode of production in the old society, so the development of agricultural production was linked to massive employment of manpower. In this mode of production, people naturally did not know the exact economic ratio between the result of work and the consumption of labour. They did not grudge putting in large amounts of labour. In this way, more and more labourers were wanted, and in turn, more and more population was required. This is the tradition of Chinese agriculture. As early as the Western Zhou dynasty, more than 3,000 years ago, there existed largescale collective labour. The old tradition of farming, as recorded in Shijing (The Book of Songs), ten thousand people make a group, and a thousand groups can do farming, was passed on up to the present. It still influences modern agricultural production. This, then, is the historical cause. (2) The quantity and quality of workers directly affect family ines and standard of living. In the current socialist stage, workers have not pletely eliminated this vestige of the old society. They still take labour as a means of making a living, and cannot work wholly for society without being paid. A farmer, for one thing, is one of the members of the collective economy。 in sugarcane growing areas, sugar mills. In this way, we can avoid longdistance transport of raw materials and products back and forth. France has run sugar mills in the beet growing areas with each mill serving a radius of 17 km. Australia has connected the sugarcane harvesting, transporting and pressing to a whole process. Only eight hours after harvesting, sugarcane can be transported to the factory. But in China at present, the distribution of productive forces is irrational. For example, beet growing areas are far from sugar mills。s imports of vegetable oil. From the above, it is predicted that the green revolution centred on improved varieties of seeds will have spread throughout the world by the year 2020. From then on, work on breeding seeds and controlling the bioenvironment will bring about another new agricultural revolution. It is clear that biochemical technology has a great effect on the modernisation of agriculture. We should not, however, ignore mechanisation in agricultural modernisation just because of biochemical technology. On the contrary, in certain sparsely populated areas, agricultural mechanisation should be carried out first. Although in gen