There are 172 million populations in the basin of the Yellow River and its flood-affected areas, (97.8 million in the basin), around 15.1% of the total population in China, and the cultivated land area is about 0.28 billion mu (0.18 billion mu in the basin), around 19.4% of that in China. The total area of land in the Yellow River basin is 1.19 billion mu (including the inner basin), 8.3% of the country's land, most of which is mountainous and hilly area, 40% and 35% of the basin area respectively, the plain area is only 17%. The rate of the cultivation is 15.1% in the basin, the arable land is 0.18 billion mu, 1.83 mu per person, 1.5 times of that in the whole country, most areas having abundant light and heat resources, and large potentials for agricultural production. There are 0.153 billion mu forest land, the forest-covered rate is 12.9%, and there are 0.419 billion mu grassland, taking up 35.2% of the basin area. In the entire basin, there are also 30 million mu wasteland convenient for reclaiming, largely located in the upland along the Yellow River from Heishanxia to Hekou Town and the delta of the Yellow River's estuary. It is better reserve land recourse for cultivation in China.
There are abundant mineral resources in the Yellow River basin, 114 kinds of minerals were found in 1990. Of the 45 kinds of important minerals having been found in the country, this area has 37 kinds. Such minerals as thulium, columbium,gesso, glass silicon raw materials,coal, alum-clay mines, molybdenum, fire-resistant clay, and so on have the national advantage (reserves taking up above 32% of the national reserves). The natural alkali, sulphur-iron ore, gray rock for cement, tungsten, copper, rock-gold have the regional advantage (reserves taking up 10%~16% of the national reserves). The conditions of mine formation are diverse and the distribution of minerals is wide, but also relatively concentrated, offering advantages of utilization. There are 11 mine-concentrated areas to form all kinds of base and different scale production base for intensive exploitation and utilization.
The installed capacity of hydropower that can be exploited is 31.85 million kw in the Yellow River basin. The power output is 117.9 billion kwh per year, ranking the second among the rivers of China. 91% of the total hydropower resources is distributed in the main stream of the Yellow Rive, for example, the section from Longyangxia to Qingtongxia in the upper reaches and the north main stream in the middle reaches. They have better conditions for hydropower cascade exploitation, the loss caused by submerge is small, the technical economy is superior, and the comprehensive utilization benefits are remarkable.
Most area of the Yellow River basin has been explored for agricultural economy because of the warm climate, enough light and heat and abundant soil resources. The Ningxia-Mongolia Hetao Plain on the upper reaches, the Guanzhong Plain in the middle reaches and the Huanghuai Plain in the lower reaches, are important agricultural bases because of the smooth landform, abundant water resources, convenient irrigation, dense population and better condition for inhabitation. The chief agricultural products take the important place in China, such as wheat, cotton, oil plants, tobacco, and so on. The total agricultural output value reached 103.5 billion RMB in the total basin and the plain in the lower reaches, taking up 13.7% of the total agricultural output value of the nation in 1990, among which 58.5 billion RMB was obtained in the plain in the lower reaches, taking up 7.6% of the total of the nation; the total output of the foodstuff was 63.35 million tons, taking up 14.6% of the total of the country, among which 33.24 million tons were got in the plain in the lower reaches, taking up 7.6% of the total of the country. The total output of the cotton was 1.76 million tons, about 39% of the total of the nation, among which 1.54 million tons were produced in the plain area in the lower reaches, taking up 34% of the total of the country; the total output of oil plants was 2.39 million tons, taking up 14.8% of the total of the country, among which 1 million ton was cultivated in the plain area in the lower reaches, taking up 5.4% of the total of the whole country.
There have been remarkable progresses in industry in the Yellow River basin and the plain in the lower reaches since new China was founded. Many kinds of modern industry were built and developed, especially energy, metallurgy, machine-manufacturing and textile industry, and many industrial cities sprang up, for instance, Xining, Lanzhou, Yinchuan, Baotou, Huhehaote, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Jinan, and so on. In recent years, light industry and village and township enterprises which have been ignored develop rapidly and the industrial yield increases quickly because industrial structure is regulated in the whole country. The total industrial output value reached 269.5 billion RMB in the basin of the Yellow River in 1990, occupying 11.3% of the total of the nation of the same year. The energy and mineral resources are abundant in the basin area of the Yellow River. Hydropower in the upper reaches, coal and natural gas in the middle reaches, Zhongyuan Oil Field in the lower reaches and Shengli Oil Field in the estuary delta area. The alum clay, plumbum, zinc, copper, uranium, thulium, and so on take an important place in our country. The zone along the Yellow River is one of the 3 main axes (the zone along the sea, the zone along the Yangtse Rive, the zone along the Yellow River) to be developed. At present, it is important to exploit and build hydropower and nonferrous metal base with Lanzhou as the center, energy and chemical industry base with Shanxi Province as the center, and oil and sea base with Shandong Peninsula and the estuary as the main region. With the reopening of Eurasia Bridge and the construction of traffic lines, it is going to be a benefit to develop the economy of this area. The development in the economic zone along the Yellow River brings high requirement of flood control and harnessing of the Yellow River.
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