Transformations to Agriculture and Agricultural Policies in China

Abstract

Since 1949, and particularly since the launch of Reform and Opening in the late 1970s, changes to agriculture and agricultural policies in China have increased agricultural productivity to a great degree and have enabled China to meet the food demands of one fifth of the world’s population with only one ninth of the world’s arable land. To explain this phenomenon, in this chapter I shall systematically describe the changes to agriculture and agricultural policy in China and briefly assess the experience obtained and lessons learned therefrom.