Main Grain-producing Areas Research Articles

The changing regional distribution of grain production in China in the 21st century

This paper examines the changing regional distribution of grain production in China. Based on the analysis of data from county statistics for the period 2000–2003, major differences in the main grain-output regions in China can be observed. The main grain-producing areas have shifted from the south to the north of China. New grain production regions have been also added to western China since the late 1990s. The per capita grain consumption in one third of China’s main grain-producing counties has fallen below 400 kg; most of these areas are located in southern China. In the new millennium, Northeast China, the central-south North China, and the arid and semi-arid regions of Northwest China produced three quarters of the surplus grains. Most of these areas are located in regions susceptible to environmental change. The amount of grain production in these regions shows high fluctuations. It is argued here that further studies of recent environmental changes as well as a risk assessment of China’s food security in main grain-output regions are needed.

Petty-Capitalist Production in Agriculture

The mid-1940s are considered to be the starting point in Venezuela of an oil-financed model of economic development based on a general policy of import substitution and economic diversification to satisfy a rapidly growing internal market. The massive devaluation of the national currency in 1983 revealed the inadequacy of this already exhausted development path and led to its replacement. During these years, the hitherto practically virgin forests and extensive savannas of Acarigua in southwestern Venezuela were transformed into the country's main grain-producing area with secondary crops of cotton, sugarcane, and tobacco. A highly mechanized farm, the socalled family farm employing varying amounts of salaried labor, was the predominant type of enterprise in this process. In the same period, Perija, a plain bordering Lake Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela, became the main dairy-producing district in the country. Mixed dairy and beef ranching, combining both family labor and wage labor, was the most common type of farm enterprise throughout this time. At the same time, in the north-central region, at the margin of an accelerated urbanization process, many former sugarcane plantations and cattle ranches were divided into lots to create small poultry farms. In this case, the family farm was linked to a semiautomated technical poultry package.