Agricultural Reform in China
Getting Institutions Right

Survey of the Chinese agricultural system and reforms introduced over the last twenty years.

Yiping Huang (Author)

9780521620550, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 13 January 1998

240 pages, 19 b/w illus. 34 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.52 kg

'This is an important volume for two reasons: first, it provides an accessible overview of two decades of agricultural reforms in China; second, it argues that the way forward for Chinese agriculture is through full internationalisation for the entire sector.' Peter Timmer, Asian-Pacific Economic Literature

Chinese agriculture has experienced some radical changes over the past twenty years. Following the successful introduction of the household production system in the early 1980s, difficulties were encountered in establishing a unified domestic agricultural market in the later 1980s and 1990s. Through a comprehensive analysis of the changes in the Chinese agricultural institutions between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s, this study attempts to provide some answers to the main questions presently facing the agricultural sector. It focuses on the key elements of the pre-reform agricultural institutions, reviews the ways these institutions were refashioned and assesses the resulting changes in agricultural development. The implications of different policy choices are carefully considered with the assistance of a computable general equilibrium model. The author argues that China should push forward with its market-oriented reform measures and introduce the rigours of international competition into the agricultural sector.

1. Getting markets to work in the countryside
2. Institutional distortions in pre-reform agriculture
3. Getting farmers back to work
4. Getting prices right
5. Adjustments in rural markets bring structural change
6. An agricultural economy without freedom of trade
7. China's agricultural policy choices
8. Chinese farmers can adapt
9. Getting reform right in agriculture
Appendix: The China model
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Development economics & emerging economies [KCM]