ABSTRACT
In this chapter the authors presents the changes in grain production in China from 1952 to 1996. Looking at grain production during the Deng Xiaoping era the authors observe a remarkably rapid increase in the period 1982-1984. This was the result of the switch to the production responsibility system, which ignited the peasants' desire to increase production. Agricultural output increased in the period after the Tiananmen Incident until 1993, then declined in 1994 due to inclement weather. The Ninth Five Year Plan establishes the goal for the year 2000 of securing 500 million tons of grain to support a population of 1.3 billion. In terms of composition of imports and exports, rice was basically in balance, tending slightly towards greater exports. The main imported grain was wheat. In October 1996 the State Council published a prognosis for grain supply and demand through the early twenty-first century in the first Chinese Grain White Paper.
