ABSTRACT
The central economic issue racing China th roughout its m odern history reflects the elemental challenge of providing enough food for its population. At the end of the 1950s, it was the collapse of grain production tha t halted industrialisation and forced a wholesale, if tem porary reorientation of econom ic priorities in favour of the farm sector. Thereafter, population pressure continued to highlight the critical im portance of agriculture, especially the food sector. Between 1955-1 9 5 7 and 1974-1976 , average per capita ou tpu t o f grain hardly changed, even though yields showed quite im pressive g ro w th .1 A lthough post-1978 reform s transfo rm ed this situation ,2 agricultural and food issues have rem ained strategic economic preoccupations of successive Chinese governm ents. For their leaders, mindful of the catastrophic famine of 1959-1961 and nervous of excessive dependence on im ported Am erican food supplies, the old adage - ‘agriculture is the foundation of the economy; grain is the cornerstone of th a t foundation’ - has meaning even in a context in which recent grain ou tpu t grow th has generated a com fortable cushion above subsistence requirem ents. This is the background to a continuing com m itm ent to a strategy of basic domestic food self-sufficiency. A keen awareness by Chinese leaders o f the social, even political, implications o f agricultural im poverishm ent is another critical dimension to their continued emphasis on the role of the farm sector in C hina’s future developm ent.3
