ABSTRACT
The structure of agricultural production by the end of 1985 was much more diversified, and productivity and incomes were showing the effects of the economics of comparative advantage. The new orientation calls for leaderships that are able to serve the needs of household producers without infringing on their autonomous rights as self-managing producers. Besides the gap between specialized households and households still engaged in unspecialized crop farming, another common source of differentiated income-earning opportunity is access to jobs in industry. The increases in state procurement prices were only one part of a larger effort by the state to reduce the drain of capital from rural areas. The contracts between governments include guarantees of funding to develop productive facilities such as water control projects, agrotechnical peasant training centers, laboratories, and seed storage and development facilities. The single most important change occurring in China’s countryside is the evolution of a specialized division of labor that is becoming increasingly voluntary.
