ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the question of whether agricultural growth will prove to be a severe constraint on China's modernization program. The critical issue is whether over the next decade agricultural production will grow faster or slower than the increase in demand for food. Population growth is certainly one of the most important factors on the demand side, but other factors are also significant. China intends to rapidly expand the production of consumer goods for export purposes so as to earn foreign exchange with which to pay for imported technology. The construction industry is itself highly labor intensive and will thus generate even more jobs. In China, local agricultural machinery production tends to be based on cast iron and steel parts, rather than on sheet steel. The Chinese press has cited the example of a machine invented in a northeastern county.
