ABSTRACT
A fair proportion of the population designated as rural obtains its livelihood not from agriculture but from the extensive range of rural industries, social services and government administration. In the 1950s the Chinese government formally guaranteed to its population provision for its basic needs. This chapter presents attention to some general features of the institutional framework for ensuring basic guarantees and to the structure of families, and analyses the various mechanisms of assistance to food-deficit rural units. A central component of the strategy to minimize the numbers in need has been the maintenance of family cohesion and filial obligations. As a basic need, nutrition concerns an individual or a family. There are two principal approaches to assessing undernutrition: directly in terms of food available or consumed or indirectly with reference to the effects of undernutrition. The chapter presents the strategies behind China's international grain trade since 1950.
