ABSTRACT
Since 1949, the Chinese government has attached high priority to achieving a comprehensive set of economic, political and social objectives for the agricultural sector. Central to these objectives has been the task of increasing agricultural production, which was seen as an essential measure for: (1) improving the physical wellbeing of peasants and the urban labor force; (2) supplying the raw material requirements for the expansion of light industry; and (3) generating more foreign exchange to help pay for the capital goods required for industrialization. But the context in which the increase in agricultural production was to be achieved was as important to the government as the increase itself. Sweeping and fundamental reform of China's agriculture was considered to be both an instrument and an end of agricultural policy. Consequently, other goals, such as undermining the power of the landlord class and reducing rural inequality, collectivizing agricultural production, stabilizing prices, and adjusting the mix of agricultural production, have also been central elements of Chinese agricultural policy (Dernberger, 1982, pp. 67-69).
