ABSTRACT
The regression results suggested that staple food supply elasticities with respect to market price were low across all groups. The economic behaviour of the poor seems “normal” - there is no evidence of “subsistence first” behaviour, for example. Yet, because of low productivity per capita, the average marketing percentage for the poor is still very low. Since unfavorable natural resources and poor infrastructure are basic causes of low productivity, improvement of rural infrastructure and assistance in developing more advanced technologies would be the most critical parts of a poverty alleviation strategy. Improved productivity, leading to higher incomes, is certain to lead to higher levels of commercialization. Overall, after a decade of the rural economic reform with a growth of productivity and commercialization, rural China’s food security problem has been basically solved. Currently poverty is the major policy concern, and promotion of commercialization is considered by government an effective approach to deal with poverty.
