The Rural Voice, 1988-12, Page 24FEEDING A BILLION PEOPLE
S
haron Grose of Alma,
Ontario travelled to
China recently as part
of the Advanced Agricul-
tural Leadership Program.
China, as she observes, is
the world's largest grain
producer. It also imports
grain. Why?
In a country of a billion
people, it's a question of
economies of scale...
by Sharon Grose
An overwhelming majority of the
Chinese people have always worked
in agriculture. But during the past 40
or 50 years, dramatic changes in the
organization of food production have
been made.
A brief history: Under the rule of
the Communist Party, Chinese farmers
were banded together to work in co-
operatives. In 1952, land reforms led
to land being taken from lords and rich
peasants and distributed to 300 million
peasants who had no acreage to farm.
From 1953 to 1957, peasants were
grouped into mutual aid teams of
households sharing the work load.
Later, 100 to 300 groups of households
formed co-operatives to farm the land.
In the late 1950s, individual
farmers lost their own farms and
were forced to farm in communes of
thousands of farmers. In the 1960s,
farmers were once again encouraged
to farm on a smaller scale, with farm
families allotted so many "moo" of
Left, a market scene in Beijing.
Within government guidelines,
prices may be negotiated on the
free market. Above right,
working the land with a hand-
held plow: a hoe. (Inset: a
Chinese tractor.)
22 THE RURAL VOICE