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As a critique of the popular perspective on China's rural reform centered on microinstitutional problems of collective farming such as work incentive and monitoring, this paper places an alternative emphasis on the distinct organizational characteristics of the peasant family in production, distribution, and welfare. What the Chinese state saw in family-based peasantry was not a typical market-oriented private economy operating mainly in pursuit of short term profits, but a multipurpose, morally governed unit in which the rural population maintains stable work relations, pursues diverse entrepreneurial activities, and satisfies basic subsistence needs; i.e., a organizational unit which could take over most of the social and economic functions of the pre-reform collective. In a sense, China's rural decollectivization has been a process of deceptively transferring the burden of absorbing and supporting the huge rural surplus labor to individual peasant families for whose economic activities the state is not directly responsible.

The structure of farm families in an industrializing rural area in west-central Taiwan is explored using data for 96 households in Hsiu-Shui district. The results suggest that despite modernization and social change, "the large family ideal still persists and expresses itself as a compartmental family which offers both the individual freedom of a nuclear family and the support and security of a large extended family.", (excerpt)

Rural industrial integration is the key to promoting the development of rural industrial restructuring and modernization, and plays a vital role in improving agricultural economic resilience. Based on the evaluation index system of agricultural economic resilience and the level of rural industrial integration development, respectively, this paper uses panel data from 30 provincial administrative regions in China from 2000 to 2020 to empirically test the impact of rural industrial integration development on agricultural economic resilience by using an individual fixed-effects model and a mediating-effects model. The results show that rural industrial integration significantly contributes to enhancing agricultural economic resilience, and the conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. There is dimensional and regional heterogeneity in the impact of rural industrial integration on agricultural economic resilience, and the strength of the promotion effect by dimension is in the order of adaptive adjustment capacity, transformation and innovation capacity, and resilience to recovery capacity. In the eastern and central regions, the promotion effect of rural industrial integration on agricultural economic resilience is more significant. In the main food-producing areas, the promotion effect of rural industrial integration on resilience to recovery is significantly slighter than that of non-food-producing regions. Mechanism analysis indicates that regional industrial structure optimization is an essential channel for rural industrial integration to enhance the resilience of the agricultural economy. On this basis, in order to strengthen agricultural economic resilience, provinces should actively explore differentiated industrial integration policies to enhance industrial structure optimization and upgrading, stimulate agricultural economic vitality, and foster the development of China's agricultural modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is an inevitable choice in the new era to promote the integrated development of rural informatization, agricultural industrialization, and rural ecologicalization for realizing agricultural and rural modernization, which is also an essential basis in China to promote the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy. This study analyzed the coupling coordination relationships of rural informatization, agricultural industrialization, and rural ecologicalization in China. Based on the establishment of a related index system, this study also examined the comprehensive evaluation level and the characteristics and influencing factors of the spatio-temporal differentiation in coupling coordination at the provincial level in China from 2010 to 2019 using the entropy method, the coupling coordination degree model, the spatial correlation analysis, and the spatial panel regress model. The result showed that: 1 During the study period, the comprehensive evaluation level of China's rural informatization, agricultural industrialization, and rural ecologicalization presented an upward trend, with obvious regional development imbalance and systematic differences. 2 The coupling coordination degree of rural informatization, agricultural industrialization, and rural ecologicalization was not high, and its mean value was barely coordinated, but the overall trend was increasing. Moreover, the coupling coordination degree was obvious non-balanced in space, and the number of primary coordinated provinces increased from 3 to 11. 3 The coupling coordination degree presented significant positive spatial autocorrelation and spatial agglomeration characteristics. The main spatial correlation types were 'H-H' and 'L-L' agglomeration models. The cold-hot spots were characterized by aggregated planar distribution and transition. 4 The coupling coordination degree was significantly affected by per capita GDP, urbanization level, rural aging degree, agricultural fiscal expenditure, and the Engel coefficient of rural residents, and a spatial spillover effect existed. The influence of different factors on the coupling coordination degree had certain regional differences. In view of this, this study put forward some policy suggestions, such as adhering to the classification of policies and gradually narrowing regional and systemic differences of rural informatization, agricultural industrialization, and rural ecologicalization; strengthening cross-regional coordination and cooperation, enhancing coupled and coordinated development; and paying attention to multi-source drives to enhance the power of coupling and coordinated development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific evaluation of the development of rural industrial integration is of great significance to understanding the changes occurring in the industrial structure of China's agricultural sector. Combined with the practical problems related to the development of China's rural industrial integration on the basis of four dimensions, i.e., agricultural industrial chain extension, agricultural multifunctionality, agricultural service industry integration development and the economic effect of rural industrial integration, the level of China's rural industrial integration development is calculated for the period from 2008 to 2020 by means of the entropy method, and its spatial–temporal evolution characteristics and the regional heterogeneity of its driving factors are discussed on the basis of kernel density estimation, hotspot analysis and a fixed effect panel data model. The results showed the following: (1) From 2008 to 2020, the level of rural industrial integration development in 31 provinces in China improved to varying degrees. The growth rate of agricultural service industry integration was the highest, while the economic effect of rural industrial integration was second; the growth rate of the agricultural industrial chain extension was the lowest, and agricultural multifunctionality exhibited a fluctuating upward trend, peaking in 2017. In terms of spatial distribution, the representative provinces and cities with high and low levels of each dimension were different. (2) Rural industrial integration development in China was characterized by a regional imbalance, with polarization in the central and western regions. In terms of spatial distribution, an "east–middle–west" ladder pattern was obvious. The hotspots were mainly concentrated in the southeast region, and they showed a gradually expanding trend, while the coldspots were mainly concentrated in the northwest region, and they showed a trend of gradually decreasing size. (3) In terms of driving factors, the urbanization level, rural human capital, rural transportation facilities, rural ecological environment, intensity of financial support for agriculture and rural digitalization had significantly positive effects, while the degree of industrial upgrade had a significantly negative effect. Each driving factor had different effects on the rural industrial integration development in the eastern, central and western regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural industries are the foundation of the modernization of agricultural and rural areas in China. National Modern Agricultural Industrial Parks (NMAIPs) provides a considerable nationwide platform for agricultural industries. We take 200 NMAIPs in China as objects. Through spatial analysis, the Herfindahl–Hirschman index, and the SBM-DEA model, we analyzed the development characteristics and regional differences of NMAIPs from the muti-level perspective of national planning, provincial coordination, and county implementation to propose policy recommendations aimed at sustainable and high-quality development. The results are as follows: (1) Regarding geospatial characteristics, NMAIPs are unevenly distributed, with a decreasing gradient from east to west. The direction is east (northward) to west (southward), consistent with the direction of the Hu line. The distribution density shows that the east is dense and the west is sparse. (2) For industrial concentration, the leading industries in NMAIPs tend to be homogenous. The HHI indicates that the homogenization of leading industries is widely represented in each province. The low oligopolistic areas are in the central and eastern regions of China, while the highly oligopolistic locations are in the western and northeastern provinces. (3) In inputs–outputs efficiency, the comprehensive technical efficiency is high but not optimal, while the distribution of values is high in the south and low in the north. Ten provinces are non-effective. According to inputs and outputs, the ineffective contribution of population of townships covered, occupied area and the capital from the collective economy are development barriers, and the high output value of NMAIPs cannot fully drive the employment and income of farmers. Further improvements are needed in terms of both pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency, and adjustments to scale operations should be in response to different returns to scale. Our research results provide policy recommendations for NMAIPs, including the establishment of a multi-level management mechanism, balancing regional development, diversifying and coordinating regional leading industries, and improving the efficiency of utilization factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-grain” of cultivated land refers to the planting conversion from food crops into cash crops or others. The disorderly expands of “non-grain” cultivated land can greatly threat to regional food security. It is a high demand to scientifically measure the degree and spatial distribution pattern of cropland “non-grain”. In this study, the spatial differentiation characteristics of cropland “non-grain” were identified to reasonably control the influencing factors in the mountain counties using spatial correlation analysis. The land use data was first collected from the Xinfeng County of Jiangxi Province in China, according to the Third National Land Survey. The correlation factors and formation mechanism were then revealed for the spatial pattern of cultivated land “non-grain” using the correlation analysis and spatial econometric model.The research results showed that: 1) The “non-grain” rate of cultivated land was 30.28% in the study area, of which the “non-grain” area of plantation structure and the “non-grain” area of agricultural industry structure were 6 601.94 and 7 679.98 hm², with “non-grain” rates of 13.84% and 16.44% respectively. There was outstanding spatial heterogeneity for the distribution of cropland “non-grain” in different topographic areas. Specifically, the alpine hilly areas mainly showed the “non-grain” of agricultural industry structure, whereas, the low mountain hilly areas showed the “non-grain” of cultivated land cultivation structure. 2) There was the agglomerative pattern for the spatial distribution of cultivated land “non-grain”. The “non-grain” of planting structure was highly agglomerative in the central low hill and hill areas, whereas, the “non-grain” of agricultural industry structure was highly agglomerative in the eastern and northwestern high mountain and hill areas. 3) Some factors (such as the average plot size, the distance to water sources, and the density of rural road networks) posed positive effects on the “non-grain” production. The “non-food” production also received the inhibiting effects from the decision making on the permanent protection of basic farmland and grain production functional zones. 4) Since there was a spatial diffusion effect of the “non-grain” production, it is necessary to clarify the use and cultivation status of transferred cultivated land, in order to avoid the destruction of the cultivated layer of cultivated land. According to the natural resource conditions and industrial development, the control strategies of the “non-grain” production were proposed, in terms of region and category. 1) One strategy was to differentiate between the planting structure “non-food” and agricultural industry structure “non-grain”. There was a small impact of planting structure “non-grain” on the production capacity of cultivated land. By contrast, the large impact was found to be strictly prohibited in the agricultural industry structure “non-grain” on the production capacity of cultivated land. 2) High mountain areas were strengthen by the supervision of agro-industrial structure “non-grain”, whereas, the low hill areas were for the planting structure “non-grain”. 3) The “non-grain” production of agricultural industry structure can be curbed to increase the construction of farmland infrastructure in the high mountainous and hilly areas, particularly for the better farming conditions. 4) Much attention should be paid to those land types that converted from growing food crops to others. The potential cultivated land resources should be remediated in the stages to restore the cultivated land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Agricultural Science & Technology (1008-0864) is the property of Journal of Agricultural Science & Technology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The contradiction between rural socioeconomic changes and residents' demands for a better life poses challenges for sustainable development. Industrial revitalization is a core issue in promoting rural economic development. Specialized villages, which focus on specific industries and excel in certain areas, are important pathways for increasing farmers' income, promoting industrial prosperity, and advancing agricultural modernization. However, there has been limited research on the spatial distribution and transformation patterns of rural industrial development models. In particular, in the context of rapid rural restructuring, understanding the spatial evolution of specialized villages is important for future rural development. Taking Henan Province—an important agricultural province in China—as a case, this study finds that the spatial evolution of specialized villages can be divided into six stages and three transformations corresponding to time period. The specialized villages show a spatial pattern of center–periphery, spatial agglomeration, and periphery–center development. In line with China's shift from quantitative expansion to qualitative reform, the types of specialized villages gradually diversified, driven by socioeconomic development and human behavioral factors in different periods. Although China's specialized villages show diversified development patterns, there remains a need to identify development patterns that are consistent with different types of villages to achieve high-quality development, fully implement rural revitalization, and provide typical cases for global sustainable development. By summarizing the development patterns of specialized villages, this study helps to accurately determine the value of specialized villages in rural development and to design more targeted paths for the development of rural industries, which is significant for promoting sustainable rural development and enhancing human well-being. • A typical model of rural industrial development is studied - specialized villages. • Evolutionary process was categorised following historical periodisation of China. • Spatial structure has evolved from discrete and isomorphic to diversified network. • Transformation mechanisms under the combined effect of multiple factors is explained. • Differentiated patterns go beyond linear transformation in contemporary China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spin-оff enterprises, founded in the academic environment, are technology-based enterprises which are based on the technological achievements produced by R&D activities and are established from universities and research institutes. It is a very important method of achievements industrialization in the world. This paper analyzes the necessity of developing agricultural science and technology Spin-off enterprises, the current situation and problems of agricultural science and technology enterprises, and puts forward suggestions for the developing of agricultural Spin-off enterprises, in order to provide reference for the rapid development of agricultural Spin-off enterprises in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of the agricultural supply-side structural reform, the mung bean and Adzuki bean industry has ushered in new opportunities and developed rapidly. Research results indicated as follows: The production of mung bean and Adzuki bean in China showed a trend of recovery growth, and the regional layout changes slightly, the quantity of export fluctuates smoothly, while the quantity of import was relatively stable. It was expected that the demand and the added value of mung bean and Adzuki bean in China would continue to increase in future. However, the market risk would continue to increase as well, while the scientific support would not be able to meet the needs of industrial development in the short term. To achieve healthy and sustainable development of mung bean and Adzuki bean industry, it was recommended to establish a large,scale, standardized production base for mung bean and Adzuki bean. Then, the financial support policy and investment in scientific research for mung bean and Adzuki bean industry should be noticed. Finally, the information network construction for mung bean and Adzuki bean should be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expanded agricultural trade deficit in recent years concern about the international competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products. In this paper, guided by Michael Porter's diamond model theory, based on agricultural production and trade data in China and the world from 1986 to 2011, we use principal component analysis, cointegration and vector error correction model, to perform an empirical analysis of the impact of agricultural modernization , economic growth and industrialization on the international competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products. The results show that China's agricultural modernization is slow, the demand for agricultural products caused by economic growth is increased, and excessive rural labor transfer due to industrialization leads to decline in the international competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products. China should increase its efforts to promote the modernization of agriculture and level of industry nurturing agriculture ; use WTO rules to create a good international and domestic environment for the development of China's agriculture and improvement of the international competitiveness of agricultural products; give full play to the role of demand n boosting the industrial upgrading of domestic agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the natural environment and agricultural systems induced by economic and industrial development, including population dynamics (growth, urbanization, migration), are major causes resulting in the persistence, emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases in developing countries. In the face of rapid demographic, economic and social transformations, the People's Republic of China (P.R. China) is undergoing unprecedented environmental and agricultural change. We review emerging and re-emerging diseases such as schistosomiasis, dengue, avian influenza, angiostrongyliasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis that have occurred in P.R. China due to environmental and agricultural change. This commentary highlights the research priorities and the response strategies, namely mitigation and adaptation, undertaken to eliminate the resurgence of those infectious diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through overview of relevant literature and on the basis of basically grasping frontier study and development trend, this paper discussed the grain security from industrial structure, farmland protection, grain import, urbanization and industrialization, gain reserve, ecological protection, and grain security pre-warning, in the hope of providing some convenience and reference for future related researches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture modernization is a continuous process of reorganization of agriculture's production factors, preceded and led by industrialization and urbanization. The centerpiece of this process is to achieve a dynamic balance between the incomes of agricultural laborers and non-agricultural workers. It is necessary for China to lower the percentage of agricultural workers to such a level so that a suitable production scale can be achieved. The future model for Chinese agricultural modernization should be suitable production scale one that acknowledges the importance of the productivity of land and labor with the basis of family business. To further progress, systematic design at the highest levels must be re-constructed so that the push for modernization from industrialization and urbanization could trickle down to reorganizing agriculture' s production factors,and remodeling of agriculture's micro-foundations,building an exit mechanism for agricultural laborers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The spike in global food prices in 2007–08 not only led to riots on several continents; it also reawakened fears about the world's future ability to feed itself, as growing populations place greater demands on agricultural systems operating in increasingly difficult environmental and climatic conditions. With more than half the world's people and high levels of inequality, Asia lies at the centre of the global food-security challenge of the twenty-first century. The region – especially China and India – is drawing on world stocks and importing more staples, as its own farms strain to meet the growing middle classes’ desire for more meat and processed foods. Meanwhile, the smallholder farmers who supply 80% of the continent's food confront continued poverty, as they struggle to raise output in the face of creeping environmental degradation, looming water shortages and the unpredictable effects of climate change. As thisAdelphishows, there are no simple solutions. Today, rice is exported while some households still go hungry, unrest grows as land is appropriated for biofuels or industry, and nations compete over waters and fishing rights. Only integrated policies that take into account the complex socio-economic and political aspects of food security have any chance of succeeding. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

China's sustainable development goals and carbon neutrality targets cannot be achieved without revolutionary transitions of the agricultural sector. The rapid development of digital technologies is believed to play a huge role in this revolution. The ongoing prevention and control of COVID-19 has greatly boosted the penetration of digital technology services in all areas of society, and sustainable transformation driven by digital technologies and services is rapidly becoming an area of innovation and research. Studies have shown that the rapid advancement of digitalization is also accompanied by a series of new governance challenges and problems: (1) unclear strategic orientation and inadequate policy and regulatory responses; (2) various stakeholders have not formed a sustainable community of interest; (3) information explosion is accompanied by information fragmentation and digital divide between countries and populations within countries. Meanwhile, current research has focused more on the role of digital services in urban governance and industrial development and lacks systematic research on its role in sustainable agricultural and rural development. To address the realities faced by different stakeholders in the process of digital transformation of agriculture, this paper aims to propose an inclusive analytical framework based on the meta-governance theory to identify and analyze the demand, supply, actor networks, and incentives in the digital technology-and-services-driven sustainable agricultural transformation, starting from the goals and connotations of sustainable agricultural and rural transformation and the interactions among different stakeholders in governing information flows. This analytical framework is further applied to analyze the cases of China and the EU. Although China and the EU represent different development phases and policy contexts, the framework is valid for capturing the characteristics of information flows and actor networks along the flows. It is concluded that a common information platform based on the stakeholder network would benefit all stakeholders, help reach common framing of issues, and maintain a dynamic exchange of information. Depending on the country context, different types of stakeholders may play different roles in creating, supervising, and maintaining such platforms. Digital infrastructures/products as hardware and farmers digital capacity as 'software' are the two wings for digital sustainable transformation. Innovative incentives from different countries may inspire each other. In any case, farmers' actual farming behavior changes should be an important criterion for evaluating the effects and effectiveness of digital transition governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between agricultural technology progress and farmers' income growth has received much attention from scholars in domestic and international society. Since W. Cochrane proposed "Agriculture Step Hypothesis," the view that agricultural technology progress is unfavorable for farmers' income growth has been widely disseminated. Some empirical researches support this view, which makes some China's agricultural policies that aim to increase farmers' income by improving the agricultural technology into a confused position. But there are some important weaknesses of these empirical researches: Firstly, they emphasize merely analysis from a micro-perspective. Secondly, they are only base on some statistical data over a specific period of time. Thirdly, a large number of researches pay much attention to the effect of agricultural technology progress on farmers' income, while few of them take farmers' non-agricultural income into consideration. Since the Reforming and Opening, especially along with the increasing industrialization, urbanization, marketization and internationalization, the rural labor force has presented non-agriculture transfer and the Chinese agriculture has apparent multi-development feature of 'half farmers and half workers" and "male workers and female farmers." Therefore, agricultural technology progress in China should have impact on farmers' income on both agricultural income growth and non-agricultural income growth, the latter of which is influenced by technological progress indirectly. This paper calculates the rate of agricultural technology progress and its contribution based on the annual time-series data from 1980 to 2011 in China. The VAR model with Co-integration and impulse response functions are employed to explore the relationships between the agricultural technology progress and farmers' income growth and non-agricultural income growth as well from 1986 to 2010. The result shows that the agricultural technology progress in China positively impacts farmers' income growth not only in terms of the long term but also in terms of the short term. Additionally, it also increases the non-agricultural income of farmers to some extent and these two variables, that is agricultural technology progress and non-agricultural income, are mutual Granger causes to each other. This empirical result indicates, as the agricultural market reform and industrialization in China, the market of agricultural product gradually becomes open from the closed status at the beginning of reform and opening up and the macro environment of agriculture development in China has experienced profound changes. In this context, on one hand, by adjustment of agricultural structure, optimizing the allocation of agricultural resources, changing the pattern of agricultural economic development, agricultural technology progress has contributed to growth of agricultural economic thus promoting farmers' income, on one side. On the other hand, agricultural technology progress has promoted non-agricultural income growth of farmers through the rural surplus labor force transfer. Apparently, the result denies the view that agricultural technology progress is unfavorable for farmers' income growth but gives support to the policy hypothesis that agricultural technology progress could promote farmers' income growth. The policy implication is as follows: with farmers' income growth as the goal, the government should increase agricultural research investment, and carry forward agricultural technology innovation and perfect agricultural technology popularization system. On the premise of promoting agricultural marketization as well as stabling and raising the agriculture product price, farmers' income growth should be the main policy objective and essential evaluation mark of agricultural technology progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper examines resource uses on the coast of Jiangsu Province, China. It focuses on mudflat development and describes and evaluates the diverse resource uses, such as agriculture, fisheries, tourism and nature reserves, harbors and industrial development, and the salt and the chemical industry, that are found there. Continuous population growth and economic demands have resulted in conflicts between the multiple uses and mudflat protection. It is suggested that more attention should be paid to utilization efficiency and high value-added mudflat products. A conceptual framework is presented to guide mudflat development and suitable uses for each county are suggested to support local livelihoods and maintain healthy ecological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The benefits of today's Indo-globalization have bypassed those most in need: the nearly 70% of the workforce that remains in agriculture. Only about 1.3 million of the total workforce have a tangible stake in India's vaunted New Economy. While that globalized sector lifts the aggregate economy toward nearly double digit growth, there will be little of China's labor-intensive industrialization to take up the slack as 70 million Indians enter the workforce over the next five years. This is a country with more indigenous billionaires than any except the US, yet one in three of the 1.1 billion population subsists on less than $1 per day. These are not the wages of substantive democracy, or even sustainable plutocracy. Globalized India will sink or swim by how well it negotiates its coming clash between haves and have-nots. Talk of a “Shining India” almost always omits reference to the rising scourge of Naxalism in the derelict countryside. The rural meltdown has reached such a scale that the usual Naxalite question must be reversed. Instead of asking how the movement became so widespread, we should ponder why it is not wider still. There is no doubt that the Other India will fight back against globalization on these terms. The only question is whether this resistance can be brought into the fold of mainstream Indian politics, thereby producing a uniquely democratic Indo-globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1978, there has been a remarkable diversification trend in rural China, characterized by an impressive development of rural enterprises. The main objective of this paper is to understand the forces driving this agro-industrial diversification with a particular attention paid to two categories of factors, agricultural income risks and institutional factors. Using a panel data of 28 Chinese provinces from 1986 to 2001, we show that the diversification decision is jointly determined by relative return between agriculture and rural industry, climatic risks, price volatility of agriculture products, ownership evolution of rural enterprises, and government's food security concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Tiers Monde is the property of Librairie Armand Colin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

China's rapid industrialization and recent accession to the WTO makes it difficult for the country to maintain self-sufficiency in agricultural products. Genetic modification technology could ease the situation, but is not without controversy. This paper focuses on the implication of GMO controversy for China. It explores the potential economic effects of China's not adopting versus adopting GMOs when some of its trading partners adopt that technology. The effects are shown to depend to a considerable extent on the trade policy stance taken in high-income countries that are opposed to GMOs, and/or on the liberalization of China's trade in textiles and apparel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposes a framework to estimate how market liberalization reforms affect the behavior of agricultural product producers in China. Stages in the liberalization of China's agricultural market; Factors which affect the productivity of agricultural producers; Characteristics of the mathematical models used to measure the behavioral effects of market liberalization.

Urbanisation rates in China have been low compared to other countries at similar stages of development. We examine recent trends in China's urbanisation process in the context of a disequilibrium supply and demand model for urban residents with relative urban food consumption as a proxy for wages. This model takes into consideration the roles of the agricultural and industrial sectors in the context of a non-market economy where institutional arrangements and policy regimes play important roles in determining urbanisation levels. We find persistent periods of disequilibrium prior to the introduction of reforms in 1978. Throughout the post-reform era there has been a markedly improved balance between urban population levels, urban food consumption, and industrial and agricultural production levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on economic and social policy of China. In order to make China a modern, powerful socialist country by the end of the century, people must work and fight hard in the political, economic, cultural, military and diplomatic spheres, but in the final analysis what is of decisive importance is the rapid development of the socialist economy. On 26 February 1978, Chairman Hua Kuo-feng of the People's Republic of China delivered a report on the work of the Government at the First Session of the Fifth National People's Congress. The report stresses the primacy of the agricultural sector, discusses an ambitious industrialization program, and deals with the related issues of economic management, work incentives, and income distribution. Targets that are spelled out in Specific quantitative terms are relatively scarce in the report. Conspicuous emphasis on the importance of rapid agricultural development culminates in the setting of a grain-production target of 400 million tons by 1985.

This article focuses on the reform of the Hukou system. During the 1950s, the People's Republic of China adopted a development strategy, the core element of which was rapid industrialization. The main target was output maximization through high accumulation; strong emphasis was put on the growth of heavy industry, while agriculture was neglected and even discriminated against. In order to make the industrialization process as efficient as possible, growth of the urban population (for urban areas were where most industry was located) was restricted. This was done by encouraging urban dwellers (especially women) to enter the labor force, limiting employment in service industries, and adopting a capital- rather than labor-intensive approach to industrial development. Prior to 1978, this led to a situation where the proportion of nonagricultural workers in the total population grew more rapidly than the proportion of the urban population. Urban wages were generally higher than rural incomes especially on a household basis, because of increased female labor participation and urban dwellers were given a wide range of welfare benefits.

This article focuses on the book "Technology Development in Rural Industries: A Study of China's Collectives," by Hannah Piek. The book studies the development and acquisition of technology by a group of small- and medium-sized rural industries in two counties of Sichuan province, China-Saniai and Qianwei. It provides an overview of types of development and industrialization strategies, reviews the history of development efforts in China, and introduces the inter-enterprise, enterprise-institutional, and intra-enterprise technology acquisition strategies. It uses secondary longitudinal data about rural industries and rural manufacturing for the period 1980-91, primary longitudinal data on a sample of ninety-two enterprises for the same period of time, cross-section data from the same sample, and interviews with sixty-two informants to investigate whether the position of collectives within rural industry and rural manufacturing has changed between 1980 and 1990.