Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
almost at the tme reformers were decdng to de-collectvse. Agrcultural
procurement prices have continued to increase gradually since the 1980s.
Studies confirm the strong impact of these price changes on output during
the early and late years of transition (Lin 1992; Fan 1991; Huang and Rozelle
1996; Fan and Pardey 1997).
In addition to pricing changes and de-collectivisation, another major task
of reformers after the mid 1980s was to create more efficient institutions
of exchange. Markets—whether classic competitive ones or some workable
substitute—increase efficiency by facilitating transactions among agents
to allow specalsaton and trade and provde nformaton through the
prcng mechansm to producers and consumers about the relatve scarcty
of resources. After 1985, although the process proceeded in a stop-start
manner, market liberalisation began in earnest. Changes in the procurement
system, further reductions in restrictions on commodities trading, moves to
commercalse the state gran tradng system and calls for the expanson of
markets n rural and urban areas led to a surge n market-orented actvty.
For example, in 1980, there were only 241,000 private and semi-private
trading enterprises registered with the State Markets Bureau; by 1990,
there were more than 5.2 mllon (de Brauw et al. 2002).
Despite its stop-start nature, as the right to private trading was extended
to nclude surplus output of all agrcultural products after contractual
obligations to the State were fulfilled, the foundations of the state marketing
system began to be undermned (Rozelle et al. 2000). Reformers elmnated
all planned procurement of agricultural products other than rice, wheat,
maze and cotton; government commercal departments could buy and sell
only through the market. For grain, improved producer incentives were
ntroduced through reductons n the volume of the compulsory delvery
quotas and increases in procurement prices. Even for grain, the share of
the compulsory quota procurement reached 29 per cent of output in 1984
but declined to 18 per cent in 1985 and to 13 per cent in 1990. The share
of the negotiated procurement at market prices increased from only 3 per
cent in 1985 to 6 per cent in 1985 and to 12 per cent in 1990.
Technology and water infrastructure development.
Agrcultural research
in China remains almost completely run by the government. Reflecting the
urban bias of food policy, most crop breeding programs have emphasised fine
