Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
grains (rice and wheat). For national food self-sufficiency considerations,
higher yields have been the major target of China's research program, except
n recent years when qualty mprovement was ntroduced nto the naton's
development plan. Although there have been several prvate domestc and
joint-venture investments in agricultural research and development, policies
still discriminate against them. Today, the record of reform of the agricultural
technology system s mxed and ts mpact on technologcal developments
and crop productvty s unclear. Emprcal evdence demonstrates that
whle agrcultural technology has played a crtcal role n Chna's agrcultural
productivity growth, the effectiveness of China's agricultural research
capabltes has been declnng (Jn et al. 2002).
Before the economic reforms, the State's agricultural investment was
focused on building dams and canal networks, often with the input of
corvée labour from farmers. After the 1970s, greater focus was given to
ncreasng the use of Chna's massve groundwater resources (Wang et
al. 2006). By 2005, China had more tube wells than any country in the
world—except possibly India. Although initially this investment was made by
local governments with aid from county and provincial water bureaux, by
the 1990s the natonal government was encouragng the shft n ownershp
that was occurrng as pump sets and wells and other rrgaton equpment
went largely nto the hands of farm households (Wang 2000). At the same
time, private water markets (whereby farmers pumped water from their
own wells and sold t to other farmers n the vllage) were also encouraged.
The man polcy ntatve n the surface-water sector after the md 1990s
was management reform (wth the goal of tryng to make water use more
efficient).
Trade policy.
In addton to mportant changes n foregn exchange polcy
(changes that saw the naton's currency deprecate steeply and tradng
rights become more accessible during the 1980s and 1990s), there have
been a number of other fundamental reforms of Chna's nternatonal
tradng system. Lower tarffs and rsng mports and exports of agrcultural
products began to affect domestic terms of trade in the 1980s. Initially,
most of the declne n protecton affected commodtes that were
controlled by single-desk, state traders (Huang and Chen 1999). For many
products, competition among non-state foreign trade corporations began
