By R,M. Tait, A.A. Bomke and G Kennedy, UBC Faculty of Agricultural Sciences

Part of the course reserves for Agricultural Sciences 250, September 28, 1999

China, with one-fifth of the world's population and a land mass third in area after Canada and Russia, is vitally concerned about agriculture. Approximately two-thirds or 800 million Chinese people live in rural areas with 30% involved in full time agricultural production in order to feed the existing population. China has a gross national product of about $500 US, and a life expectancy of 70 years.

China has a socialist economic system. The agricultural system that supplies basic food and fiber for the population is "capital saving"; land, labor and crop intensive. Except for isolated "Westernized" areas, China's agriculture may be contrasted with that of the United States of America, where less than 5% of the population is involved directly with agriculture and yet 25% of American agricultural production is available for export.

Inputs and products of Chinese agriculture will be briefly discussed, followed by examples of the Chinese response to capital and land shortages for agriculture. Finally, the impact of the political changes in China on agricultural development will be outlines.

In discussing agricultural development in China, we will look at two eras, China under Mao Tse-tung from 1949 to 1976, and the post-Mao era since that time.

Input to Chinese Agriculture

a) Land/Climate/Crops

Although China is a large country, only 10% of the land area is arable. At present about 100 million hectares are used for arable agriculture. With a population of over one billion, this means that there is currently only about 0.1 hectare of arable land per person, in comparison to 0.35 hectares/person in B.C.

The soil resource is variable, providing some constraints to productivity. In the southeast particularly, the soil is of low native fertility as a result of laterization, a process of intensive soil weathering and chemical change in which bases and silica are leached away. This leaves aluminum and iron oxides which give the soils their characteristic reddish brown color. The drier climate in the northwest results in little leaching and an accumulation of calcium in the soil.

The climate is diverse and related to topographic variation from high mountains to rolling plains and latitudes ranging from 22^oN to 50^oN. Winds tend to blow from north to south in winter and in the opposite direction in summer. The southeastern region of the country tends to be tropical with 1200 mm of precipitation annually, similar in amount to the Fraser Valley of B.C. In contrast to coastal B.C. most rain falls during the summer. Central China receives 500-1200 mm of precipitation annually while less rain falls in the steppes of desert areas of the west.

The number of days in the growing season ranges from 365 in the southeast to only 160 (similar to Kamloops, B.C.) in the northeast tip of the country. From the Shanghai area (240-260 growing season days) to the south of China, the length of the growing season provides the potential for double cropping and even triple cropping. Rice and winter wheat are double cropped in the 260 - 280 growing day region in the central area of eastern China, while rice is doubled cropped in the south. Note that direct land/person comparisons of China vs. B.C. are invalid because there is little double cropping potential in B. C. Regardless, the large population in China puts a heavy stress on the land resource.

Land degradation is another problem in China. As a result of the characteristics of the land, the climate, intensive use, and deforestation because of fuel needs, soil erosion, salinization and even desertification are significant problems.

b) Labor

China has a large rural population. Although only 30% of its people are involved full-time in agriculture, 80% of the population live in rural areas. This is because China developed small factories and workshops throughout the countryside rather than creating urban industries. The retention of people in the countryside is in contrast to many other countries in which rural migration and urbanization have occurred to a much greater extent. The 50% of the rural population who are not full time farmers form a reserve labor force for dealing with peak season needs.

The policy of encouraging local self-sufficiency and encouraging people to stay in the countryside has minimized the problems other countries have experienced with rapid urbanization. Much arable land has, as a result, been lost to rural housing and small scale industrial development. Because of the extremely high ratio of people to arable land, any losses or degradation of productive land put additional stress on remaining land and decrease the margin of safety in feeding the population. To combat this trend China has enacted measures (in 1987) to limit the quantity of land requisitioned for non-agricultural uses and to reclaim land degraded by industrial activities (e.g., mining).

Intensive use of labor is part of the Chinese system of intense land use and crop production. Almost everything is done by hand: harvesting, pest control and planting. No land is wasted on machinery paths or turnarounds. Precise planting, irrigation, fertilization, etc., all help maximize the productivity of each unit of land. China has quantity and is improving the quality of its labor force.

The Chinese people are relatively healthy and literate. The recent increase in life expectancy up to 69 years has come, at least partly, as a result of improved health care. China has created a unique decentralized health care system involving paramedical personnel, known as "barefoot doctors", who have provided medical care throughout the countryside. With good health came a strong labor force and reduced time lost to illness. However, there is only 69% adult literacy with only 60% of Chinese youth finishing high school. This lack of education provides some constraint to development in China, but the situation is improving. With the longer life span has come more incentive to acquire education and skills.

 c) Capital

Chinese agriculture is a "capital-saving" system. Inputs have largely been the traditional ones of human and animal power. Mao's policy in the 1950's was to put the majority of the capital into manufacturing, relying on "collectivization" to make up for depriving agriculture of capital. In fact, less than 17% of total capital was invested in agriculture.

 d) Support Energy

China has domestic supplies of coal and petroleum; however, little support energy has been utilized in agriculture. Draft animals and human power are heavily relied upon rather than tractors and trucks as is common in North American agriculture. Transportation is also hindered by lack of roads and fuel. This has led to the policies of regional self-sufficiency and some interference with comparative advantages among regions. Perhaps the biggest indirect input of support energy is in the use of chemical fertilizer.

 e) Fertilizer

For over 3,000 years China relied on organic fertilizers such as barnyard manure, crop residues, composts and human wastes. Available organic fertilizers are now fully utilized and any additional nutrients must come from chemical fertilizers. Already China is the world's largest user of fertilizer N. The NPK ratio in fertilizers used in China is 100:28:9. This is substantially lower in P and K than the world ratio of 100:50:40. The Canadian International Development Agency and the Potash and Phosphate Institute of Canada have contributed over a million dollars to aid China in research and promotion of this concept of balanced fertilization and the efficient use of K, most of which will come from mines in Saskatchewan.

 f) Other Inputs

Although machinery is expensive, some equipment is being used to reduce "bottlenecks" such as seeding and harvest time and to augment rather than replace human labor. Land productivity is increased by irrigation and drainage. Pesticides are used for crop protection; however, lower cost biological or human controls are preferred, e.g., hand picking insects off plants, hand weeding.

Products

The emphasis in China has been on crops, not livestock. Mao attempted to "take grain as the main link". For many years now grains have supplied 85% of all the calories consumed by the people of China. Over 80% of China's 100 million hectares of arable land is devoted to grain crops. Rice, wheat and corn are the most important and are grown in all provinces, assuring regional self-sufficiency in food. Overall, however, wheat is favored for the dry farming areas of the north while rice is more common in the irrigated areas south of the Yangtze River (Figure 7.2). Other drops include millet, sorghum, barley, oats, soybeans, cotton, peanuts and rapeseed.

There is, nonetheless, a substantial livestock industry in China, including pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, buffalo, yaks, poultry, rabbits and an emerging dairy industry. Let's look at some comparisons:

On a per capita basis we can see that China and Canada have similar numbers of hogs, but China has proportionally more sheep and goats and fewer large animals such as cattle. Their dairy cow numbers are very low, but we must remember that their goats contribute to milk production.

Distribution of livestock in China is somewhat regional. More hogs are found in eastern China, with livestock production near urban areas focusing on hogs and poultry, particularly ducks. The grain allowance per Chinese household did not increase from 1957 to 1980; in this period larger grain supplies were channeled into pig and poultry production. Indeed, the Chinese government has been concerned about a recent trend to decreasing pig numbers to institute material incentives (such as awarding a bicycle) to encourage production.

Large animal production - the cattle, buffalo, and yaks - is centered  mainly in the north and west regions of China where the ruminant animals use the range in a pastoral type of system. Large animals are important not only as food, but also for draft and transportation.

Although China has limited production of animal products, employing comparatively lower levels of technology than that used for crop production, it is an important part of their system. Garbage and low quality feeds are utilized in livestock production with manure as a valuable by-product. Indeed, the Chinese system is the epitome of recycling. Nothing is wasted. Anything with plant nutrient content is recycled back to the soil for fertilizer or soil conditioning, or is used in anaerobic digesters to generate methane gas as an energy source prior to land application.

Mao's China (1949-1976)

The communist revolution occurred in an environment in which there was widespread poverty and starvation. A wealthy few lived in a manner that contrasted greatly with the vast majority of the Chinese people. Fifty percent of the land was owned by absentee landlords who rented the land to peasants. The ravages of World War II and the Japanese occupation had left agriculture in a stagnant condition. Mao Tse-tung reorganized agriculture to meet four main goals:

1) meet basic food needs;

2) achieve full employment;

3) achieve an egalitarian society;

4) improve efficiency.

 An implicit objective in changing China's agriculture from traditional methods was to consolidate the power of the Communist party.

The target for the basic food supply was a daily ration of 500g of rice, with more allowed for a worker in heavy labor. Full employment meant that everyone had work for 300 days a year, with equal pay for equal work (egalitarianism). These goals resulted in what has come to be known as the "iron rice bowl" and "eating from the communal pot". The "iron rice bowl" implied an unbreakable rice bowl; that is, each worker had a job guaranteed and had rice to eat, regardless of the efforts he or she expended. Workers were hired, but not fired; promoted, but not demoted. The term "eating from the communal pot" refers to the fact that, since benefits from production were pooled and then shared, workers received an adequate share from the communal pot regardless of their individual contribution. There was a philosophy of "from each according to his means, to each according to his needs."

Efficiency meant growth in production to provide food for an increasing population.

 Means

The means to achieve the above goals were developed in a socialist model. That is, the means of production were taken over by the state and decision making centralized. Almost 85% of China's agriculture was organized into large communes. The communes were subdivided into a three-tier hierarchy. The lowest tier was the household, with about 100 to 300 households forming a village and 20 villages forming a commune of about 40,000 people. At the household level, there were production teams; at the village level, production brigades. Most decisions were made at the commune level and production quotas, methods, etc., were dictated to the production brigade and finally to the teams. This system was to provide some economies of scale, a readily mobilized pool of labor and a more rapid adoption of new technology. A system of work incentives was established to replace the natural incentives of a farmer working for himself and his family. At the commune level, quotas were established, while at the individual worker level, there was a work-point system, which depended on time spent and the difficulty of the job. The private plots of land provided to peasants in land reform following the revolution were nationalized. Did the commune system work? To answer this question we must return to the goals set for Chinese agriculture.

First, it did meet basic food needs. Grain production per capita was maintained -- no small achievement considering the rapid population increase. The distribution system was poor and regional famines did occur; however, food was provided to people on a more equitable basis than before 1948. Full employment was achieved, but the people often did not have jobs which permitted them to work to their full potential. A truly egalitarian society was not achieved. The urban standard of living was twice that in the rural areas. It was necessary to prohibit migration from the countryside to the cities in order to keep people in communes. Regional disparities were also problematic, resulting from differences in the relative availability of resources.

Was the system efficient? Did production increase? The emphasis on investment in the industrial sector increased its productivity and efficiency; however, the performance of agriculture was not as impressive. Grain production per capita was maintained, although the availability of other food commodities such as vegetables and meat declined. To some extent this was due to the nationalization of the private plots and elimination of local markets through which farmers supplied these foods. Real incomes did not increase although the welfare of the people increased dramatically through improved living conditions, health care and increased education.

Deng’s China (1977-1997)

In 1978 Deng Xiaoping set China on a path of liberalization and growth. His policies resulted in some significant changes in the means to organize society and the Chinese economy. Socialism remained the overall political philosophy, with people organized into communes, however, this system was now considered the means and not the end goal. There was a "farewell" to the communal pot and the introduction of the "responsibility system". As shown diagrammatically below, the production was contracted to the households and decision-making regarding production and consumption decentralized. The land is still owned by the state, but peasants are allowed to market products in excess of their quota in private markets. Also, they are now allowed to own farm implements and other machinery.

Have the reintroduction of economic incentives and increased capital investment in agriculture increased its efficiency? The answer appears to be yes. In fact, the growth rate in agricultural output increased from 3.2% per year during 1953 - 1978 to 5.7% per year during 1980 - 1991.

What about the other original goals set for Chinese agriculture?

Egalitarianism is still a goal and efforts to achieve it have resulted in the reduction of the income disparity between rural and urban areas. A greater income discrepancy in rural areas has been permitted, however. Peasants with good resources and markets now earn up to $3,000 U.S. per year while there are still 45 counties where average per capita income is $30 per year. The Chinese government is under pressure to do more to reduce rural poverty. There appears to be less emphasis on full employment and some unemployment is tolerated. The problems of unemployment and regional disparities are not unique to China. The government of Canada faces the same problems although perhaps not quite to the same degree of urgency.

Social Implications

On balance, the "Responsibility System" seems to have had a positive effect on Chinese agriculture, although not all farmers are in a position to benefit. There are some potential stresses emerging. These include:

In summary, China has harnessed as large pool of labor to overcome shortages of material capital and natural resources. Chinese farmers have increased productivity by a number of adaptations to shortages of capital and land. These include:

The new pressure of the large population on the limited land resource makes the food production system of China vulnerable to adverse climatic events and soil degradation. Strong leadership is required to strike a balance between improving efficiency and the egalitarian ideals and maintaining the environmental and political stability needed to continue improving the well-being of the Chinese people.

China today

The politics, society and economy of China are very dynamic. The best way to assess the current situation is through up-to-date reports and web sites. Interesting questions to consider include:

1. Who will feed China in the future?
2. How to remove the discrepancy between rural incomes and the much higher urban incomes?
3. How to deal with environmental degradation that plagues much of the countryside?