Impacts of China's Rural Land Policy and Administration on Rural Economy and Grain Production

Hongye Zhang, Xiaofeng Li and Xiaomei Shao

Review of Policy Research, 2006, vol. 23, issue 2, 607-624

Abstract: The distinctive changes in China's rural land policy and administration have exerted significant impacts on China's rural socioeconomic development and grain production, either positively or negatively. This article reviews the changes of China's rural land policy and administration in the recent 5 decades. After the land reform accomplished in 1952 and the people's commune system implemented during 1952–1978, China adopted a house responsibility system, which was proven to be effective for increasing grain output and peasants’ income. Yet, it preserved the urban–rural dichotomous economy, formed in the people's commune era, which placed agriculture in a secondary position. The low efficiency in agricultural production and the small‐scale household management, under the current rural land policy and administration, stimulated the transfers of agricultural laborers to the nonagricultural sectors and cultivated land to urban land. Grain production and cultivated land protection in China are conducted most times under the political mandates rather than the economic guidance. Although the previous rural land policies and the strict residence registration helped China to avoid problems prevailing in prime cities of other developing countries, compulsorily asking peasants to grow more grain and to stay in their native land resulted in outstanding social injustice, vulnerable grain production systems, and poverty in rural areas. There are also outstanding conflicts among the interests of central government, local governments, collectives, and peasant households. More flexible rural land policies and more strict cultivated land administrations could be solutions for improving the profitability of grain production and protecting the rapidly declining cultivated land. Compensations for the low profitability in grain production are also needed to encourage an increase in grain output and rural economy.

Date: 2006
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