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China's grain output, 1978-2004

During the Mao years (1949-76) the communist leadership practised a policy of self-sufficiency in food and made farmers grow grain to the detriment of cash crops.

In the 1950s, all family farms were aggregated into co-operative farms, which were then merged into the rural people's communes. Collectivisation did not result in bumper harvests. Instead, it allowed the nationwide application of mad pseudo-scientific policies which led to a major famine in 1959-61.

After Deng Xiaoping took over economic policy in 1978 he introduced a responsibility system in agriculture which resulted in the disbandment of almost all the communes and the restoration of family farming by 1982. Crop yields rose and the national grain harvest shot up from 304.8 million tonnes in 1978 to 407.3 million tonnes in 1984.

Application of fertilisers and other technological innovations further raised grain output well above the 500 million tonne mark by the late 1990s.

However, the continued decrease in crop acreage resulting from rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, combined with a drift of farm labour to the cities, has driven output down. The resulting reduction of grain output per head of population is causing an increase in grain imports.

In 2004 agricultural tax reductions and other incentive measures contributed to a recovery to 469.5 million tonnes.