Transformation of grain production and the rice frontier in modernizing China

Abstract

This paper examines the transformation of the Chinese grain production during the process of modernization after the economic reform/open door policy, especially focusing on the unshakable position that rice production has historically occupied in China. The first section illustrates how food crops decreased in Chinese agriculture in the period of 1985-2001. Furthermore, the rice production in the south stagnated or decreased, while it gradually became more important in northern China. The second section shows the pattern of local rice production in the Northeast, within northern China, and how a new rice frontier emerged in the north of Heilongjiang Province and the west of Jilin Province (both of which are cold and dry areas with alkaline soil). The third section is devoted to a case study of the rice frontier in the Northeast, which deals with the role of rice production and how production was either supported or restricted. We come to the hypothesis, as a conclusion, that development of the rice production in the Northeast did not only mean an actual increase in Japonica type of rice (high quality rice), but it also had an impact on the situation in the southern rice-growing areas. This might amount to a challenge to the South imposed by the North in the near future.