Food Sector in Chinese Industrialisation Under Mao

This chapter examines the significant transformations within China’s food sector since 1947. Initial policies, such as land reforms and the restructuring of rural production into communes, brigades and production teams, fundamentally altered China’s rural production form. Some scholars believe that the rise in food output during this period can be attributed to the adoption of these new production forms and the “Dazhai” model of labour mobilisation. Additionally, from 1953, the state’s stringent control over food procurement and retailing enabled the Maoist government to redistribute agricultural welfare and reallocate surplus from the food sector to urban industries. However, the effectiveness of these measures diminished as food output failed to keep pace with population growth, leading to a severe recession in agriculture under Mao’s strict regime, which jeopardised China’s food self-sufficiency. In 1979, Deng Xiaoping introduced reforms, beginning with the de-collectivisation of agriculture. This marked a stark departure from Maoist collective farming. Yet, the essential role of China’s agriculture in supporting urban industry remained fundamentally unchanged.