Overview

China faces major challenges in generating viable and inclusive agricultural and rural development. However, rapid economic growth provides new opportunities to meet the challenges. In particular, the development of higher value agrifood chains provides opportunities for rural households to increase their levels of specialisation, scale and incomes, and for rural areas to broaden their employment and tax bases. While an agricultural and rural development strategy based on upgrading agrifood chains is widely described and prescribed, it has not proceeded without problems and has been the subject of little rigorous scrutiny. This book presents an industry case study that draws on a novel methodological framework and reliable micro-level data to provide a nuanced, grounded and diachronic analysis of China's efforts to upgrade agrifood chains. While China seeks to fast-track the development of high value agrifood chains through interventionist policies, a more viable and inclusive modernisation strategy is to incrementally develop mid-value agrifood chains through facilitative policies.This and other findings of the book will be of interest to policy makers, researchers and development agencies working on agricultural and rural development in China and other developing and transition countries.

Full Product Details

9781443825078

Table of Contents

Reviews

Modernising Agrifood Chains in China: Implications for Rural Development provides an indepth economic exploration of this subject via a rural industry case study,which simply cannot be found in traditional applied economics journal articles. [...] The effectiveness of the author's approach to analyzing China's agrifood chains and the applicability of the conceptual research framework to other industries by outside researchers is one of the key contributions of this work. I recommend this book to readers interested in the intersection of agribusiness and international development, particularly those looking for a conceptual framework upon which to base future research in the area of agrifood chains. - David L. Ortega, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 95:4 (July 2013), 1046-1048. This book enlightens debate over strategies for the modernisation of China's agriculture. Its case study of China's beef industry from farm to plate highlights new opportunities and challenges. Arguments are developed for an appropriate modernisation strategy that aims at 'mid-value' markets, which is aligned to market forces and the interests of industry participants. The book's new insights will be of great value to policymakers, development agencies and researchers. - Allan N. Rae, Professor Emeritus, Massey University, New Zealand

Author Information

Scott Waldron is a Research Fellow at The China Agricultural Economics Group at The University of Queensland, Australia. He grew up on a beef cattle farm, has an Honours degree in Asian Studies, a PhD in Agricultural Economics, is fluent in Chinese and has conducted extensive fieldwork throughout China. His research interests include: agricultural and rural development; livestock, feed and grasslands; agricultural marketing, agribusiness and supply chains; and institutional and policy reform in China.

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