China's inefficient agricultural system
SINCE a largely man-made famine that started in the late 1950s, in which tens of millions died, China has defied the odds by feeding its people almost entirely on its own. It has provided for a fifth of the world’s population with less than a tenth of its arable land. Now, as middle-class appetites grow, China is past the point of being able to rely on its own farms. In 2011 it became the world’s largest importer of agricultural products.
But China still believes that in order to prevent hunger, the country must produce most, if not all, of its staple foods at home rather than rely on unpredictable world markets, a belief which has led to inefficient food-production practices. So what makes China's agricultural system inefficient?
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