China’s Grain for Green Program: A Review of the Largest Ecological Restoration and Rural Development Program in the World
By Claudio O. Delang and Zhen Yuan Springer, 2015 Chapter 10
This chapter looks at the impact of the Grain for Green on the grain output and price. Between June 2002 and June 2004, grain prices increased, which was blamed on the reduction of farmland set aside by the Grain for Green. As a consequence, the Grain for Green was scaled down after 2004. However, most researchers agree that the Grain for Green was not responsible for the increasing price of grain, because most of the land converted by the Grain for Green was not very fertile. Furthermore, farmers could concentrate their efforts on their more fertile parcels, with the result that grain production overall fell only very marginally in Grain for Green-converted areas. Instead, researchers argued that the drop in grain output, and subsequent increase in grain prices, was more likely due to the loss of farmland caused by urbanization in the eastern provinces (where the Grain for Green was not implemented), as well as the shift from grain production to the production of other crops.
|
Figures