Food Security and Economic Reform The Challenges Facing China's Grain Marketing System

Grain marketing reform in China has been relatively slow. It has not escaped the forces for change unleashed by reform elsewhere in the economy, but it has been slow to respond. What are the forces for change, how soon will the system adapt, and in what direction? These are the sorts of questions addressed in this book. The focus is on the development of the domestic marketing system and the forces acting upon it, including the pace and content of reform, the development of wholesale markets, and the growth of a complementary financial system. A series of implications of these reforms are highlighted, including the links between reform and productivity growth, between events in grain markets and inflation in China, and between reform and stockholding decisions, and thereby trade. Of special interest is the impact of marketing reform on regional trade patterns in the domestic market. The domestic system cannot be considered in isolation from linkages to world markets, and factors influencing the design of trade policy are also examined.