China's Peasant Agriculture and Rural Society ─ Changing Paradigms of Farming

China's agriculture and rural society have undergone rapid changes in recent years. Many poorer farmers and younger people have moved to cities, and yet China has an immense challenge to feed a growing and more affluent population. This book provides a ‘bottom-up view’ of China’s agriculture, showing how the many millions of Chinese peasants make a living. 

The book provides a vivid description of the mechanisms used by rural households to defend and sustain their livelihoods, increasing their agricultural production and improving the quality of their lives. The authors examine the newly emerging trajectories of entrepreneurial and capitalist farming and assess whether such alternatives will be able to meet the enormous social, economic and environmental challenges that China faces.

The book also explores the paradigm that has underpinned the organisation and development of China’s agriculture from ancient times to the present day. This shows the importance ofbalancing in the Chinese model as compared to the one-sided imposition of continual modernization in the western model. It is argued that such balancing is at the core of the currentSannong policy, referring to the three ruralitiesof food sovereignty, wellbeing for peasant households and an attractive countryside.

Jan Douwe van der Ploeg is Professor in transition studies at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, and Adjunct Professor in rural sociology at the College of Humanities and Development Studies of China Agricultural University in Beijing. He is the author of the influential book "The New Peasantries" (Earthscan, 2008). 

Ye Jingzhong is Professor in development sociology and Dean of the College of Humanities and Development Studies of China Agricultural University.