Different patterns of Agriculture development in China. A spatial-dynamic development trajectories in cross-provincial comparison

Abstract: Recently the question of agriculture development has been emphasised as an important part of balanced sustainable growth in China. My paper accounts for different growth trajectories and development pace between coastal regions and inland provinces. My interest is more convergence-divergence between agriculture development in different regions than convergence-divergence between rural and urban areas. Nowadays a harmonious society is strongly pronounced by the government authorities and is new strategic aim on policy agenda. My attempt is to assess the efficiency of government actions toward harmonious society that is based on equal living standards and well-off society. Moreover through quantified research over last 20 year I will try to depict the agriculture development pattern. My attempt is to determine factors that have the biggest impact on agriculture growth. Moreover I would like to highlight the inequality in agriculture development in crossprovincial comparison and identify various contributing factors to the total inequality. This approach may indicate specific factors that are likely to improve agricultural performance. The purpose of this paper is to identify available solutions for convergence in the agricultural development that is major policy aim in China. Some important conclusions are drawn. First of the provincial development gap is highly pronounced with coastal provinces pulling ahead and lagging inland provinces. Moreover with the lapse of time and advancing growth of coastal provinces the catch-up process and convergence of inland provinces does not occur. Major determinants of agriculture development have been empirically identified: Labour ratio in favour of non-agriculture sector with special role of TVEs and their labour-absorptive capacity, increasing cultivated area per household, infrastructure: length of roads and railways, investment in irrigation, regional industrial structure and geographical locations. Net subsidies turned out to be inefficient tools for agricultural growth.