How important is farming/agriculture in China?

Question

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Agriculture keeps a country fed. When a country can't feed itself it is a country in decline. China is a country that has a wealth of good agriculture land and has been managing to feed it's people for years. Unfortunately, China has been under Communist rule for years and agriculture and communism don't do well together. When the fruits of your labor are taken away and distributed equally to everyone, it kills individual initiative. China has done well enough to get by, but it has a potential to be an agriculture giant.

Answer 2

China is the worlds leading producer of agricultural products, and of course the world's leading consumer thereof.

China has been using its ability to produce excess food to enable conversion of an ever increasing part of its production into meat, and eggs.

In most of China capitalistic farming has been producing most of the diversion of vegetation into meat , as well as producing a lot of the plants to feed the animals. That appears to be at risk today, as prices for rice, soy, millet, wheat, most vegetables, are convincing farmers to abandon meat production in favor of higher prices for field crops.

There may be enough food being produced in China, but perhaps not enough for a complete conversion to a meat economy. But China may not  be able to survive if its agriculture were based on the American model that tries to feed people so heavily on meat.

Answer 3

GDP - composition by sector:  

agriculture: 11.7%

industry: 49.2%

services: 39.1%

note: industry includes construction (2007 est.)  

Agriculture - products:  

rice, wheat, potatoes, corn, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, apples, cotton, oilseed; pork; fish  

Industries:  

mining and ore processing, iron, steel, aluminum, and other metals, coal; machine building; armaments; textiles and apparel; petroleum; cement; chemicals; fertilizers; consumer products, including footwear, toys, and electronics; food processing; transportation equipment, including automobiles, rail cars and locomotives, ships, and aircraft; telecommunications equipment, commercial space launch vehicles, satellites

Answer 4

Regardless of the country, agriculture is at the top of the list for most vital activities. A country that can not feed it's people can not exist on the exchange of goods with food imports being sole source of food. One exception would be Antarctica and for the obvious reason.

Answer 5

The loss of the rice crop in China because of the earthquake (and in Burma because of the cyclone) the price of rice will increase to a point where people will starve.  The price rises because there is low supply and big demand.