Steps taken by the Chinese Communist Party since 1949 to Improve Agriculture essays

Steps taken by the Chinese Communist Party since 1949 to Improve Agriculture essays China's population is about 20% of the world population while it possesses just 7% of the world's arable land. Feeding its people has, therefore, been the country's major concern through much of its history. When the Communist party of China (CPP) came to power in 1949 as a result of the Communist Revolution, the country had been devastated due to years of civil war, foreign interference, social unrest and fragmentation. Its economy was in ruins and the communist party set out to revolutionize all aspects of the Chinese society including the economy. Since Mao-Zedong's brand of Communism was peasant-based rather than urban-based, the Communist Party of China was particularly focused on agricultural reforms and took several measures to improve the agricultural production and the living standards of the peasants. Although these policies have produced mixed results, China is now by and large self-sufficient in food production. In this paper I shall discuss the various policies implemented by the CCP since 1949 in the areas of agriculture and the peasantry and describe the The Peasant Base of CCP Mao Zedong was the undisputed leader of the CPP when it came to power in China in 1949. His version of Communism (Maoism) was somewhat different from the Communism envisaged by Karl Marx in which the urban workers were to be at the vanguard of Communist revolution. China had no industrial base of note and hence no significant urban working-class population. Most of the vast Chinese population were poor, ill-fed peasants who lived in the countryside. It was these peasants who were organized as the Communist power base by Mao Zedong during his long and hard struggle against the military forces of KMT, the Japanese and the "Long March." Mao was himself the son of a peasant farmer and could relate to their deprivations. It was the Chinese peasants that Mao repea...