REGIONAL DIFFERENTIATION IN AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT PATH ASSOCIATED WITH NATURAL AND SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS: BASED ON 2000-2010 PROVINCIAL STATISTICAL DATA IN CHINA

Abstract

Agriculture is characterized by its organic manner of production. Thus, the forms of agricultural production are heavily dependent on natural conditions (weather, geographic features, water supply, etc.), which are peculiar to regions or local conditions. The regionally peculiar characteristics of agriculture are also intensified by the social environment, that is, the lifestyle of the people in the region. Land, labor and capital, which are the essential inputs needed for production, vary qualitatively and quantitatively from region to region. The regional peculiarities bring a different type of development path to local agriculture. This is the basic reason why the same development theory or principle cannot be applied to agriculture although it could be applicable in the case of other industries such as manufacturing. This paper deals with the characteristics of local agricultural development at the provincial level of China, based on statistical analyses of two sets of three-years data of 2009, 2010 and 2011 as well as 1999, 2000 and 2001. The analysis showed clear regional differentiation among the provinces between land-productivity oriented type and labor-productivity oriented type of agricultural development.