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The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the sustainable development thought is one good reason why Chinese civilization is continuously developing, and it can be used as a reference for the development of Chinese agriculture today.

The paper employs a historical analysis approach to examine the sustainable thoughts concerning Chinese traditional agriculture, including view of sancai, farming season, fertility, the nature of matters, recycling, and economization.

The results reveal that the nature of Chinese traditional agriculture is akin to ecological agriculture, which is precious heritage for China and the whole world.

The originality of this paper is that it confirms the fundamental reason of the continuous development of Chinese civilization which, based on organization of sustainable development thought, lies in traditional agriculture.

The purpose of this paper is to delineate the evolution of agricultural science and technology (S&T) in China in the last three decades as it has been one of the major factors, besides others, in ensuring comfortable levels of global food security. In doing so, it focuses on policy and progress, which have provided the right ambience for Chinese agricultural science and technology to evolve into an effective instrument of development.

The study employs institutional approach to government, scientists and farmers, who have been contributing to the growth of Chinese agricultural technology in two distinct ways. While the government has been playing a critical role in evolving a comprehensive agricultural S&T policy, scientists and farmers have been contributing to the progress of agricultural growth through research and application of various agricultural technologies.

Agricultural S&T in China has increasingly been growing into a potent force in facilitating comfortable levels of food security but with serious implications on the environment. Of the three players who have been instrumental in this process, the Chinese Government and the scientists are well prepared for WTO and globalization vis‐à‐vis agricultural technology, but the farmers are not well positioned.

Agricultural S&T development in China is critically important not only for Chinese food security but also for the larger global food and human security, as the two are inextricably connected. While most studies focus on various dimensions of agricultural technology, this study focuses on government, scientists and involved farmers, whose role is central to this process, and who are forced to rethink and reposition themselves in the development and use of agricultural S&T in China.

This paper aims to draw lessons from China's development experiences, particularly in the areas of agricultural and rural development, to increase growth and reduce poverty in Africa South of the Sahara. It also examines China's rising economic involvement in Africa and makes recommendations for how the win-win outcomes from this engagement can be strengthened.

In this paper, the authors compare the trends in economic and agricultural growth, as well as poverty and hunger reduction, in China and Africa South of the Sahara. The authors then examine strategies for development – in particular agricultural and rural development – and poverty reduction. Next, the authors review China's economic engagement in Africa in the areas of trade, investment, aid, and technical cooperation.

Having conducted a comparative review of China and Africa's distinct development paths and current policy contexts, the authors discuss China's development lessons for Africa South of the Sahara and policy recommendations for China-Africa engagement related to agricultural and rural development, openness and liberalization, evidence-based policymaking, pro-poor policies, institutions and capacity, rising inequality, and environmental degradation.

This paper rigorously integrates China's positive and negative development lessons for Africa in light of the most recent research on emerging domestic and international development strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the effects of recent demographic transition and rising labor costs on agricultural production structure and pattern in China during 1998-2012.

The authors, first, theoretically discuss the effects of changing relative input prices due to rising labor cost on producers’ decisions regarding input mix (substitution effect), output level, and product quality (output effect). A logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition method is then applied to empirically identify these effects at aggregated levels, followed by an analysis based on the visualization of land use indicators on changing cropping patterns across Chinese provinces.

The authors find that tightened effective agricultural labor supply and rises in rural labor costs are associated with divergent changes in input mixes and output choices across products. Producers of land-intensive products focusing more on input mix adjustment, while those of labor-intensive products seem to more likely to adjust output choices. Producers’ adaption strategies also varied across Chinese provinces due to natural conditions, leading to shifts and concentrations in the regional distribution of agricultural products, with lower-value bulk products concentrating in the plain areas, whereas higher-value horticulture products increasingly prevailing in sloped areas.

This paper illustrates how adjustments in input mixes and output choice in Chinese agriculture counteracted disadvantages caused by rising labor costs and how such adjustments are product and region specific. Based on these observations, implications regarding further innovations in production technology and institutional arrangements needed within China’s agricultural sector are highlighted in the paper.

The purpose of this paper is to review the history, current activities, and prospects of Sino‐US cooperation in science and technology (S&T). It seeks to understand the role of S&T in Sino‐US relations, how the relationship has affected Chinese scientific development and, more generally, to better understand the ways S&T affect – and are affected by – the foreign policies of nation states.

Employing an institutional perspective, the paper is based on interviews in China and the USA and reviews of government documents and press reports.

Owing to the impacts of the Cultural Revolution on Chinese S&T, the relationship is highly asymmetrical when it began in the late 1970s. As Chinese capabilities have improved, aided measurably by the relationship with the USA, the two sides are now in a position to cooperate more fully across a wide range of areas of interest to both sides. Channels for cooperation have been developed through the two governments, through Chinese and US corporations and through academic institutions in the two countries. Together, these allow for collaborative activities in basic science, commercial research and development, and in S&T in support of public goods.

The Sino‐US relationship in S&T has become more important to the two countries as they face an array of daunting challenges of energy, public health, basic research, and new industrial technologies. Yet, the relationship has not been extensively studied in spite of its growing importance. This paper attempts to help overcome this neglect. A better understanding of the relationship will contribute to improved understandings of Sino‐US relations more generally, and to the ways in which S&T fit into the foreign relations of major powers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of adopting certified food production on chemical fertilizer and pesticide use in China.

The authors estimate fixed effect models to track the changes in agrochemical consumption at household level over time and evaluate the effect of certified food production, using an unbalanced panel data set covering 4,830 households in six provinces over the period 2005–2013.

On average, the authors do not find significant effects of certified food production on either chemical fertilizer or pesticide consumption among Chinese farmers. The effects are heterogeneous across villages, but the heterogeneous effects show no clear pattern that is consistent with different types of certification. The findings are robust to the use of alternative panel structure and certification indicators. The lack of knowledge about certification among farmers, the price premium and differences in regulation enforcement across regions may explain why the authors do not find negative effects on agrochemical use.

This study suggests that careful inspections and strong enforcement of certified food production is needed to ensure that the environmental goals of certified food production can be achieved and the reputation of certification in China can be improved. The inspection of certification producers and the enforcement of current regulations should be stricter for the further healthy development of certified food production in China.

This study is the first attempt to systematically evaluate the impact of food certification on the use of agrochemicals in Chinese agriculture.

The social safety net of health care insurance is rapidly expanding in rural China. New Rural Cooperative Medical System (NRCMS) programs proliferated between the national decree of 2002 and 2008, moving from a situation where less than 10 per cent of the rural population had access to health insurance to one where over 80 per cent had the opportunity to participate in these programs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how NRCMS affects equity goals in access to health care and explore the gender‐specific determinants for farmers to participate in NRCMS and use health care services.

Empirical analysis, by using the national rural socio‐economic survey data collected by the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2005. Based on Andersen's access to medical care model, the probit model for regression was used. All analyses are conducted with Stata 9.0 software.

Gender was found to have significant effects on both NRCMS participation and health care use. Age, education, deductible level and ceiling limits of reimbursement had positive effects on both NRCMS participation and health care use. The narrow coverage with high co‐payment compensation system asserted significant deterrence effects on equity access to health care. This is only a first step toward building an adequate health safety net for all rural residents, there is still a long way to go.

Using the national household survey data, this study is one of few studies focusing on the interplay between gender and the distinct determinants of access to health care under the ongoing NRCMS. The relevant findings have important implications for further policy design.

Previous studies focused on the influence of outsourcing (labor division) on productivity, especially in the industrial economy. However, few studies have focused on how labor division in agriculture affects agricultural productivity. To bridge this gap, this study uses survey data from 4864 farmer households in China to explore the impacts of outsourcing on agricultural productivity.

This study employs an endogenous switching regression to account for selection bias and a counterfactual framework to measure the degree of influence. Thus, this study analyzes determinants of outsourcing and the impacts of outsourcing on agricultural productivity under the same framework.

The results revealed the following. (1) Farmer households with the below average productivity tended to outsource; conversely, farmer households with the above average productivity tended to cultivate the land by themselves. (2) Productivity increased by 25.61% for farmer households who choose to outsource. Moreover, if nonoutsourcing farmer households would choose to outsource, their productivity would increase by 10.86%.

This study furthers one’s understanding of how outsourcing affects agricultural productivity among farmer households.