Table of Contents

List of figures and tables
Chinese dynasties
Japanese eras
Preface
Acknowledgements
Maps

Introduction
   Eurocentric models of historical change
   An alternative model
   The significance of a model of development for rice economies
     
1 The rice-plant: diversity and intensification
  The origins of Asian rice
  Natural characteristics of rice
  Selection techniques
  
2 Paths of technical development
  Building new fields
  Raising yields
  Labour productivity and the mechanisation question
  
3 Water control
  Water control and institutions: the debate
  A technical classification of water control systems
    Gravity-fed irrigation networks 
    Ponds, tanks and reservoirs 
    Contour canals 
    'Creek' irrigation 
  Pump irrigation schemes 
Patterns of growth and change 

4 Rice and the wider economy 
  'Skill-oriented' and 'mechanical' technologies 
  The specificity of wet-rice agriculture 
    Uniformity and systemic change 
  Monoculture and markets 
  Economic diversification 
  Petty commodity production and rural industrialisation 

5 Development 
  Some basic issues 
  Labour and capital 
    The historical experience: the predominance of labour and the 'Japanese model'
    Choice of technological inputs 
    Capital investment 
    Productivity of labour and capital 
  Expertise and participation 

6 Peasant, landlord and state: changes in relations of production 
  Conflict, cooperation and control 
  Historical changes in relations of production 
   'Feudal' relations and frontier zones 
   Smallholder economies: expansion and stagnation 
Egalitarianism or differentiation: the impact of capitalism 
Land and landlessness 
  'Land to the tiller' 
  Group farming 
  Socialist land reform 
  
Appendix A: The Western model 
Appendix B: The historical experience of China 
Appendix C: The Japanese experience
Notes
References
Glossary
Index

 

About the Author

Francesca Bray is Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Santa Barbara and author of Agriculture, Volume VI, part 2 in Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China (1984).

Reviews

"This is a magnificent book, which deserves special praise for having achieved a truly exemplary balance between scholarly and practical significance."--Paul Richards, "New Scientist