This book explains how policy changes affect farmers' production incentives and efficiency of resource allocation within and outside agriculture in modern China, paying particular attention to the effects of technical inputs on yield and efficiency of spatial crop production pattern. Drawing experiences of agricultural development in different periods after independence and employing two different quantitative techniques, it concludes that government's long term tendency to undermine the role of agriculture, lack of state investment and the inconsistency of market reforms are three major threats to sustained grain production and agricultural growth in China.