| Abstract | One distinctive feature of China's economic reform is the mushrooming of millions of small enterprises in its countryside - launched by communities or individuals. So-called township enterprises are welcomed by peasants because peasants want better-paid non-farm jobs. Apart from this, there are two main ways for township industries to help farming through the works of the marketplace. One is that rural firms are more likely to succeed with value-added processing of local products, which would inevitably mean stable, if not higher, prices for farmers. Another way is that when industry attracts, through its higher wages, a large part of previous farm labour into its workshops, farming can be more economical. |
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