The Rice Economies

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