Rethinking of the relationship between agriculture and the “urban” economy in Beijing: an input-output approach

Abstract

Despite the irresistible drive of urban growth, the questions as to whether and how agriculture is restructured and repositioned in relation to urban development have received little attention. Based on the method of hypothetical extraction from input-output tables, and on the Beijing case, this paper puts forward an approach to assess the dependence of the agro-economy on urban sectors. The research shows that in Beijing in the period from 1982 to 2007 the relationship between agriculture and the urban economy has gone through three phases. At the start of the economic reform, the relationship was weak, characterised by intensive inputs of agricultural productive materials and policy orders. What followed was a phase of disconnection characterised by fast urban growth and low competitive status of agriculture. The third was a period of increasingly integrated development with technological inputs and upgrading of the management of agriculture. The current strong relationship indicates that agriculture can be tuned to meet the preferences of urban consumers. Key associated urban sectors are screened out to verify this relationship. The approach is valuable for quantifying the structural relationship between agriculture and urban sectors, for further analysing rural-urban economic relationships to support development policy design and programming.

Keywords:

• agriculture
• urban economies
• input-output analysis
• hypothetical extraction method
• rural and urban development
• Beijing

JEL Classification:

• A12
• C15
• C80
• O13
• O18
• P11
• P25
• Q10
• R15

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zhenshan Yang

Zhenshan YANG. Assistant Professor of the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research at Chinese Academy of Sciences. Doctor of Urban and Regional Planning from Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Research interests include urban and regional planning, urban strategy, industrial development.

Jianming Cai

Jianming CAI. Prof, Dr at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research at Chinese Academy of Sciences. Doctor of Urban Geography from Hong Kong University. Research interests include urban economic strategy and sustainable urban development.

Michael Dunford

Michael DUNFORD. Professor of Economic geography at the University of Sussex and Visiting Professor at the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research at Chinese Academy of Sciences. He holds degrees in Geography and in Quantitative Economics from the University of Bristol. His research interests are in global economic development, inequality, and industrial, regional and urban development.

Douglas Webster

Douglas WEBSTER. Professor in the Schools of Geographical Sciences & Urban Planning; Sustainability; and Politics & Global Studies at Arizona State University. PhD in City Planning from University of California, Berkeley. Research interests inlcude city building in East Asia, urban sustainability, city development strategies.