IFPRI Forum

March 2008

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Though they have taken different reform paths, China and India have had extraordinary economic success during the past few decades, reducing poverty rates and raising per capita incomes. A recent IFPRI book edited by Ashok Gulati and Shenggen Fan, The Dragon and the Elephant: Agricultural and Rural Reforms in China and India, examines these achievements and the lessons that can be applied both to other developing nations and to addressing the poverty-reduction challenges still facing these two countries.

The contributors pay particular attention to agriculture and the rural economy, examining how initial conditions and investments and the prioritization and sequencing of different policies and strategies have led to successful growth, and how the agricultural and rural sectors connect to overall economic expansion.

They also analyze why China, which has relied upon agriculture-led growth, has reduced poverty much faster than India, which has focused on liberalizing and reforming the manufacturing sector, and offer numerous policy and strategic options for future growth and poverty reduction in both countries.These include setting the right priorities for public spending, identifying trade and market reforms, building social safety nets for the poorest of the poor, and building accountable institutions that can provide public goods and services effectively.

The book concludes by arguing that future growth must be based on higher efficiency and greater inclusiveness. This will require China and India to invest in science and new technologies to harness land, energy, and water in a sustainable manner, as well as reorient their institutional structures to ensure greater transparency and accountability in implementing rural projects and in delivering rural services. Information on ordering this book, published for IFPRI by Johns Hopkins University Press, can be found at: www.ifpri.org/pubs/jhu/dragonelephant.asp.