The unexpected and, to some extent, undesirable events of the early
1950s necessitated stronger and stricter state intervention in agricultural
markets. For grain, for instance, the gap between state purchase and
marketing prices widened rapidly. In 1952, the volume of state purchases
increased only 11.6 per cent over 1951 levels. State sales
volumes, however, increased by 44.7 per cent. The government found it
increasingly difficult to purchase grains from farmers. The share of state
purchases (including grain buying by other commercial agencies) in
Hunan and Hubei provinces in total grain purchases declined significantly
from 60-70 per cent in earlier years to 10-30 per cent in 1953
(Gao and Xiang 1992). Such problems not only caused economic and