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During the 20th century, China's agricultural policy faced one basic constant: peasant poverty. During the first half of the 20th century, different reasons were made responsible for this poverty: overpopulation, outdated agricultural techniques, a deficient commercial infrastructure, and the landownership conditions. If disasters struck, such as floods, droughts, or civil war, the heavily indebted peasants, who only produced what they required for their survival, would became beggars. Whereas Sun Yatsen had demanded the distribution of "land to the tiller", the Agricultural Law of 1930 only reduced land rent to a maximum of 37.5% of the main harvest. However, the law was not really applied; during the 1930s, the Nanjing Nationalist Government instead attempted to improve and spread agricultural techniques, focused on irrigation projects, and introduced credit cooperatives. …