The Great Famine (jan 1, 1958 – jan 1, 1962)

Description:

Causes of the Great Famine:

Peasants had no incentives to produce more food than they needed because they could not sell extra food for a profit

The Four Noes (Pests) Campaign - to get rid of sparrows, flies, mosquitoes and rats. Without birds, insects multiplied and ate even more grain.

Political Pressures - Mao was gullible so he believed it when the Soviets said they could increase crop growth by up to 16 times. Peasants who stuck to traditional farming methods were denounced as enemies of the state

Mao's advisors were scared to tell him that the Great Leap forward was not working, so they lied about production in order to impress Mao.

There were droughts in the North and flooding in the South, damaging the crops

Added to timeline:

Date: