This paper adds to the debate on the impact of market reforms versus structural reforms in explaining agricultural output growth in China. A multiple-output stochastic frontier and a technical inefficiency equation are estimated using provincial data on the rural economy from 1986 to 1995. Grain self-sufficiency policies and incomplete market reforms in the 1980s and 1990s led to allocative inefficiency. Agricultural disinvestment shrunk the production frontier and the fragmentation of land holdings reduced technical efficiency. China's rural economic reform is far from being complete.