My current understanding –

• It was a terrible famine, no denying that, one of the worst in human history.

• It wasn't the first famine in China, in fact it was the last, so a positive spin would be to say it put an end to Chinese famines. Chinese famines happened under Sun Yat-Sen and the Qing Dynasty too. (Though this was was that bit worse)

• Mao's mismanagement should probably be blamed. Liu Shaoqi said the causes were 30% natural factors, 70% mismanagement

• Collectivisation doesn't seem to have been the problem. Collectivisation in China was comparatively smooth, not like the USSR and elsewhere.

• A bigger problem was bad agronomy.

Are these takes mistaken? Should I correct or expand my understanding?