Who Will Feed China in the 21st Century? Income Growth and Food Demand and Supply in China

This study uses resource‐based measures to explore the evolution of China's demand and supply for food. China's dietary shift from plant to animal‐based foods, induced by its income growth, is likely to impose considerable pressure on agricultural resources. China's demand for food on this measure appears consistent with global trends, while China is an out‐performer on the supply side, producing much more food than its income level and land endowment would predict. China's current per capita income is in a range where consumption growth is high and in excess of production growth, but the gap between supply and demand is likely to diminish as population and per capita consumption growth decelerate. Continuing agricultural productivity growth and sustainable resource management will be important influences on the growth of China's future net import demand for food.     

Analyzing the deviation between farmers' Land transfer intention and behavior in China's impoverished mountainous Area: A Logistic-ISM model approach

China’s land transfer is an inevitable requirement for implementing the rural revitalization strategy in the new era. The speed and extent of land transfer are related to the sustainable development of China's agriculture and the process of realizing rural agricultural modernization. In practice, due to the imperfect land transfer market and related systems, the property income of the transfer farmers is insufficient, which leads to inconsistency between the intention and behavior of the farmers. Based on a field survey of rural households in Gansu Province's impoverished mountainous area, we first employ cross-analysis to qualitatively assess the deviation between farmers' land transfer intention and behavior. Second, we use a logistic-interpretative-structural model to empirically analyze the factors influencing such a deviation and the internal logical relationships of these factors. We find that a substantial deviation exists between farmers' land transfer intention and behavior, with 57.64 % of respondents having the intention to transfer, but no actual transfer behavior. Moreover, among the 12 factors identified that significantly affect this deviation, agricultural production enthusiasm is superficially the main direct factor, while agricultural production scale, non-agricultural income, satisfaction in agricultural subsidy policy, and the impact of disasters are the secondary, indirect factors. Meanwhile, the deep-rooted factors are the head of household's age, the presence of village cadres in the household, non-farm working hours, the size of the household's labor force, and difficulty in obtaining land transfer information, land types, and property rights intervention. Therefore, we conclude that in the process of land transfer, the leading role of village cadres should be strengthened, a transfer information exchange platform should be established, land policy should be strictly implemented, land adjustment should be reduced, the rural land exit guarantee mechanism should be improved, and the doubts of farmers regarding land transfer should be eliminated. These steps would make sure that the deviation between farmers’ land transfer intention and actual behavior is minimized.     

Socio‐economic differentiation from a class‐analytic perspective: The case of smallholder tree‐crop farmers in Limpopo,South Africa

South African agrarian policy aims to integrate smallholder tree‐crop farmers into high‐end value chains with growth and employment potential, generally neglecting socio‐economic differentiation amongst them. This paper aims to analyse socio‐economic differentiation amongst tree‐crop farmers in Vhembe District, Limpopo, using a class‐based analysis based on livelihood diversification and accumulation. Cluster analysis of survey data and semi‐structured interviews reveals that most tree‐crop farmers engage in petty commodity production, internally differentiated by their combination of income sources and livelihood strategies. Farmers' ability to engage in accumulation and upward class mobility is generally severely constrained by limited access to capital. Agricultural diversification offers livelihood potential but limited possibility for accumulation, whereas salaried nonfarm work offers more promising prospects for accumulation but limited livelihood opportunities. A minority demonstrated characteristics of small‐scale capitalist farmers, internally differentiated by their reliance on salaried employment or agricultural production. The findings challenge the notion of an undifferentiated class of market‐oriented smallholders.     

农产品市场化对农户土地流入行为的影响研究——以江西省农户调查为例

随着中国市场经济的繁荣发展,农产品市场化程度不断提高,土地资源作为农业生产最重要的物质基础,农业经营者在一定的制度环境约束下将土地围绕外部利润进行博弈,选择更加有利的土地经营方式,成为土地流转的主要驱动力。文章利用江西省834份农户调查样本数据,运用Heckman两阶段模型实证分析了农产品市场化对农户土地流入行为的影响。研究结果表明农产品市场化对农户土地流入行为存在显著的影响,主要表现在离农贸市场距离、农产品销售比例等变量上。另外,农业劳动时间比、土地细碎化与户主年龄、性别、教育年限、务农年限及5年内担任村干部亲属的人数、参加农村合作社等因素均对农户土地流入行为产生不同程度影响。基于此,该文对如何有效引导与推进农村土地市场化流转提出了加快农贸市场超市化改造,完善农产品流通模式;建立健全农村社会保障体系,替代土地的社会保障功能;大力发展农村教育,提高农业经营者的文化素质与受教育水平;鼓励农户在自愿基础上成立土地股份型农民专业合作社,引导农民由传统的产销合作向新型的产权合作方向发展等政策建议。     

Tariff Liberalisation,Price Transmission and Rural Welfare in China

China's tariff liberalisation as part of its WTO accession application and eventual agreement has been thoroughly analysed in the literature. However, much of this literature is based on forward‐looking ex‐ante analyses and few studies provide empirical evidence on its actual impact. We fill in this gap by evaluating empirically the welfare effects of China's actual tariff liberalisation on Chinese farmers during the 1997–2010 period. By estimating the domestic market price effects of China's tariff liberalisation and the associated wage earning effects, we find that on average Chinese farmers were able to gain more from reduced consumption prices than they would lose from reduced agricultural and wage income due to tariff liberalisation. Welfare gains over time are estimated to be positively correlated with the actual degrees of tariff liberalisation, implying that relatively more gains were realized immediately before and after China's WTO accession in 2001, as compared to the more recent period when relatively little liberalisation was carried out. Farmers’ rising non‐agricultural income and increasing consumption shares of non‐agricultural products are important determinants of these positive average welfare effects. Moreover, welfare gains from tariff liberalisation are shown to be distributed unevenly across Chinese provinces and income levels, with farmers located in coastal provinces and at higher income levels gaining more than their counterparts in remote provinces and at lower income levels.     

Does carbon farming provide a cost‐effective option to mitigate GHG emissions? Evidence from China

In this study, we apply a whole farm bioeconomic analysis to explore the changes in land use, farm practices and on‐farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emission under varying levels of agricultural greenhouse gas abatement incentives in the form of a carbon tax for a semi‐arid crop‐livestock farming system in China's Loess Plateau. Our results show that the optimised agricultural enterprises move towards being cropping‐dominated reducing on‐farm emission since livestock perform is the major source of emission. Farmers employ less oats‐based and rapeseed‐based rotations but more dry pea‐based rotations in the optimal enterprise mix. A substantial reduction in on‐farm greenhouse gas emission can be achieved at low cost with a small increase in carbon incentives. Our estimates indicate that crop‐livestock farmers in China's Loess Plateau may reduce their on‐farm GHG emission between 16.6 and 33 per cent with marginal abatement costs <￥100/t CO₂e and ￥150/t CO₂e in 2015 Chinese Yuan. The analysis implies that reducing greenhouse gas emission in China's semi‐arid crop‐livestock agriculture is potentially a low‐cost option.     

Effects of agricultural production fluctuations on the Chinese macroeconomy

Based on a macro-model framed in terms of China's agricultural, industrial, government and household sectors, this paper aims to identify the effects of agricultural production fluctuations on the Chinese macroeconomy over the period 1949–89. Using annual national time-series data, Granger-causality tests indicate that fluctuations in China's agricultural production have been a statistically significant cause of changes in other types of Chinese macroeconomic activity. Impulse response analysis shows that shocks in China's agricultural production were followed by analogous responses in national consumption, industrial output, investment, exports and income which peaked with a two-year lag and vanished after 6 years. Variance decomposition analysis indicates that changes in China's agricultural production were the most important determinant of changes in the level of national consumption and the second most important determinant of changes in the level of industrial production, national investment, exports and national income.     

Policy reform and farmers' wheat allocation in rural China: a case study*

Market‐oriented policy reforms often have important effects on farm‐level grain production and utilisation decisions in developing countries. China's grain farmers are of particular interest because of China's importance in world grain markets and because of China's recent major agricultural policy advances and retrenchments. An empirical evaluation of market liberalisation among farmers located in two provinces in China on farm‐level wheat consumption, market sales and on‐farm storage during 1994 is presented. The results indicate that policymakers should account for such changes in farm household behaviour in designing and assessing the consequence of market liberalisation programs for agricultural sectors in developing countries.     

农户农业碳排放效率差异及多层次影响因素——以陕西省米脂县为例

目的 分析农户尺度农业碳排放效率差异并揭示多层次影响因素,对提供微观决策支持和推进农业农村低碳高效发展意义重大。方法 文章以陕西省米脂县为例,在测算57个村庄共861个农户农业碳排放及效率的基础上,从农户尺度分析农业碳排放及效率差异,最后基于多层次模型揭示其影响因素。结果 （1）农户整体农业碳排放效率较低,且示范村中的农户农业碳排放效率高于非示范村农户,示范村与非示范村下同一类型农户的冗余类型及占比和示范村（或非示范村）不同类型农户的冗余类型及占比差异明显;（2） 年龄、务农年限、教育水平和农业技能培训是影响农户农业碳排放量的主要因素。（3）就全体农户而言,乡村振兴示范村、距县城距离和政府支持力度是影响农户农业碳排放效率的主要环境变量,务农年限和受教育水平是影响农户农业碳排放效率的主要个体变量。影响示范村与非示范村农户农业碳排放效率的因素有较大差异。结论 不同类型农户农业碳排放效率和影响因素迥异,应根据村庄环境、农户特征等进行差异化政策支持。     

The effects of China's growth on the food prices and the food exports of other developing countries

This article explores the impacts of China's growth in the international markets of agricultural products along two dimensions: food price inflation and export growth in other developing countries. China's food imports of vegetable oils have grown dramatically over the last decade, linking China's economic growth to the recent increases in global food prices. If China is a source of global food price inflation, exporting countries will benefit whether they sell directly to China or not. These direct and indirect linkages are explored using a short‐run, partial‐equilibrium model of international trade in agricultural products in which consumer prices and trade costs are derived from bilateral trade flows. China's effects on food prices and exports are estimated by reducing Chinese food expenditures in 2007 by half, roughly China's level of expenditures in 1995. Results indicate that food prices as measured by CES price indexes in developing Asia, Africa, and Latin America would have been reduced by 1.27%, 0.32%, and 0.22%, respectively. China has been an important source of growth for exporters selling directly to China. There is no evidence of export growth due to an overall increase in food prices caused by China's growth.     

Mitigating rice production risks from drought through improving irrigation infrastructure and management in China

Rice, China's most important food crop, is highly dependent on irrigation, but an increasing number of extreme drought events have challenged rice production in many regions. This paper investigates the role of local irrigation infrastructure in improving farmers' ability to respond to drought and its effectiveness in mitigating the drought risk in rice production in China. The analysis relies on a moment‐based specification of the stochastic production function, capturing mean, variance and skewness effects. Using household survey data from 86 villages in five provinces, we jointly estimate farmers' adaptive irrigation decisions and their effects on rice yield and production risk. Our econometric analyses show that irrigation infrastructure in villages contributes to enhancing farmers' irrigation capacity in adapting to drought, and increased irrigation leads to a significant increase in mean yield and a reduction in exposure to risk as well as downside risk in rice production. The paper concludes with policy implications.     

皖南南屏的古村落旅游开发初探

皖南古村落作为一种独特的旅游资源,有极大的开发利用价值;协调开发与保护的关系,实现皖南古村落的可持续发展,旅游开发是一条有效的、切实可行的途径;对皖南古村落南屏旅游开发进行了SWOT分析,提出南屏旅游开发的初步设想。     

Willingness to accept compensation for land fallowing: results from a survey of village representatives in Northern China

Economic instruments have been increasingly adopted by governments around the world to address water scarcity problems because of their potential to achieve environmental outcomes in more cost‐effective ways. This is the first study to estimate the willingness to accept compensation for land fallowing in rural China. Using survey data collected from village representatives in Northern China (mainly village leaders, party secretaries and village accountants), our results suggest that in groundwater irrigated sample villages, at least 28 per cent of respondents have a compensation expectation lower than the standard level of 500 yuan/mu/year for one season of fallowing set by the Government. Water scarcity measures such as irrigation supply reliability and depth‐to‐groundwater within a village are found to have statistically significant effects on the likelihood of fallowing land in groundwater irrigated villages.     

非农就业对农户农地价值预期的影响研究——来自CHFS的实证分析

目的 在我国农村人口非农就业转移进程不断加深背景下,非农就业活动改变了农户家庭与农地之间的依附关系,研究非农就业活动对农户农地价值预期的影响,既有助于理解农地价值形成机理,又对推进我国农业农村现代化具有重要意义。方法 文章基于2015年中国家庭金融调查（CHFS）农户层面的微观数据,以耕地作为农地的代表,采用OLS回归模型和中介效应模型实证分析非农就业对农户农地价值预期的影响。结果 非农就业并未降低农户对农地的依赖、减少耕地要素投入,相反非农就业增强了土地替代要素的投入、激发了农户农转非的资本积累需求,从而导致农户提高了农地的价值预期。结论 （1）我国农户的非农就业转移并未完成,亟需创新和完善农村土地流转机制;（2）农地依旧是农户生存的重要保证,需积极支撑或培育专业化农业生产性服务业和智能化农业机械制造业的发展,弥补农业劳动力非农转移带来的负面效应,加快推进我国农业农村现代化。     

China's changing diet and its impacts on greenhouse gas emissions: an index decomposition analysis

With increasing awareness of agriculture's contribution to global greenhouse gases (GHGs) and China's position as the world's top GHG emitter, there is heightened attention to the embodied emissions in China's food consumption. China's diet has shifted to include more fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy. Not surprisingly, GHG emissions from food consumption have also increased substantially. This analysis links China's food consumption with the emissions of food production industries in China and its trade partners to determine the effects of dietary change on GHGs since 1989. We utilise high‐resolution food production and emissions data to perform a logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition to attribute changes in GHG emissions to the scale, supply structure, demand structure and efficiency effects resulting from Chinese dietary changes over a 20‐year period. This study finds that while countries supplying food to China contribute little to China's food‐related GHGs, demands for meat and dairy play a much larger role, driving up emissions. The overall scale of increased consumption of all food further propels growth in GHG emissions. Results indicate, however, that while food consumption in China more than doubles between 1989 and 2009 improvements in technological efficiency limit the rate of increase.     

The Coal Crisis in Appalachia: Agrarian Transformation,Commodity Frontiers and the Geographies of Capital

Capital's commodity frontiers strategy has at once woven together regional differences within an expanding world‐system and remade the productive and reproductive activities of humans and the rest of nature. The development of successive commodity frontiers gave way to long waves of economic expansion that have been pivotal to accelerating accumulation and transcending capital's recurrent crises. In short, commodity frontiers are constitutive of world‐ecological moments premised on booms and crises of accumulation. In this paper, I examine the coal commodity frontier in Appalachia, to illustrate the region's history as one of succeeding frontiers in and out of the region over the long twentieth century of American capitalism. I argue that the origin of Appalachia's coal frontier was decisively made through the nineteenth‐century agricultural revolution expressed outside of the region. Appalachia's full‐fledged development was an outcome of capital's under‐reproduction strategies. The crisis of the region's frontier turned on a lack of surplus from under‐reproduction strategies, competing coal basins, economic diversification and competing energy sources. I find that the commodity frontier concept not only illuminates regional political economies and ecologies of difference, but also explains the production of nature of historical capitalism.     

国内海洋渔村建设研究文献综述与展望

渔村建设是推进农业现代化发展的主要任务之一,也是加快农渔村旅游发展的"助推器"。本文把海洋渔村作为研究重点,从近10年来国内海洋渔村建设研究主流方向入手,辅以国外成功案例对海洋渔村建设、模式和渔业经济产业结构进行了归纳综述,并对海洋渔村建设中存在的不足进行了评述,提出了海洋渔业和渔村建设的相关建议:(1)优先保护海岸和近海资源与生态环境;(2)创新农渔产业转型与升级;(3)规划先行与科学管理。结合目前研究新方向提出了美丽渔村建设体系框架,即从美丽渔村社区建设、产业结构、休闲渔业和基本原理研究视角出发,将渔村社区建设和产业结构有机整合,旨要在环境生态保护的前提下促进二者的绿色经济发展,并对未来海洋渔村建设研究进行了展望:(1)渔村建设概念亟需统一,研究体系亟需明确;(2)渔村建设与相关产业融合(协同发展)问题仍将是研究热点;(3)渔村建设需不断加强国际比较研究。     

基于生态系统服务改进的中国各地农业生态效率研究

[目的]为提高全国农业资源利用率,推动建立资源节约型与环境友好型的可持续"两型农业",对中国农业生态效率展开研究发现,农田生态系统服务是农业生产的重要产出,但在当前生态效率研究中未得到充分体现。文章通过量化农田生态系统服务价值,有利于权衡农产品供需关系,更好以农田生态系统给人类社会带来的福利为目标来开展农业生产。[方法]文章将生态系统服务价值作为期望产出之一,将全国划分为东部地区、东北地区、中部地区和西部地区的4个农业效率研究区域。运用非期望产出数据包络分析方法,计算2014年中国30个省(市、自治区)的农业生态效率,并分析其主要影响因素。[结果](1)中国农业生态效率整体水平良好,平均值为0.945,在空间上表现为东部东北西部中部的空间分布格局。(2)影响全国农业生态效率的关键因素为土地投入、机械投入、化肥投入和水资源投入。农业生态系统服务指标与农业生态效率呈正向相关。土地、农药、劳动力、机械、水资源、化肥、农膜和能源投入、农业产值及碳排放均与之呈负向相关。其中农药投入是最为显著的抑制因子,控制农药投入是提升全国农业效率核心因素。(3)中国农业生态效率空间分异格局是多层影响因素叠加而成,中国农业生态效率损失的原因主要在于资源要素消耗的过量与农业碳排放过多。[结论]中国农业生态效率整体上发展较好,但各省市的农业生态效率水平存在较大差异,仍有上升的空间。从投入产出冗余角度来看,目前中国农业生态效率损失的原因主要在于资源要素消耗的过量与农业碳排放过多。在发展中着重加大区域对农业土地的开发投入、推广机械科学技术、减少化肥等污染物投入与提高水资源的利用效率,发展用水技术,保障农业的可持续发展。     

Hollow Lives: Women Left Behind in Rural China

This paper explores the situation of women left behind in villages when men out‐migrate for work and what it implies for gender relations in rural China. It is based on questionnaire survey data that covers 400 left‐behind women and extensive interviews in 10 rural communities. It reveals how the women take on multiple family responsibilities including mainly family care and agricultural production, and how they maintain their marital relationships in the context of a long separation. The discussion argues that even though the women's unpaid work becomes visible due to the absence of men in family life, there is a reaffirmation and reinforcement of gender traditions; women are more solidified in the unpaid and low‐paid field of work in this new era of rural social transition in China. Moreover, separated married life has made women more vulnerable. In the end, it points to the fact that rural women are experiencing a new and deeper form of exploitation of their labour. Thus they are among those paying a heavy price for the development in China.     

我国农业对外投资研究现状及展望

目的 文章梳理了“一带一路”实施中我国农业对外投资的相关研究,总结了研究成果,找出了研究不足并明确了下一步的研究方向。方法 该文重点对“一带一路”实施中我国农业对外投资的研究现状和特征、挑战和风险、作用和效应、对策和建议等问题进行了综述。结果 （1）已有的研究大多从投资产业、区位选择和投资决策等角度对我国农业对外投资进行研究,但对“一带一路”区域整体性,特别对其北线、中线、南线、中心线等分区域农业投资的对比和分析研究较少;（2）已有的研究较多涉及对我国与东道国的GDP、农业产业结构、就业、农产品贸易、技术溢出、区域农业经济及经济发展等社会与经济指标的影响,但从微观角度对我国在外投资企业的研究较少,尤其缺乏相关的案例分析和研究;（3）已有的研究从贸易效应、技术进步效应、就业效应等角度分析了我国农业对外投资的经济效应,但相应的系统效果模型研究较少。结论 （1）该文提出应对中国与“一带一路”沿线国家农业投资进行整体性研究,并分析和比较“一带一路”北线、中线、南线、中心线的投资特点;（2）应以我国在境外设立的农业企业的一手数据为依托,通过微观角度总结我国农业对外投资的现状和特点,从机遇和挑战两个方面分析当前我国农业对外投资的形势,并在此基础上提出推进我国农业对外投资的相关建议;（3）应建立系统性的利用模型来评价我国农业对外投资的经济效应、社会效应和生态效应,总结当前农业投资的效果,归纳目前存在的问题,并从宏观上提出我国农业对外投资研究的对策建议。