Labor migration and the decoupling of the crop-livestock system in a rural mountainous area: Evidence from Chongqing,China |
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| Affiliation: | 1. College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400716, China;2. State Cultivation Base of Eco-Agriculture for Southwest Mountainous Land, Chongqing, 400716, China;3. Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA;4. School of Finance & Management, SOAS University of London, WC1H 0XG, London, UK;5. Institute of Blue and Green Development, Shandong University, Weihai, 264209, China;1. Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences & Ministry of Water Conservancy, #9, Block 4, Renminnan Road, Chengdu 610041, China;2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.19A Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China;3. Sichuan Institute of Tourism Planning and Design, #2, Qinglianshang Street, Chengdu 610051, China;1. College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China;2. Applied Economics Research Center, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China;3. College of Land Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;1. China Academy for Rural Development (CARD), School of Management, Zhejiang University, China;2. Office of Zhejiang People''s Government in Beijing, Beijing Office, China;1. Sichuan Center for Rural Development Research, College of Management of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China;2. College of Economics of Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, 611130, China;3. China Western Economic Research Center, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, 610074, China;4. Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610041, China |
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| Abstract: | Massive out-migration of rural labor force brings both challenges and opportunities to crop-livestock integrated production system (crop-livestock system) in smallholder economy. Compared with previous researches that have paid major attention to the effect of labor migration on either crop production or livestock husbandry, this study considers the mediating role of crop production in predicting the effect of labor migration on livestock raising. Our econometric estimation based on a 2012 survey of 974 rural households in Chongqing, a mountainous region of China, showed the following. (1) The massive migration of rural labor force had led to significant increase in farmland abandonment and considerable changes in the pattern of livestock raising. (2) The livestock raising number per household began to differentiate, with the livestock system separating from the traditional crop-livestock system and becoming a specialized business. (3) In terms of the pathways through which rural labor migration exerts impact on livestock raising number, though the increased opportunity costs of rural labor greatly reduced farmers’ willingness to raise livestock, the decoupling of the crop-livestock system partly alleviated the declining trend in the livestock raising number because of the availability of household labor force freed from cropping via farmland abandonment. These findings have important policy implications for rural development and agricultural restructuring in mountainous areas of China, and provide references for other developing countries. |
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| Keywords: | Crop-livestock system Decoupling Rural labor migration Farmland abandonment Mountainous area China |
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