Household Labour Migration and Farmers’ Access to Productive Agricultural Services: A Case Study from Chinese Provinces

Zhe Chen,Xianli Xia,Md Shakhawat Hossain,Xiaojing Li,Apurbo Sarkar

doi:10.3390/agriculture11100976

Zhe Chen, Xianli Xia + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11100976

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Journal: Agriculture	Publication Date: Oct 9, 2021
Citations: 8	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: North West Agriculture and Forestry University

Abstract

Household labour migration experiences may have a staggering impact within developing countries, especially in dynamic societies like China, where labour migration is obvious. The present study’s objective is to investigate whether household labour migration contributes to the probability of farmers’ access to productive agricultural services. The study’s empirical setup is comprised of household survey data of 541 farmers in Shaanxi, Henan, and Sichuan provinces. The study proposes a counterfactual model to evaluate the average processing effect of an urban migrant with the help of the endogenous transformation of the Probit model. The results show that labour migration for work directly affects farmers’ access to productive agricultural services and indirectly affects farmers’ access to productive agricultural services through three channels: labour input, land transfers, and planting structure adjustments. The study further confirms that labour migration for work has a significant heterogeneity in the probability of obtaining productive agricultural services for farmers with or without non-agricultural income. Simultaneously, the labour migration area for work has significant heterogeneity in the probability of farmer households’ access to productive agricultural services. The government should extend support towards productive agriculture services. Agricultural demonstration services and on-hand training of migrant labour should be highlighted.

Highlights

Published: 9 October 2021Agricultural mechanization services, as a modern element, have developed rapidly in rural China
A large number of individuals participating in the labour force are transferred from rural areas to urban non-agricultural sectors [43,44], which inevitably triggers the re-allocation of family labour resources between non-agricultural and agricultural production by farmers [45,46]
It is easier to stay in the rural areas to undertake the responsibility of agricultural production, the family pension and child care; the possibility of engaging in migrant work continues to decline

Summary

Introduction

Published: 9 October 2021Agricultural mechanization services, as a modern element, have developed rapidly in rural China. As a modern agricultural production mode, productive agricultural services can realize the agricultural industry chain’s proliferation and significantly reduce the agricultural materialized cost and production operation cost with its efficient service mode and professional service processes. It could greatly promote agricultural efficiency and increase farmers’ income [5,6]. By purchasing productive agricultural services to replace labour inputs in agricultural production, farmers can reduce the physical requirements of labour, ease the pressure of time allocation between agricultural and non-agricultural production, and effectively promote the obtainment of comparative income. The migrant labour force mainly affects farmers’ access to productive agricultural services through three aspects, which are described below

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Conclusion