Rural Households In China Research Articles

Regional agricultural cooperatives and subjective wellbeing of rural households in China

AbstractThis study conducted an empirical analysis of survey data collected from 466 rural households from Shandong Province, China, to determine how the subjective wellbeing of rural households is related to their membership in agricultural cooperatives, and the mediating effects of income and social capital. The results revealed that cooperative membership improved rural households’ subjective wellbeing. Furthermore, income and social capital both served as partial mediators between cooperative membership and subjective well‐being. Therefore, to improve subjective wellbeing, the role of cooperatives in expanding rural public space should be brought into full play. Moreover, multiple regional development models of cooperatives should be encouraged to increase household income and promote rural regional economic growth.

Rewards of the Digital Economy Digital Adoption Levels and Income Generation in Rural Households in China

Rewards of the Digital Economy Digital Adoption Levels and Income Generation in Rural Households in China

Association between Self-Rated Health and Depressive Symptoms in Rural Chinese Adults: A Cohort Study Based on Propensity Score Matching

Health status is widely regarded as a correlate of depressive symptoms. However, health assessments based on clinical diagnosis in rural areas with poor medical conditions are very limited. Self-rated health (SRH) serves as a simple and convenient evaluation indicator, which may be used as an independent predictor of depressive symptoms. To confirm the relationship between SRH and depressive symptoms in rural adults, a longitudinal survey of rural households in China was conducted using the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) from 2012 to 2016. Propensity score matching and logistic regression analysis were used to explore the association. After data cleansing, 3,127 pairs (6,254 participants) aged 16 and older followed for 4 years were enrolled, of which the average age was (50.02 ± 14.19) years old, and the proportions of male and female were 48.64% and 51.36%, respectively. The incidence rate of depressive symptoms within 4 years was 30.86% (95%CI: 29.24–32.48) in the group with fair or poor SRH, and 21.59% (95%CI: 20.14–23.03) in the group with good SRH. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (χ² = 69.51, <i>P</i> < 0.001). The results of univariate unconditional logistic regression analysis showed that there was a correlation between SRH and depressive symptoms in rural adults aged 30 and above (OR = 1.65, 95%CI: 1.46–1.85, <i>P</i> < 0.001). Thus, a simple and practical assessment tool based on SRH and other indicators should be established for early prevention and intervention in rural primary mental health care.

Poverty reduction in rural China: Does the digital finance matter?

As digital finance is widely spread and applied in China, this new format of financial technology could become a new way to reduce poverty in rural areas. By matching digital financial indexes of the prefectural-level cities with microdata on rural households from the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2017, we find that digital finance significantly suppresses absolute poverty and relative poverty among rural households in China, which is supported by a series of robustness tests, such as the instrumental variable approach, using alternative specifications, and excluding extreme observations. Additionally, we provide evidence that the poverty reduction effect of digital finance is likely to be explained by alleviating credit constraints and information constraints, broadening social networks, and promoting entrepreneurship. Our findings further complement the research field on financial poverty reduction and offer insights for the development of public financial policies of poverty reduction in other countries, especially in some developing countries.

An Assessment of Poverty Alleviation Measures and Sustainable Livelihood Capability of Farm Households in Rural China: A Sustainable Livelihood Approach

This paper aims to identify effective mechanisms for government poverty alleviation measures based on the livelihood sustainability of farm households in Southern Shaanxi province, China. The paper utilizes data from 414 farm households, collected through field observations and in-depth interviews in 24 rural communes in Qinba Mountain Area of Shaanxi province, China. Using theoretical research methods and employing the sustainable livelihood approach (SLA) framework, this paper analyzes poverty alleviation measures as well as the impact of varied capital availability on sustainable livelihood. The study shows that developing local industries and governmental financial support improve the sustainable livelihood of farmers and eradicate absolute poverty. The findings of this study further indicate that there is a positive correlation between poverty alleviation measures and natural and social capital for sustainable livelihood. The paper provides empirical and quantitative evidence on alleviation of poverty, and the findings will help improve the sustainability of livelihood capability of farming households. This study suggests impactful approaches to stabilizing mechanisms for poverty alleviation in rural areas over the longer term.

Research on the Impact of Land Circulation on the Income Gap of Rural Households: Evidence from CHIP

With the continued development of the economy, the income gap among Chinese rural households continues to widen. The land system plays a decisive role in developing “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” and land circulation is a factor in the increase in income inequality among farm households. Based on the 2013 China Household Income Project (CHIP), this article used the re-centered influence function (RIF) regression method to empirically test the impact of rural land circulation on the income gap of rural households in China in three regions: the central, eastern and western regions. The quantile regression tested the impact mechanism of income inequality of rural households from the perspective of labor mobility and land circulation. The empirical results showed that land circulation increases the income inequality of rural households. The theoretical mechanism test proved that the dynamic relationship between land circulation and labor mobility increases rural household income. However, this increase has a greater effect on rural households with a high income and a small effect on rural households with a low income, resulting in a further widening of the income gap. Therefore, while increasing the income of rural households through land circulation, the government should also consider income equity. Finally, this article puts forward the policies and opinions on land reform and provides a brief discussion on the future direction of development.

Foliar Zinc Application to Wheat May Lessen the Zinc Deficiency Burden in Rural Quzhou, China.

Zinc (Zn) malnutrition is a common health problem, especially in developing countries. The human health and economic benefits of the replacement of conventional flour with Zn-biofortified wheat flour in rural household diets were assessed. One hundred forty-five wheat flour samples were collected from rural households in Quzhou County. Then, field experiments were conducted on wheat at two Zn levels (0 and 0.4% ZnSO4 · 7H2O foliar application) under 16 diverse agricultural practices in Quzhou County. Foliar Zn application significantly increased the Zn concentration and bioavailability in wheat grain and flour. If rural households consumed Zn-biofortified flour instead of self-cultivated flour or flour purchased from supermarkets, 257–769 or 280–838, 0.46–1.36 million or 0.50–1.49 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost, respectively, could be saved in Quzhou County and China. Amounts of 2.3–12.0 million and 5.5–22.6 billion RMB could be obtained via Zn-biofortified flour in Quzhou County and China, respectively. The current study indicates that Zn-biofortified flour via foliar Zn application is a win-win strategy to maintain the yield and combat human Zn deficiency in rural households in China. More health and economic benefits could be obtained in rural household dependent on wheat flour purchased from supermarkets than in those dependent on self-cultivated wheat flour.

Learning from neighboring farmers: Does spatial dependence affect adoption of drought‐tolerant wheat varieties in China?

AbstractThe adoption of improved crop varieties, such as drought‐tolerant varieties, plays a crucial role in addressing climate change. In this study, we explore how and to what extent spatial interactions between farmers and neighboring farmers affect the adoption of drought‐tolerant wheat varieties (DTWVs), using data collected from rural households in China. A spatial Durbin probit model is utilized to identify the spatial patterns in DTWVs adoption. Results show that spatial dependence exists in DTWVs adoption. Spatial dependence is positively associated with wheat farmers’ DTWVs adoption decisions, and the spatial effects mainly arise from the neighboring farmers’ adoption decisions and information spillover via smartphone use and extension service contacts. Further analysis reveals that DTWVs adoption improves farm performance by increasing both wheat yields and farm profits significantly. Our findings underscore the necessity of considering spatial interactions between farmers when designing and promoting innovative agricultural technologies in rural areas.

Fertilizer overuse in Chinese smallholders due to lack of fixed inputs

Fertilizer overuse by smallholder farmers is widespread in China, leading to significant financial losses and threatening the environment. Understanding what mechanism behind this is critical for agricultural and environmental sustainability. By using a fixed effect panel model of over 20,000 rural households in China from 1995 to 2016, we found that the low ratio of fixed inputs such as machinery and knowledge to total inputs is the key factor leading to over-fertilization in smallholder farms. Low fixed input can result in or interact with nutrient-unbalanced fertilization, low agricultural income ratio and more cash crops that further aggravate fertilizer overuse. Smallholders lack fixed inputs, then compensate by over-applying fertilizer to attempt to achieve their yield goals. Thus, improving fixed input via increasing the average farm size to 3.8 ha or advanced service rental could save not only 45% fertilizers but also increase 16% agricultural net profit, benefiting agricultural and environmental sustainability.

Promoting fruit and vegetable consumption in rural China: Does off-farm work play a role?

AbstractAlthough off-farm work plays a significant role in facilitating agricultural production and rural development and improving household welfare, little is known about whether off-farm work can promote fruit and vegetable consumption in rural areas of developing countries. This paper sheds new insights by estimating the impact of off-farm work on fruit and vegetable consumption, measured by purchasing frequencies and consumption expenditures. We employ a two-stage residual inclusion estimator to address the self-selection bias and analyze data collected from 558 rural households in China. The results show that household heads’ off-farm work promotes rural households’ fruit and vegetable consumption by significantly increasing purchasing frequencies and expenditures. Further analysis confirms that household heads' off-farm work participation, rather than all household members, plays a prominent role in promoting household fruit and vegetable consumption. We also find that farmers’ behaviours of growing fruits and vegetables appear to substitute their purchasing behaviours.

Interactive relationship between non-farm employment and mechanization service expenditure in rural China

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the interactive relationship between non-farm employment and mechanization service expenditure.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs an innovative two-stage probit least squares (2SPLS) model to analyze the survey data collected from 1,148 rural households in China. This model not only simultaneously estimates the impact of non-farm employment on mechanization service expenditure and the impact of mechanization service expenditure on non-farm employment, but also addresses endogeneity issues associated with these two activities.FindingsThe empirical results show that non-farm employment and mechanization service expenditure are jointly determined. In particular, the study finds that non-farm employment significantly increases mechanization service expenditure, and vice versa. The results are confirmed by an estimation that captures a dichotomous decision of mechanization service usage. The interactive effects of non-farm employment on mechanization service expenditure are heterogeneous between male and female household heads and among households with different member sizes. Further analyses reveal that (1) mechanization service expenditure increases with increasing non-farm working time; (2) local non-farm employment, rather than provincial non-farm employment, has a larger impact on mechanization service expenditure; and (3) the number of household members employed in non-farm works does not affect mechanization service expenditure significantly.Originality/valueAlthough mechanization service markets are rapidly growing in many developing and transition countries, little is known about how service purchasing interacts with farmers' decisions to work in the non-farm sector. This study makes the first attempt by investigating the interactive effects of non-farm employment on mechanization service expenditure in rural China. The findings provide significant evidence for policymakers in China and other countries in their efforts to generate non-farm work opportunities and promote agricultural mechanization, with the aim of boosting rural development and improving farm economic performance.

Impact of E-Commerce Adoption on Farmers’ Participation in the Digital Financial Market: Evidence from Rural China

Although the increasing adoption of digital finance in recent years has exerted a wide-ranging influence on farmers’ consumption and production activities, many farmers in China still seriously suffer from digital financial exclusion. Few studies have documented the different impacts of e-commerce adoption characterized by online purchases and sales on farmers’ participation in the digital financial market measured by their engagement in digital payments, digital wealth management, and digital credit in rural China. Using survey data from 832 entrepreneurial households in rural China, we contribute to the literature by confirming that both online purchases and sales have a robust significant and positive impact on farmers’ participation in the digital financial market and that this impact on digital wealth management is successively larger than that on digital payments and digital credit, with the propensity score matching (PSM) method and instrument variable (IV) approach employed. We further discover that the impact of online purchases and sales on farmers’ participation in the digital financial market is significantly mediated by digital financial literacy. Moreover, the impact of online purchases and sales on farmers’ participation in the digital financial market is larger for those with high education levels, pursuing skills training, running new agricultural operation entities (i.e., family farms, professional cooperatives), and engaging in agricultural entrepreneurship. Our findings suggest that more effective measures to enhance adoption rates of online purchases and sales, innovation in rural market-oriented digital financial products and services, systematic training for farmers in e-commerce skills as well as digital financial literacy, and differentiated support measures for different groups of farmers to reduce the gap are urgently needed in China.

Acceleration of rural households’ conversion to cleaner cooking fuels: The importance and mechanisms of peer effects

This study investigated the existence of peer effects in the diffusion of clean cooking fuels among rural households in China and identified the mechanisms by which these peer effects were enacted from the perspective of social networks. We observed greater adoption of clean cooking fuels in areas in which adoption was already relatively high, however, this peer spill-over decreased over time and was regulated by the accessibility and strength of social networks. Specifically, if a household's social circle was more extensive or its communication with neighbours, relatives, and friends was closer, its choice of a clean cooking fuel was more likely to be affected by its peer groups. To stimulate stronger peer spill-over, we suggest that interventions such as strengthening social interactions across rural households should be included in the government's strategy to help more households convert to cleaner cooking fuels.

The impact of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme on the “health poverty alleviation” of rural households in China

This study investigates the impact of the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS) on rural households to escape poverty. We employ the instrumental variable method, the IVProbit model, to analyze the national data from the rural-resident field survey by the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2016. Based on the large-scale data, we found that, first, the hospitalization of family members is the key factor in increasing the risk of the family falling into poverty. The NRCMS has significantly reduced the likely risk of falling into poverty. Second, the impact of the NRCMS on poverty alleviation varies among groups with different levels of income. There is no impact on the upper-middle and high-income groups; in contrast, the NRCMS has substantially improved the capacity of low-income rural families to prevent poverty due to illness, especially for the lower-middle-income group. Third, there exist significant regional differences in the impact of NRCMS on the health poverty alleviation of rural households in China. The NRCMS has successfully reduced the risk of rural households in the western region falling into poverty, simultaneously, no significant impact on those in the eastern and central regions. In order to diminish and eliminate poverty eventually and boost rural residents’ capacity for income acquisition, we propose the following: raise the actual compensation ratio of the NRCMS, control the rising expense of NRCMS by promoting the payment method reform, construct the comprehensive healthcare system in the western region, strengthen the medical security for the poor in remote area, and enhance the living environment for rural residents.

Targeted Poverty Alleviation and Households' Livelihood Strategy in a Relation-Based Society: Evidence from Northeast China.

Although China is experiencing a transition from a relation-based society to a rule-based society, relationships among acquaintances still play an important role in resource allocation, such as the allocation of policy resources. This is particularly true in rural China, where targeted poverty alleviation is prevalent and a relation-based social structure still dominates. However, it is still unknown how relationships affect the livelihood strategy of households in rural China and how poverty alleviation policies plays a role between them. Therefore, this paper embeds poverty alleviation into the relation-based society and explores how households respond to the policy in this specific context. Using grounded theory research method and the sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) framework, this paper contains in-depth interviews and field observations from three poverty-stricken villages in Northeast China. The results show that relationships have a significant impact on the households’ livelihood strategy. In other words, the households’ livelihood strategy is embedded in the relation-based society. The types of relationships induce households to choose maintained or developmental type livelihood strategies, while relationships influence how the poverty alleviation policies affect the livelihood strategy. This study is not only an extension of the SLA in the research context, but also provides a significant perspective for enriching the long-term mechanism of targeted poverty alleviation by building a theoretical model of the relationships between a relation-based society, targeted poverty alleviation and the livelihood strategies of households.

Does digital inclusive finance promote agricultural production for rural households in China? Research based on the Chinese family database (CFD)

PurposeThe development of digital inclusive finance appears to be able to solve the difficulty of traditional finance, which cannot completely cover agriculture and farmers and provides better financial services and products to Chinese farmers. Thus, it improves the farmers' enthusiasm for agricultural production. The purpose of this paper is to clarify whether this goal is indeed being achieved.Design/methodology/approachThis paper theoretically analyzes the mechanism that influences the effect of digital inclusive finance on rural households' agricultural production decisions and conducts an empirical study based on a sample from the Chinese family database (CFD).FindingsFirst, the development of digital financial inclusion in general can encourage rural households to reduce agricultural production. Second, the negative effect of digital inclusive finance on households' agricultural output is realized by widening the gap between the efficiency of non-agricultural economic activities and the efficiency of agricultural production. The wider the gap is, the lower the enthusiasm of households for agricultural production. Third, the mediating effect of “digital financial inclusion – difference in efficiency – agricultural output” has a significant negative effect on households with low agricultural production efficiency, but not households with high agricultural production efficiency. Digital inclusive finance has no significant effect on the difference in efficiency between the two economic activities of high-efficiency households, but a greater difference in efficiency between the two economic activities corresponds to higher enthusiasm of households for agricultural production.Originality/valueTo the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to analyze the impact of digital financial inclusion on Chinese farmers' agricultural production. The findings of this study can provide policy-related insights to help local governments promote the development of digital finance in China's agricultural economy.

Impact of Gender and Risk Preference on Forest Management Decisions of Rural Households in China: Evidence from Giant Panda Nature Reserves

Impact of Gender and Risk Preference on Forest Management Decisions of Rural Households in China: Evidence from Giant Panda Nature Reserves

The Impacts of Microcredit on Informal Risk Sharing: Experimental Evidence from China

This study examines the impacts of a large-scale government-led microcredit program on informal risk sharing among poor households in rural China based on a randomized controlled trial. The results show that financial inclusion, on average, reduced households’ borrowing from informal financial networks, and informal borrowing decreased substantially among households that were program members, regardless of whether they had borrowed from the program. Further analyses suggest that the program alleviated the dependence on informal financial networks to afford consumption shocks for program members who did not obtain program loans, and the crowding-out effect on informal borrowing existed even during the announcement period of the program for these households. These results are consistent with limited commitment models, which predict that access to microcredit raises the expected value of autarky utility relative to the utility derived from risk-pooling arrangements, and thus reduces the scope of implementable risk-sharing contracts.

Comparison of the effects of different subsidy forms on improving food security of low-income rural households in China

Comparison of the effects of different subsidy forms on improving food security of low-income rural households in China

The Rural Labor Transfer with Respect to the Development of Farmland Leasing Market: Evidence from Rural China

Abstract Since relaxing policy control for farmland leasing, rural labor transfer also arises. The paper estimates the relationship between farmland leasing market and rural labor transfer based on a Double Hurdle Model with the survey data collected from 2793 households in rural China. Results show that the farmland leasing-in scale restrains rural labor transfer mainly in the full-time movement by stimulating the behavior of farmers to plant rice, whereas farmland leasing-out scale, compared to farmland leasing-in scale has an opposite effect on labor transfer, and performs this effect by increasing the likelihood of the desired degree for rural households to do urban business. Specifically, we also find the underlying channels such as the farmers’ desire to the agricultural investment and the Dipiao-ticket transaction through which farmland leasing-in or -out scale affects labor transfer separately. We further find a negative effect of farmland leasing-in scale on household savings and a positive effect of farmland leasing-out scale on that mainly evidently in the group of rural labor transfer. Moreover, farmland leasing-out scale has no significantly influence on the urban life worry of farmers, does not let farmers worry about their urban housing, and does worry about their children’s education. Our study has a deep policy implication on social planners in China to strengthen the systems of the farmland leasing and rural labor transfer.