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Thursday, 28 November 2013

Rising socioeconomic expectations, low incomes in agriculture and increasing economic opportunities in urban areas are causing an ever-growing number of Chinese from rural households to turn to the city for better paid jobs to supplement their farming income.

While temporary migration has become an increasingly important strategy to boost income and economic security in China's rural areas, there has been little research conducted to date to examine the impacts of temporary migration on the structure and performance of farming systems.

To address this knowledge gap, Ms Li Lihua (Lanzhou University) and Professor Matthew Tonts (UWA's School of Earth and Environment and Institute of Agriculture) conducted a survey of  175 households in three different agro-climatic zones in the Loess Plateau, in the Gansu Province of north western China. The results from the study have been published in Population, Space and Place .  UWA and Lanzhou University commenced their highly productive collaboration in 2006 through a series of projects and early this year established the joint "Centre for Dryland Agricultural Ecosystems".

"Temporary migration is associated with complex changes in land use, agricultural production and farm enterprise productivity," explains Tonts. "More than half of the surveyed households had members working in urban areas, and they often generated more income than the farm. This sets the scene for a widening income inequality between those engaged in temporary migration and those that are not, and ultimately fuels increasing mobility as more and more households seek to earn income from the cities."

In addition, there were other indications that farming is becoming the secondary income-earning stream, and therefore a secondary economic activity: "The more a household earns from migration, and the more members of a household are engaged in migration, the poorer was the farm's performance in terms of farm profit per hectare and farm profit per capita," says Tonts.

The change of focus away from farming was also reflected in a shift towards farming practices with relatively low labour requirements, such as animal production, with sheep and cattle important contributors to profitability.

Although rural population has embraced temporary labour migration in China as a strategy to boost income and economic security, and to reduce poverty, the study showed that the farm itself remained important both economically and symbolically to rural households. The farm income was an important additional source of security against the backdrop of volatility and uncertainty within urban areas. Furthermore much of the additional income generated by temporary migration was injected back into the rural area, stimulating local employment and economic activity.

The study does not consider the role of agricultural advisory services and broader policy reforms, nor the time element inherent in any adaptation process. The adoption of more extensive forms of farm production is likely to be a gradual adjustment process for rural households and may require developing new skills and knowledge, on-farm capital investment, and even the acquisition of additional land.

Media references

Professor Matthew Tonts (School of Earth and Environment and The UWA Institute of Agriculture) (+61 8)  6488 7392
Ully Fritsch , Communication Manager (The UWA Institute of Agriculture)         (+61 8) 6488 3756

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