Impact of cash crop cultivation on household income and migration decisions:Evidence from low-income regions in China

This study examines the impact of cash crop cultivation on household income and migration decisions,using survey data collected from low-income regions in China.Given farmers decide themselves whether to cultivate cash crops,an endogenous treatment regression model that accounts for potential selection bias issue is used to analyze the data.The empirical results show that cash crop cultivation exerts a positive and statistically significant impact on household income,but it does not affect household migration decisions significantly.The disaggregated analyses reveal that cash crop cultivation significantly increases farm income but decreases off-farm income.

Commercial cash crop production and households'economic welfare:Evidence from the pulse farmers in rural China

Whether promoting cash crop production can increase household welfare has long been the focus of the food policy debate.This study first investigated the determinants of household behavior in commercial pulse farming.It then examined how households'commercial pulse production improves their economic welfare.We used a dataset of 848 households collected from 2018 to 2019 to estimate the determinants of household behavior in commercial pulse farming by the Heckman two-step model.The endogenous treatment regression(ETR)method was employed to examine the impact of commercial pulse farming on household economic welfare.The results showed that factors such as market purchase prices,agricultural technology services,farmers'access to loans,and government subsidies promoted smallholders'commercial pulse farming;production costs and perceptions of climate change risks constrained smallholders'commercial pulse production.Overall,commercial pulse production has increased household farm income but there was a limited impact on household off-farm income.Our findings suggest that policies aiming to increase households'cash crop production and market access could significantly improve the economic welfare of pulse farmers.

Changes in Agricultural Biodiversity: Implications for Sustainable Livelihood in the Himalaya

Himalayan mountain system is distinguished globally for a rich biodiversity and for its role in regulating the climate of the South Asia. Traditional crop-livestock mixed farming in the Himalaya is highly dependent on forests for fodder and manure prepared from forest leaf litter and livestock excreta. Apart from sustaining farm production, forests provide a variety of other tangible and intangible benefits, which are critical for sustainable livelihood of not only 115 million mountain people, but also many more people living in the adjoining plains. Extension of agricultural land- use coupled with replacement of traditional staple food crops by cash crops and of multipurpose agroforestry trees by fruit trees are widespread changes. Cultivation of Fagopyrum esculentum, Fagopyrum tataricum, Panicum miliaceum, Setaria italica and Pisum arvense has been almost abandoned. Increasing stress on cash crops is driven by a socio-cultural change from subsistence to market economy facilitated by improvement in accessibility andsupplyofstaplefoodgrainsatsubsidizedpriceby the government. Farmers have gained substantial economic benefits from cash crops. However, loss of agrobiodiversity implies more risks to local livelihood in the events of downfall in market price/demand of cashcrops,terminationofsupplyofstaplefoodgrains at subsidized price, pest outbreaks in a cash crop dominated homogeneous landscape and abnormal climate years. Indigenous innovations enabling improvement in farm economy by conserving and/enhancing agrobiodiversity do exist, but are highly localized. The changes in agrobiodiversity are such that soil loss and run-off from the croplands have dramatically increased together with increase in local pressure on forests. As farm productivity is maintained with forest-based inputs, continued depletion of forest resources will result in poor economic returns from agriculture to local people, apart from loss of global benefits from Himalayan forests. Interventions including improvement in traditionalmanureandmanagementofon-farm trees, participatorydevelopmentofagroforestryindegraded forestlandsandpoliciesfavoringeconomicbenefitsto local people from non-timber forest products could reduce the risks of decline in agricultural biodiversity and associated threats to livelihoods and Himalayan ecosystems.

Paradigm and Ecological Implication of Changing Agricultural Land-use:A Case Study from Govind Wildlife Sanctuary,Central Himalaya,India

The paper scrutinizes that the changes in any sub-system(i.e.agriculture,livestock and forest) have direct impact on biophysical and social processes in village ecosystem of the central Himalayan region.In view of this,we studied the changes in spatial patterns of agricultural land use and dependency of agroecosystem on forest and animal husbandry over a period of two decades.Based on data analysis it was found that the cultivation of some traditional crops has either been abandoned in the area or declined by 25%-85% due to introduction of cash crops viz.,potato,kidney bean and apple farming with acreage increased up to 51%-72% in the last three decades.Livestock population of different categories has declined drastically by 17%-75%,and has resulted shortage of farmyard manure,deterioration of soil quality and fertility which leads to un-sustainability of agriculture system.The changes in agrobiodiversity have led to the dramatic increase in soil loss and runoff from the croplands together with the increase pressure on forests.The economic evaluation of each crop showed higher monetary benefit from cash crops as compared to traditional crops.Among all the evaluated crops,the monetary output/input ratio was found highest(3.04) for kidney bean and lowest(1.26) for paddy.Changes in land use and management have improved household income but at the cost of forest degradation,less productive animal husbandry and loss of agrodiversity in the region.Therefore,there is an urgent need to bring desirable changes in agricultural policy,research,land use and efficient management of the resources for maintaining sustainability in agro and Himalayan forest ecosystem.

Conforming Courts,Homegrown Hominids,The Outer Outlet,and Cash Crop Culture

Much is said of China’s judicial system and much more remains conspicuously unsaid,but recent changes have seen promising reforms for the state’s beleaguered court system.For starters,the authorities are beginning to take notice that judges,those on the front lines of dispensing-justice,are underpaid,overworked,and unappreciated.There’s also the rather troubling matter of jurisdiction,but recent changes have provided more provincial

Agricultural water conservation in China:plastic mulch and traditional irrigation

Plastic mulch is commonly used with micro-irrigation in developed countries;however,Chinese farmers use plastic mulch on a vast scale independent of micro-irrigation.For the past three decades,China’s land area in plastic mulch has exceeded the world’s total land area in micro-irrigation.We report results from the water-scarce region of Minqin County,where 87%of Chinese farmers interviewed responded that they use plastic mulch to conserve water and 53%to increase yields.Survey results indicated the desire to conserve water through the use of plastic mulch to be statistically equivalent to the desire to increase yields.Responses to interviews and surveys indicate that farmers perceive water savings of 24-26%when plastic mulch is used.Interview and survey responses suggest farming families are shifting to purchasing wheat from outside the region;a potential import of"virtual water"into this water-scarce region.