This chapter describes how the paddy field-migration predicament
has emerged. It argues that the Chinese state has been a major driver
of the current situation through its rural policies, which provide both
constraints and opportunities with regard to possible household strategies
at the nexus of farming and migration. Special attention is paid to the
widespread adoption of post-Green Revolution farming technologies
that have set free agricultural labour. These transformations are placed
into the context of de-collectivization and marketization, the abolition
of the collective welfare system, the new urban economy, and loosened
migration restrictions – all of which have pushed peasant farmers to
migrate and enhanced their precarity, which in turn makes them want
to protect their fields as a safety net.
Coping With Child Hunger in Canada: Have Household Strategies Changed Over a Decade?