Post-Collective Agriculture

Since the start of the economic reforms in 1978, China has developed today into one of the world’s leading producers of agricultural produce—particularly pork, poultry, fruits, vegetables, wheat, corn, and rice. The transition of China’s collectivist Soviet-style agricultural production toward a modernized, mechanized, and market-based agriculture has taken many decades to take effect. A major breakthrough that marked the start of China’s agricultural transition was the nationwide adoption of the Household Contract Responsibility System in the mid-1980s. In addition to these managerial and structural changes, the Chinese government engaged in the liberalization of agricultural prices and supply and marketing systems, as well as the stimulation of agricultural diversification, mechanization, and economies of scale. As agriculture continued to develop, millions of farmers were lifted out of poverty and migrated to the cities to find employment in the industries and services. At the same time, however, China encountered significant problems as a result. For one, how to ensure food security and feed close to one-fifth of the earth’s population with less than one-tenth of its farmland? On top of that, over time vast tracts of fertile, arable land were lost due to its (legal and illegal) conversion into urban construction land. Raising agricultural production was also severely constrained by the small and fragmented nature of Chinese farms. Well into the 2010s, over 90 percent of these were smaller than 2.5 acres, while cropland was scattered over numerous different plots. Furthermore, ensuring adequate social welfare, education, and health care for the rural populace had become a daunting challenge in the face of the growing divide between urban citizens and the peasant population. Last but not least, rapid rural industrialization through township and village enterprises (TVEs), once hailed as a miracle of China’s reforms, had taken a heavy toll in the form of soil, air, and water pollution, giving rise to “cancer villages”, “black rivers,” and heavily degraded natural resources. At the time of this writing, Chinese agriculture is caught in between two worlds: on the one hand, one may find smallholders tilling scattered agricultural plots, on the other hand, there are high-tech food-processing factories and the peri-urban, sometimes ecologically guided industrial farms. The stark contrast between a highly modernized sector versus a traditional one will continue to explain the paradoxical dynamics of Chinese post-collective agriculture for the foreseeable future.

Rural Industrialization and Environmental Governance Challenges in the Red River Delta, Vietnam

This article examines factors and root causes of dilemma and environmental governance challenges in the Red River Delta of Vietnam. Since the Renovation ( Đổi Mới) period, there has been an accelerating growth of craft villages and industrial clusters in rural areas. While these processes contribute to creating jobs, increasing rural income, and assuaging rural–urban migration pressures, little attention is devoted to environmental effects they have caused at the village level. Drawing on case studies in the Red River Delta and desk reviews, this study suggests that rural industrialization has witnessed rapid expansion of craft villages and intense market competition among them, leading to environmental pollution and resource depletion. Although the Vietnamese government has issued directives and environmental laws to regulate and control environmental pollution, the situations remain unabated. This study calls for sound environmental policies to sustain the operation of craft villages while ensuring the effective governance of rural industrialization.

Taiwan’s Industrial Districts and Economic Development

This chapter considers the development of four important Taiwanese industrial clusters: bicycles, machine tools, integrated circuits (ICs), and information and communication technologies (ICT) hardware. Three of these clusters grew out of the networked production of Taiwan’s rural industrialization process. The exception was the IC industry, which was created by the state in light of private capital’s reluctance to invest. While the IC industry did not originate out of local networks of industrial production, it did draw on networks of Taiwanese technologists abroad to develop. All four industries shared the common feature of state-supported institutions to diffuse technology to local firms. The industrial clusters that have proved sustainable are either characterized by relational value chains supported by government technical institutions (bicycles and machine tools) or modular value chains where Taiwan was able to enter high-value segments early in its cluster development.

Economic Contribution and Inequality Mitigation of Wicker Handicraft Entrepreneurship in Rural Kashmir, India

Wicker handicraft entrepreneurship is a unique world-famous small-scale forest-based cottage industry of indigenous people of Kashmir Himalaya which plays a prominent role in livelihood security, socioeconomic development, traditional handcraftsmanship and rural industrialization in the region. The study investigated the economic contribution, income inequality mitigation and determinant socioeconomic factors of wicker handicraft entrepreneurship in Pulwama district of J&K UT. Multistage random sampling technique was employed to select the sample of 100 wicker handicraft entrepreneurs. Data were collected through structured interviews and focus group discussions. Both descriptive and analytical statistics were used in data analysis. Results revealed that collection of withies from Parrotia jacquemontiana, Cotoneaster baciliaris, Indigofera pulchella and Salix spp. was 61.71 t/year for manufacture of 43514 wicker handicrafts/year which generated an income of 5953470/year. Wicker handicraft income contributes 66.97%, whereas farm and non-farm income accounts 23.46% and 9.58% of total household income, respectively. Gini coefficient was 21.85 when wicker handicraft income was considered and 53.14 when it was ignored which indicated that the wicker handicraft income have stronger equalizing effect on local income distribution. Regression analysis showed that all explanatory variables jointly accounted 81.50% (R2=0.815) variation on wicker handicraft income. Among socioeconomic factors, education, family composition, housing status, subsequent occupation and gross annual income were key determinants influencing significantly (p<0.05) the wicker handicraft income. To achieve the socioeconomic development and livelihood diversification objectives, policy must be directed towards the rural industrialization through wicker handicraft entrepreneurship.

An answer from Marxist economics to Weber's hypothesis about China: a concurrent discussion of the direction of rural reform in China

PurposeWeber's hypothesis about China is the hypothesis forwarded by Weber that why capitalist production did not appear in eastern countries such as China in the first place. Weber considered that the reason may be Chinese Confucianism and Taoism lack protestant ethic like Western countries.Design/methodology/approachThe clarification has aroused wide discussion, meanwhile, East Asian capitalism belonging to the Chinese cultural circle has successfully refuted Weber's proposition. Chinese scholars have a broad debate around this topic while no agreement has been reached. This paper tries to explain Weber's hypothesis by Marx's theory of capital origin, which can be explained that the landlord economy caused by China's federal society under centralism leads to the result that the commodity of labor cannot exist in that environment.FindingsThe answer from Marxist economics has not only solved an enormous theoretical problem, but also it has vital practical significance. It easily clarifies the fact that the commodity of labor in full sense still cannot emerge in China nowadays, which is an important reason causing China to enter the New Normal and New Era.Originality/valueTherefore, it leaves China the only way of the socialist road with Chinese characteristics and revitalizing China's rural economy, which means China can only promote rural industrialization and urbanization under the principle of adhering to rural collective ownership, while implementing various forms of integrated agricultural and industrial business models based on local conditions.

Agricultural Development in Thailand: Experience and Implications for Vietnam

Agriculture in Thailand has developed as it is today because of the long-term strategic vision of the government. Since the 1980s, agricultural development policy has used a variety of marketing principles, which ensures that there is aharmonious development with rural areas. Agricultural development policies in Thailand faced a lot of challenges such as the narrowed farming area, a large number of rural labor force moving to urban, farmers getting no benefits from government policies. The research shed light on agricultural development policies in Thailand, especially key points in agricultural extension policies, agricultural support, rural industrialization policies, modern scientific applications, foreign investment in agriculture, and then drawing some policies in sustainable agriculture development in our country.

Productivity Dynamics and Rural Industrialization in India

Since the late 1990s, industrialization in India has been driven by the rural organized manufacturing sector. This paper examines the effects of firms’ dynamics on rural industrialization in India, using plant-level panel data, to investigate the characteristics of rural industrialization in India in recent years. In particular, the paper focuses on productivity differences among continuing, entering, and exiting firms. The results show that both labour and total factor productivity of the organized manufacturing sector in rural areas increased during 2000–2006 and the aggregate productivity growth is supported by the productivity growth of the continuing firms, the entry of productive firms, and the exit of less-productive firms. The paper can conclude that firms’ productivity dynamics contributed to the current rural industrialization in India. JEL: O14, O47, O53