China’s Grain for Green Program

China’s Grain for Green Program
Author: Claudio O. Delang
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2014-11-07
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319115057

This book provides a comprehensive review of Grain for Green, China’s nationwide program which pays farmers to revert sloping or marginal farm land to trees or grass. The program aims to improve the ecological conditions of much of China, and the socioeconomic circumstances of hundreds of millions of people. GfG is the largest reforestation, ecological restoration, and rural development initiative in history, combining the biggest investment, the greatest involvement, and the broadest degree of public participation ever. The book is organised in three sections. Part One reviews the history of land management in China from 1949 to 1998, exploring the conditions that led to the introduction of GfG, and comparing it to other reforestation programs. Part Two offers an overview of GfG, describing the timeline of the program, compensation paid to farmers, the rules concerning land and plant selection, the extent to which these rules were followed, the attitudes of farmers towards the program, and the way in which the program is organized and implemented by various state actors. Part Three discusses the impact of the GfG, from both ecological and socio-economic standpoints, looking at the economic benefits that result from participating in the GfG, the impact of the GfG across local economies, the redistribution of the labor force and the sustainability of the program, in particular the question of what will happen to the converted land when payments to farmers end.

The Impact of China's Grain for Green Program on Farmer's Income

The Impact of China's Grain for Green Program on Farmer's Income
Author: Yu Lu
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022
Genre:
ISBN:

The Grain for Green Program (GFGP) in China, one of the largest Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) schemes, has been regarded as an effective approach to achieving sustainable development. However, the conclusion of the impact of GFGP on farmers' income reported in the existing literature is still controversial. It is crucial to find the combined effect of the impact of the GFGP on farmers' income and the causes of the heterogeneous effects. In this paper, the impact of the GFGP on farmers' income with different income sources was analyzed by using the Meta-analysis method with 66 domestic and international studies from 1999 to 2022. The farmers' income was further divided into four different income groups, total income (including subsidies), total income (excluding subsidies), farm income, and off-farm income. It is noteworthy that the differences in methodology, such as measurement of independent variables, data acquisition methods, sample regions, and the choice of estimation model could affect the results of the impact of the GFGP on farmers' income. Thus, the heterogeneous effect of methodology had been conducted further. The results demonstrated: (1) The GFGP had a significant positive impact on total income (including subsidies) and off-farm income. However, the GFGP on total income (including subsidies) is not significant, and it may harm the farm income. (2) Using continuous variables (area of participation and years of participation) had higher estimated coefficients as opposed to using binary variables (whether to participate). (3) The effect of using primary data on total income (excluding subsidies) and off-farm income was higher than using secondary data. (4) The impact of the GFGP on farmers' off-farm income was strongest in the central region, followed by the western region, and weakest in the nationwide region. The sample regions had no significant difference in other income groups. (5) The GFGP also had smaller effects on total income (including subsidies), total income (excluding subsidies), and off-farm income using the endogenous model compared to not using the model.

China's Grain Economy

China's Grain Economy
Author: Liming Wang
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2019-06-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0429643330

This book was originally pubished in 2000. China is the largest developing country in the world and is still heavily based on agriculture. Currently, about 70 per cent of China's total of more than one bilion people live in rural areas, and about half of the total national labour force is involved in agricultural activities. It is clear that agriculture is the foundation for the development of the Chinese national economy. Within agriculture, the grain economy is the most important sector: indeed it has been recognised as a treasure in managing the country by all past Chinese dynasties. Ensuring enough grain supply to meet the demands of such a huge population seems to be a long-term goal for the Chinese government and this book explores whether China will be able to produce enough grain to keep pace with its population increases.

An Integrated Assessment of China’s Ecological Restoration Programs

An Integrated Assessment of China’s Ecological Restoration Programs
Author: Runsheng Yin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2009-07-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 904812655X

China has been undertaking unprecedented ecological restoration efforts to deal with its problems of soil erosion, flooding, dust storms, and habitat loss. While there have been studies of these efforts, questions remain concerning whether they have been effectively implemented, what their induced socioeconomic and ecological impacts are, and how their performance can be improved. Tackling these important questions in an integrated manner, “An Integrated Assessment of China’s Ecological Restoration Programs” is extraordinary for its broad coverage and methodological rigor. It provides a substantial improvement over the conventional approach of simply reporting projects undertaken and accepting uncritically the government assessment, and thus fills an important knowledge gap of the restoration efforts being implemented upon a variety of ecosystems in China.

Growth and Evolution in China's Agricultural Support Policies

Growth and Evolution in China's Agricultural Support Policies
Author: Fred Gale
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 54
Release: 2014-04-04
Genre: Agricultural industries
ISBN: 9781497528734

China is perhaps the most prominent example of a developing country that has transitioned from taxing to supporting agriculture. In recent years, Chinese price supports and subsidies have risen at an accelerating pace after they were linked to rising production costs. Per-acre subsidy payments to grain producers now equal 7 to 15 percent of those producers' gross income, but grain payments appear to have little influence on production decisions. Chinese authorities began raising price supports annually to bolster incentives, and Chinese prices for major farm commodities are rising above world prices, helping to attract a surge of agricultural imports. U.S. agricultural exports to China tripled in value during the period when China's agricultural support was accelerating. Overall, China's expansion of support is loosely constrained by World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, but the country's price-support programs could exceed WTO limits in coming years. Chinese officials promise to continue increasing domestic policy support for agriculture, but the mix of policies may evolve as the Chinese agricultural sector becomes more commercialized and faces competitive pressures.

Conservation Payments, Liquidity Constraints, and Off-Farm Labor

Conservation Payments, Liquidity Constraints, and Off-Farm Labor
Author: Emi Uchida
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

This study evaluates the labor response of rural households participating in the Grain-for-Green program in China, the largest payments for ecosystem services program in the developing world. Using a panel data set that we designed and implemented, we find that the participating households are increasingly shifting their labor endowment from on-farm work to the off-farm labor market. However, the effects vary depending on the initial level of human and physical capital. The results support the view that one reason why the participants are more likely to find off-farm employment is because the program is relaxing households' liquidity constraints.

Unintended Land Use Effects of Afforestation in China's Grain for Green Program

Unintended Land Use Effects of Afforestation in China's Grain for Green Program
Author: Youpei Yan
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre:
ISBN:

The aim of China's Grain for Green Program is to reduce soil erosion by subsidizing reforestation of farmland located on steep slopes with low crop productivity. I show theoretically that the incentives created by the program combined with insufficient oversight have led to afforestation of non-sloped highly productive farmland. With a unique land transition dataset, I show that this unintended land use effect has been substantial, amounting to nearly one-fifth of the total amount of cropland converted to forest. This unexpected displacement of highly productive farmland represents a form of slippage/leakage that has not been fully explored in the literature on payment for ecosystem services programs. This form of land displacement is significant in the context of China as well as other countries with limited arable land relative to population size as it can negatively impact national food production targets and self-sufficiency goals.