Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Dry Land
†
15.9
7.0
Forest Land
†
13.2
3.3
Rice
†
Staple Crop Sales (yuan)
434
1,039
Corn
†
5,624
3,626
Commodity Crop Sales (yuan) Walnuts
†
613
4
Tea
260
33
Tobacco
†
1,462
3,625
Household Income (yuan)
Agricultural Income
19,177
15,026
Livestock Income
3,068
3,647
Wage Labor
†
5,181
14,105
Self-Employment
†
3,057
9,071
41,850
Note
: Independent-samples t-test (
†
significant at 0.01 level).
This pattern of land access coincides with some dramatic differences in cropping
strategies between the two groups. Resettled households produced and sold more rice,
whichisgrownonpaddyland,andlesscorn,whichisadrylandcroptypicallyreliantonin-
termittent seasonal rainfall or labor-intensive irrigation by hand. In terms of the “big three”
commoditycrops,thetwogroupsalsodifferedconsiderably:resettledhouseholdsproduced
more tobacco than nonresettled households but lagged far behind in the production of tea
and walnuts. This makes intuitive sense because tea and walnuts are tree crops that require
a significant amount of upfront capital and a number of years in situ before the trees are
mature enough to produce a crop.
Perhaps most significantly, the two groups show remarkable differences in their parti-
cipation in off-farm labor. Resettled households were twice as likely to report having at
least one member of the family participating in wage labor, often as a migrant worker in a
town or city. For these families, remittances (14,105 yuan per year on average) had become
a crucial income source. Resettled households also participated much more in entrepren-
eurial, self-employment activities, such as operating restaurants or retail shops, and earned
three times more self-employment income than their nonresettled counterparts. As a result,
total household income, which includes both cash sources and in-kind sources such as the
value of agricultural products grown and consumed at home, was much higher for resettled
households than for their counterparts who were unaffected by displacement.
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