Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment

Non-neutral technology, farmer income and poverty reduction: Evidence from high-value agricultural household in China

Author(s):

Jing Wang ¹*, Xuexi Huo ¹, Assem Abu Hatab ², Md. Shajahan Kabir ³

Recieved Date: 2012-06-12, Accepted Date: 2012-10-01

Abstract:

In China’s agricultural economy, the relative importance of grains and other starchy staple crops is declining, while that of high-value agricultural products (HVAPs) is increasing. This transformation of the agricultural sector has profound effects on the technology choice for HVAPs, and then the income of farmers and poverty reduction. Using apple-producing household as example, this study examined the adoption of two non-neutral technologies for HVPs, the labor-saving and labor-intensive technology, in Luochuan County in China. It employs a nonparametric quantile regression approach to analyze the direct impact of the non-neutral technology selection behaviors of apple-producing households on the differences of their income from apple production and poverty reduction, using cross-sectional data of 302 specialist apple-producing households from this region. The results reveal that the labor-saving technology impacts on apple-producing household income negatively, while the labor-intensive technology exerts robust positive and significant impact on apple-producing household income. Especially, the empirical results suggest that adoption of labor-intensive technology brought a higher marginal return to the apple-producing households having lower income, thereby reducing their poverty. 

Keywords:

Non-neutral technology, farmer income, poverty reduction, high-value agricultural household, China

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Journal: Journal of Food, Agriculture and Environment
Year: 2012
Volume: 10
Issue: 3&4
Category: Agriculture
Pages: 582-589

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