The decline and transformation of smallholders in Chinese agriculture: National trends

• Main Authors: ZHANG, Qian Forrest, WU, Meiling
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2024
• Subjects: Smallholders; peasants; petty commodity producers; capitalist agriculture; vertical integration; class differentiation; Agricultural and Resource Economics; Asian Studies
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/4056; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/5314/viewcontent/The_decline_and_transformation_of_smallholders_in_Chinese_agriculture__national_trends.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Using data from official statistical sources and a nationally representative survey, we find that since 2001, China’s agricultural labor force has declined by over 50 percent—a loss of over 200 million smallholders, probably the largest in human history. This trend is the most pronounced in livestoc...