The general objective of the research is to analyze the mediating role of (output) markets in less-favored areas in China. Of special interest is how the functioning of rural markets affects the outcome of policy changes for agricultural households food security and poverty We limit ourselves to Jiangxi Province and the main agricultural products (especially rice) in this province. Because of transportation disadvantage and other reasons, the economy of Jiangxi Province falls rather behind state average level. This province is assumed to be representative of a much larger hilly and poor area in Southeast China. The research will concentrate on three villages in Jiangxi Province. The chosen villages have quite similar crop cultivation. Rice is the most important cultivated crop. However, the villages have a different degree of market access. This allows a comparison of the effect of economic policies on production decisions under different degrees of market development. The selected villages face different biophysical constraints, which provides representativeness and allows a generalization of the results to other villages. Therefore, the households in the villages could represent the households facing similar biophysical constraints and relevant policies; the study results could therefore give an indication of the effects on a more aggregate level.
To reach the general objective, the following four research questions will be addressed:
1. What policies are there for the main agricultural products produced in the selected villages, and what changes are there to be expected, e.g. after the entry of China in the WTO?
2. How do the marketing channels, for the main agricultural products produced in the selected villages, look like and how to model these marketing channels e.g. to examine the effects of policy changes on farm level?
3. What are the expected changes in the marketing channels and what are the impacts of these changes on farm level?
4. What is the impact of policy and market organization changes on farm households production and consumption decisions aimed at assuring food security and increasing welfare, taking into account the biophysical constraints |
