Inter-household variation in adoption of cash cropping and its effects on labor and dietary patterns: a study in a Li hamlet in Hainan island, China

Abstract

Following the economic development policy of China since the 1980s, the indigenous food production systems of communities have been transformed to a market economy. The introduction of cash crops has been the major developmental policy of China’s rural areas. Despite the overall improvement of economic status among farmers over the last two decades, inequality among households has emerged as a new problem. In the present study, we investigated the process of how cash crops were accepted in a Li hamlet in Hainan island, China, and how this has influenced the labor and dietary patterns of people. In examining this process, we focussed on inter-household differences. We also reconstructed the demographic changes and land use patterns of all the households of the hamlet for the period between 1985 and 2004. Data on labor and diet of 11 representative households were collected by direct measurement/observation from a total of 12 months of fieldwork in 2000–2004. Reconstruction of the adoption process revealed two important factors that might contribute to current variation among households: (1) the success of pioneering households, which played an important role in triggering the hamlet-level adoption of cash crops, and (2) the availability of labor resources during 1995–2004, which explains the inter-household variation observed in 2004. The households that succeeded in cash cropping appeared to be able to afford further investment in cash cropping, which may have further enlarged inter-household variation. Inter-household variation in cash cropping in 2004 partly explains inter-household variation in food consumption and labor hours. The intensification and maintenance of rice cultivation may alleviate the nutritional (initial phase) and work burden posed by the adoption of cash cropping.