2015 Volume 61 Issue 1 Pages 39-50
In recent years, migrant workers have supported China's rapid economic growth. This study considers the agriculture of mountainous farming villages that supply migrant workers and verifies how migrant work affects the farming village's activities and the agricultural activities of those residents remaining. The research was implemented in three villages with different natural and social conditions in Pengyang County, Guyuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region as interviews with village heads and questionnaires distributed to individual workers. It was found that the level of resident activities declined in areas with disadvantageous conditions, and that shared work-working on each other's farms free of charge-was maintained by adding economic incentives in areas characterized by favorable conditions. In addition, most of those remaining in the villages participate in agriculture, and those thought to be more capable as migrant workers are more active agriculturally. However, it was found that only a small number of males in their teens and twenties remain in the villages, which raises concerns about how the workforce needed to sustain farming villages and agriculture will be secured in the future.
