China’s Grain for Green Program: A Review of the Largest Ecological Restoration and Rural Development Program in the World
By Claudio O. Delang and Zhen Yuan Springer, 2015 Chapter 11
This chapter discusses the impact of the Grain for Green on the sources and level of income of farmers. While in many places agricultural incomes tended to dominate before the Grain for Green was introduced, by relieving farmers from agricultural work, the Grain for Green has had a considerable impacts on the economic structure and potential sources of income. With the Grain for Green the income structure diversified, to include agriculture, Grain for Green subsidies, the sale of Grain for Green-sponsored forest products, off-farm work in the villages of residence, and migration. In terms of the incomes from Grain for Green-induced land use changes, a distinction has to be made between economic trees, ecological trees, and grassland. Researchers agree that economic trees bring higher profits to the farmers, but even among economic trees, not all trees bring profits comparable to crops, once the subsidies are excluded from the calculation. Most researchers have looked at the benefits per hectare rather than the benefits per person-day.
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