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 12
This chapter reviews these issues in more detail, by looking at labor force redistribution. The Grain for Green was expected to increase migration and off-farm employment. However, researchers found that in some areas farmers who joined the Grain for Green program migrated less. These farmers were able to improve the productivity of their remaining fields (as well as farm fields of those who had left), which resulted in higher incomes and removed the need for migration. Successful migration also depends on qualifications and social networks, and it is likely that those who joined the Grain for Green, often the poorest members in the villages, had fewer opportunities to migrate that their wealthier neighbors. In any case, the evidence shows that there is considerable variation among communities in terms of the impact of the Grain for Green on income levels, and few generalizations can be made.
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