“China’s food conundrum: insecurity of the rural abandoned,” in Eurasia Review, 12/14/2011.
Interesting statistics:
- 130 million “left behind” in China’s rural areas
- Migration of 250 million rural laborers to the cities is “hollowing China’s countryside”: includes not just ruralites migrating to cities as unskilled labor, but also college students and army recruits.
- Rural migrants leave behind children, wives and parents: 50 million children, 40 million elderly, 47 million women
Some interesting facts to read about in this article:
- Chinese farms focus on self-sufficiency: the farm relies on its output for food.
- Since 1978 agricultural production has become “increasingly specialized”: “One village One product”
- by 2010, 51,486 OVOP villages, rapidly growing—but this trend breaks the self-sufficiency of the farm
- those left behind (by definition, women, children, elderly), find it very physically demanding to undertake the agricultural tasks required
Many more details in here. Is there a strategic opportunity to cross-culturally bless China through some form of agricultural mission?
Think again about my beloved Celts, who “moved into the area” and began farming it.
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