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China's peasants become farmers
SHANGHAI - China has about 900
million rural residents, or peasants as they have been
more commonly known, but increasing numbers are
shrugging off the title to become professional farmers.
In China's economic powerhouse - the Yangtze
River Delta area where Shanghai and prosperous provinces
of Zhejiang and Jiangsu sit, peasants are being replaced
by newly emerged farmers demographically.
In his
classic work of Peasants, Eric R Wolf
differentiates peasants from farmers. The American farm
is primarily a business enterprise, combining factors of
production purchased in a market to obtain a profit by
selling advantageously in a products market.
Chen Wenxin, a Zhejiang native, is one of this
group of new farming businessmen, or a farmer in Wolf's
definition. He contracted one year ago a piece of
1.3-hectare land in the suburb of Shanghai to cultivate
seedlings for urban use.
Different from
traditional peasants of whom he used to be a member,
Chen owns a two-story office building where he and eight
employees work, and they take a shower and change work
clothes before going back home.
"I was born a
true peasant, and began to do commercial business 10
years ago because farming income was low," said Chen,
45, his suntanned skin revealing his previous peasant
life. "Now Shanghai has launched green projects
everywhere in the city. You can sell as many seedlings
as you can produce. That's why I came back to do this."
Now Chen earns 40,000 yuan (US$4,832) a year,
compared with 1,000 yuan annual income when he was a
peasant, 20,000 yuan in good year but a loss of 5,000
yuan in a bad year when he was doing business.
For thousands of years, peasantry was the
principal part of Chinese society. Their self-sufficient
life gave them a stable living but failed to promise a
rich life. Farmers, however, are hoping to change their
fate in a market economy in which they are able to run
farming as a profitable business.
In the Yangtze
River Delta, there are two categories of active
"farmers". One group are locals of the area who run
profitable market-oriented farming businesses, like
horticulture, cash crops and export-targeted farm
produce, in suburbs of booming cities. Another group are
from neighboring provinces. They are "seasonal farmers"
because they come only in busy sowing or harvest
periods, working as employed labors and earning
salaries.
Wu Zhichong, a researcher with a rural
economy research center in Shanghai, said Chinese
farmers, or farming professionals, first emerged in this
region because of high-level economic and social
development. Being a traditional region with advanced
agricultural production, the region's fast-paced
urbanization and industrialization in recent years built
up demand for farm produce and an improved market
allowed farmers to profit from the trade.
In the
booming city of Yiwu in Zhejiang, the peasantry
population stands at 500,000, only one third are engaged
in true farming.
"Most of them are determined to
do farming because those not willing to do so have
already left to take business careers," said Yang
Linzhang, director of the city's office in charge of
urban and rural integration.
Yiwu is planning to
reduce farmers to 50,000 or 80,000 at most in number,
which ensures "farming is profitable," according to
Yang.
"It is the biggest difference between
farmers and peasants whether they voluntarily select
farming as the job," said Yu Leng, professor of
agricultural economy with the Shanghai Jiaotong
University.
Chinese peasants used to be
"hereditary", according to Yu, and they were harshly
restricted to their peasantry identity in the past.
Now the country is reforming its rural
population administration, which is to put an end to the
existence of peasantry. For example in Shanghai, new
regulations state that children born after January 1,
2001, no matter in suburbs or in rural areas, can be
registered as urban residents. They will no longer be
labeled a "hereditary" peasant as their parents were.
And the number of peasants in Shanghai will
reduce to zero as time passes. In the Chinese language,
peasant and farmer use the same characters of "Nong
Min", and this appellation will remain in use but only
to be addressed in the sense of Wolf's farmer with the
implication of a profession.
(Asia
Pulse/XIC)
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