Income Aspirations and Peasants'Agricultural Productive Inputs—Evidence from a Longitudinal Survey on Two Village Apple Growers
As China's national economic level continues to improve,the role of agriculture in safeguarding people's wellbeing and national security is becoming increasingly significant.Since the implementation of China's reform and opening up policy,the Chinese government has established the Household Contract Responsibility System,which designates small-scale peasants as the primary production units.This institution has been implemented with the objective of stimulating peasants'productivity and improving agricultural production efficiency.Nevertheless,as urbanization has continued to advance,the migration of rural labor to urban areas has become a normal trend,and issues such as rural depopulation and agricultural marginalization have become increasingly prevalent.The question of"'who will farm'in the future"has become a significant concern for all sectors of the public.The 2024 No.1 Central Document explicitly stated that the focus should be on solving the problem of"who will farm"with small-scale peasants as the basis,new agricultural business entities as the focus,and social services as support.This approach is designed to accelerate the formation of a high-quality production and management team that is suitable for modern agriculture.Consequently,the mobilization of the productive enthusiasm of a multitude of production and management entities,predominantly small-scale peasants,has emerged as the pivotal means of resolving this issue.It is evident that stimulating peasants'enthusiasm for agricultural production must begin with an examination of the internal constraints that they face.This approach offers a compelling explanation for why the rural development and motivation of peasants'productivity remain low even after the constraints imposed by external factors have been removed.In light of its pivotal role in driving peasants'intrinsic motivation,income aspirations have emerged as a focal point of considerable interest within the academic community.In light of the aforementioned constraints,it is pertinent to inquire as to the influence of income aspirations on the agricultural productive inputs of peasants.This is a theoretical and practical issue that merits further investigation and empirical testing.This paper employs a fixed-effect model to investigate the influence of household decision-makers'income aspirations on peasants'agricultural productive inputs,utilizing data from longitudinal surveys of apple growers in two entire villages in Fu County,Shaanxi Province.The findings indicate that income aspirations exert a positive influence on the material and labor input of peasants,and this conclusion is substantiated by robust evidence.The moderating effect analysis yielded the following result:the older the family decision-maker is,the less incentive effect of income aspirations on peasants'labor input.The proportion of migrant workers has a negative correlation with the incentive effect of income aspirations on the material input of peasants.At varying material input quantiles,the impact of income aspirations on peasants'material input is heterogeneous due to the disparate proportions of the household labor force and household assets among peasants.This phenomenon is not observed in the impact of income aspirations on peasants'labor input.Further analysis indicates that elevated income aspirations are not necessarily beneficial when they are not aligned with the actual income situation.This discrepancy can impede the productive inputs of peasants in the agricultural sector.It is therefore recommended that policy-makers consider not only the alleviation of external constraints on peasants through the implementation of foreign aid boosting policies,but also the stimulation of endogenous motivation through the introduction of endogenous development policies.
Common prosperityMaterial inputLabor inputIncome aspirationsBuild up China's strength in agriculture
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