Upland Rice Technology Adoption And Household Food Security In Uplands Of Southern Yunnan

Upland areas of southern Yunnan are characterized by rugged terrain, poor access to markets, environmental degradation, and a high incidence of poverty. These area also border areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. Farmers have been growing upland rice for years using traditional varieties under shifting cultivation systems that are based on slash-and-burn practices. Despite increasing commercialization of agriculture, upland rice products is still primarily a subsistence-oriented activity in southern Yunnan, with farmers utilizing a large share of their resources, primarily land and labor, to meet food needs. Self-sufficiency in food production is a dominant objective of upland farmers. Income-generating commercial activities thus need to be based on the foundation of household-level food security, which often means that households are able to produce a bulk of their own food requirements.Upland rice production systems in Yunnan are currently in transition. Some of the driving forces area increased population density, demand for better quality of life, increased investments in transportation infrastructures, investment in terrace construction, and changes in forestry and land management policies. Livelihood systems comprising of various combinations of food crops, livestock, cash crops and other economic activities are thus emerging. However, the productivity of food crops, mainly upland rice, remains low in the bulk of the area, and food insecurity of the poor is a major concern.With the background that the market economics in China is becoming more and more powerful, it is important to pay attention to these marginal households who may be unable cope with adequately with the risks associated with the market.However, the patterns of transitions in upland areas of Yunnan and their likely consequences in terms of household food security, income generation and environmental protections are currently poor understood. A good understanding of the patterns of transition, the drivers of these transitions and their impacts is essential for identifying the target population, and developing suitable policy advices and improved technologies for addressing the problems of food insecurity and land degradation in the uplands.Taking farmers' upland rice technology adoption and their household food security as target, this research focus on comparing farmers' upland rice production practices among different adoption pattern, estimating the impact of improved technology adoption on their household food security and describing the household characteristics and their endowments in different development period associated with their technology demand so as to get better understanding upland household economic transition based on their food security to be the reference and scientific base for designing policy for uplands. There are eight chapters in the dissertation. The first chapter focused on the research objectives and the related issues, also summarized the analysis methods, research progress and data introduction. The following chapter two briefly reviewed the literature on the relationship among food security, poverty and agriculture technology extension and described the conceptual framework for the whole research. As the background, chapter three was to review the policy for poverty and mountain agriculture, characterize the nature of agriculture production in upland area, and divide the history of upland rice production into periods taking Lancang County as example. Besides, it also included the description of farm characteristics and their endowments. Based on the description, chapter four analyzed the patterns of adoption of upland rice technology and its determinants. In terms of upland rice variety and land type, comparison analysis was carried out for input and output analysis as well as the differentiate behavior of household production practices, these were included in chapter five. Chapter six focused on household food security and estimating the impact of improved upland rice technology. Chapter seven described and compared household cash gross income, and estimated the impact of improved upland rice technology on household income by simulation analysis method. Combining the above analysis, field sites were divided into different periods of the transition. At last, chapter eight summarized the development pattern of uplands area in southern Yunnan and the conclusions in the research, some recommendations came into existing in accordance with the detail anlaysis.Based on reviewing the related research and associated with the first-hand household data, the issue of this research indicated several innovations:Original topic: the pattern of transitions in upland areas of Yunnan and their likely consequences in terms of household security, income generation and environmental protections are currently poorly understood. The current knowledge on this is incomplete as only few studies of this nature have been conducted and studies have often emphasized a particular aspect of the system that is analysis is needed to help design better policies and technologies for achieving sustainable food security in the uplands. The research systematically reviewed the upland development policies, estimated the impact of improved agriculture technology on household food security and summarized its pattern taking the agriculture technology extension as entry point. The issues included land endowments, technology adoption pattern, household food security associated with its determinants and income analysis. To some extent, these can be the complementary work for the above research deficiency.Original data: In this research, it included not only the long-term published data to provide a broader picture of the nature of agriculture production trends but also the first-hand household data on the family characteristics, rice production, food security and technology adoption etc. covering the main ethnic minority group and prefectures in southern Yunnan. Besides, the second household survey is particularly based on detail input and output information at plot level.Improved research method: In the survey, diverse methods were used including institute and key technician interview, village questionnaire, household questionnaire, farmer deep interview and focus group discussion and so on. Thus the information collected was from different aspects which ensure the objectives of the research can be met. Also, both information on technology supply from agriculture department to farmers called from up to bottom style and the technology demand from farmers called from bottom to up style have been taken into account. The technology extension is analyzed combining with its supply and demand.Framework for household technology demand and adoption: The household would like to adopt different modern and improved technology in accordance with their position of the different development period. Generally, the majority of the household would prefer to the technology extension on food crops when they are in the subsistence-oriented period so that they can meet the family members' food requirement. Although part of them would like to depend on the cash crops production, the self-sufficiency is the base to ensure their sustainable development due to their vulnerability and inconvenient and bad access to market as well as poverty. Accordingly, the technology extension for food crops planting should be paid more attention and the extreme poverty household should be got more subsidies on input and technology adoption to improve their agriculture productivity. After ensuring the food security, household would switch to plant cash crops and begin livestock feeding. Undoubtedly, farmers also can improve their family income by selling the surplus grain and this would require better access to market.Summarization on developing pattern: This is also the conclusion of the research. Combining the linkage among household land endowments, upland rice production practices, technology adoption pattern, household food security and its cash income together, principal analysis is utilized to find out the key variables to divide the field sites into different periods in the transition. These variables represented the four aspects of household economy, that is, upland rice production, technology adoption, household food security and economic status. Five periods including insecurity and subsistence-oriented period, subsistence period, self-sufficiency and household food security period, primary developing period based on the household food security and advanced developing period with household food security were consequently summarized. This is the reference for poverty alleviation and agriculture designing in other similar regions.