Meenchee Hong, Sizhong Sun, A.B.M. Rabiul Beg and Zhangyue Zhou
With a fast-growing Muslim population and consumer income, the demand for halal products by Chinese Muslims has expanded strongly. However, literature addressing Chinese Muslims’…
Abstract
Purpose
With a fast-growing Muslim population and consumer income, the demand for halal products by Chinese Muslims has expanded strongly. However, literature addressing Chinese Muslims’ consumption is limited, and their demand for halal products is little understood. This study aims to investigate what affects Chinese Muslims’ demand for halal products, with a focus on halal personal care products.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey of 500 respondents was conducted to collect cross-sectional data in northwest China. Data were processed and analysed with a logit model.
Findings
Apart from faithfulness, reliability of recommendations, product price, product availability and halal authenticity are most important determinants influencing the purchase of halal products by Chinese Muslims.
Research limitations/implications
In this study, the focus is only on Muslims from China’s Northwest. Due to various constraints, the cluster and convenience sampling methods are used.
Practical implications
The findings are invaluable for governments and industry bodies to form policies to better meet the burgeoning demand for halal products by Chinese Muslims. They are also very invaluable for producers and exporters who intend to penetrate the halal market in non-Muslim-dominant countries like China.
Originality/value
Studies on understanding the needs of Muslims in non-Muslim countries are limited. Given the sheer size of the Muslim population in China, understanding their demand for halal products and influential determinants concerning such demand adds to the literature and helps the industry to better serve and capitalise on the growing market.
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The paper aims to review and assess China's food security practice over the past three decades with a view of drawing implications for further improving its food security in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to review and assess China's food security practice over the past three decades with a view of drawing implications for further improving its food security in the future.
Design/methodology/approach
A normative food security framework is used to assess China's food security achievements and examine any remaining and emerging issues in its pursuit for food security.
Findings
China has done well in achieving grain security in the past three decades. However, it cannot be concluded that China has achieved its food security according to the normative food security framework. This is because there are serious problems in the aspects of food safety and quality, environmental sustainability, and social stability. To achieve long‐term food security, China has to tackle the wide spread issues of unsafe foods and foods of dubious quality, environmental pollution and degradation, and the establishment of a social security system.
Originality/value
Examining China's food security practice over the past three decades can generate experiences and lessons valuable not only for China, but also for other developing countries in their efforts to achieving national food security. Issues are identified to which the Chinese government needs to pay attention in order to improve China's food security in the future.
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Wen Gong, Kevin Parton, Rodney J. Cox and Zhangyue Zhou
The purpose of this study is to examine key factors that affect cattle farmers’ selection of marketing channels and draw implications for China's beef supply chain development…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine key factors that affect cattle farmers’ selection of marketing channels and draw implications for China's beef supply chain development.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was designed and face‐to‐face interviews were conducted with a random sample of 153 farmers located in three major cattle producing regions across China.Findings – Several variables related to transaction costs (chiefly, in the form of negotiation costs and monitoring costs), as well as socio‐economic factors, were identified as of significant influence on farmers’ choices of cattle marketing channels.Research limitations/implications – Further research should be conducted to measure the effects of risk preference in marketing decisions. Caution needs to be exercised when generalising the findings of this study to cattle farmers in other regions that are significantly different from the surveyed ones.Practical implications – This study will contribute to a better understanding of cattle producers’ marketing channel selection. Further, it will contribute to identifying which factors encourage or discourage farmers from using forward contracts; information needed urgently by private and public policy makers.Originality/value – This paper presents a model and case study that show how transaction cost minimisation affects the adoption of vertical coordination. Studies examining this area for China are scarce and this paper makes an important contribution to the literature.
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Jing Zhu, Shu Zhang and Wusheng Yu
This paper therefore aims at systematically estimating the agricultural trade induced farm employment effects in China.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper therefore aims at systematically estimating the agricultural trade induced farm employment effects in China.
Design/methodology/approach
Using detailed agricultural trade and production data during 1994‐2009, the authors estimate the “labor contents” of agricultural trade flows and use these estimates to compute the farm employment effects.
Findings
The authors find that China's agricultural trade has indeed generally developed along its widely believed comparative advantages and disadvantages; however, the farm employment “creation” effect due to labor‐intensive exports has actually been dominated by the employment “substitution” effect due to increased land‐intensive imports, thereby mostly resulting in negative net farm employment in the post‐WTO accession era.
Originality/value
Findings from this first systematic attempt to estimate the trade‐induced farm employment effects do not lend support to the popular notion that increased agricultural trade would help increase farm employment and have important implications for evaluating current and future trade policy in China and elsewhere.
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Chengfang Liu, Linxiu Zhang, Jikun Huang, Renfu Luo, Hongmei Yi, Yaojiang Shi and Scott Rozelle
This paper aims to explain why the quality of infrastructure projects in rural China differs from village to village and how project quality is correlated with project design…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explain why the quality of infrastructure projects in rural China differs from village to village and how project quality is correlated with project design attributes and governance factors.
Design/methodology/approach
Using primary data collected by the authors on three types of infrastructure projects in villages across China, they created measures of project quality for each village. They then used both descriptive and multivariate approaches to examine how quality varies from village to village and factors correlated with quality.
Findings
Between‐project within‐village quality differences are small and project design has little explanatory power. Between‐village variations are large. There are strong correlations between the ways villages govern themselves and project quality. The authors conclude that it is difficult to make good projects work in communities that lack good governance.
Originality/value
Disaggregated data on the quality of infrastructure (and its determinants) were collected by the authors to allow for variation in the type of infrastructure projects (roads, irrigation, and drinking water) and variation in village governance, making it possible to identify and contrast the effects of project design and village governance factors on project quality. As its chief contribution, this work identifies potential ways to improve the quality of infrastructure projects in rural development.
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Fung Kwan, Yanrui Wu and Shuaihe Zhuo
This paper aims to contribute to the pool of studies of rural underemployment in China. It is devoted to the conceptualization and measurement of surplus labour.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the pool of studies of rural underemployment in China. It is devoted to the conceptualization and measurement of surplus labour.
Design/methodology/approach
The agricultural labour requirement function is estimated by the stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) with China's prefecture‐level data. Surplus labour or inefficient labour is obtained by subtracting the required labour from the actual labour participated in agriculture.
Findings
The authors' analysis indicates that the existing size of agricultural surplus labour in rural China is still significantly large with the continued practice of the household registration system and China's WTO membership. However, the size has been decreasing over the last decade.
Research limitations/implications
Quality of data might affect the authors' estimates.
Practical implications
The phenomenon of the coexistence of surplus agricultural labour and shortage of workers in non‐agricultural production in urban China was discussed in line with the authors' research findings, as this has important impacts on the policies of rural industrialization in China.
Social implications
This paper further argues that China is probably experiencing the second stage of the Lewis‐Fei‐Ranis dualistic economic framework.
Originality/value
The authors' paper is probably the first to use prefecture data and SFA for panel data study of surplus agricultural labour in China. The analysis is essential to the understanding of the rural labour market during its rapid transition.
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Zi‐cheng Wang and Wei‐guo Yang
The purpose of this paper is to quantify the impact of return migration on the occupational choice in rural China.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to quantify the impact of return migration on the occupational choice in rural China.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors’ research uses the two‐stage residuals inclusion estimation, 2SRI, to deal with the endogeneity problem, and then compares the occupational choice between returnees and stayers with multinomial logit estimation and counterfactual analysis.
Findings
The authors mainly find that: the migration experience has a significant positive impact on wage‐employment activities, but may be has a negative effect on the entrepreneurial activities. The workers engaged in non‐agricultural activities (self‐employment and wage‐employment) have the same characteristics in the labor market (i.e. younger, male, higher education levels, less average land and parents with little children) compared to the agricultural activities, but these characteristics show no significant affect on the occupation choice between self‐employment and wage‐employment.
Research limitations/implications
This paper extends the empirical analysis in internal migration, but it also has some drawbacks, such as not enough data can be obtained to distinguish the occupations between different types of self‐employment as own account workers and as entrepreneurs. Further research needs more comprehensive data to support.
Originality/value
The authors’ research is the first study which uses self‐selection model to examine the activity choice of return migrants in rural China. They also extend the existing studies in two directions: first, they use nationally‐representative data from the general social survey of China carried out in 2006 to examine the relationship between the return rural migrants and their occupational choices. Second, they propose a more exact category for rural occupational choice including non‐agricultural activities (self‐employee, wage‐employment) and agricultural activities (peasants).
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Xianlei Ma, Nico Heerink, Ekko van Ierland, Marrit van den Berg and Xiaoping Shi
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of perceived land tenure security in China on farmers' decisions to invest in relatively long‐term land quality improvement…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of perceived land tenure security in China on farmers' decisions to invest in relatively long‐term land quality improvement measures, taking into account the potential endogeneity of tenure security.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from a survey held in 2008 and 2010 among 259 households in Minle County, Gansu province, covering the years 2007 and 2009, are used to estimate the factors affecting land levelling investments, irrigation canal investments and perceived land tenure security. The authors use the 2SCML technique and the IVLS method to estimate a selection model and a non‐limited regression model, respectively, and use IVP methods to examine the robustness of the results.
Findings
The authors' results indicate that perceived land tenure security significantly affects self‐governed investments but does not affect individual investments in land quality improvements. In particular, the authors find that households that consider land certificates as important for protecting land rights invest significantly more in irrigation canals construction and maintenance. The authors' results further provide evidence that individual investments in land quality improvement contribute to higher perceived land tenure security.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the available literature on the relationship between land tenure security and land investments by examining the role of perceived (instead of formal) land tenure security and by making a distinction between individual household investments and self‐governed land investments. The authors' results provide an explanation for the phenomenon that land readjustments still take place in some parts of China, but not in others.