Assess the effects of mass migration from rural to urban China on the countrys

agrarian economy.
After Chinas opening up in 1978, large amount of people started to move from
the countryside to the urban areas of China to benefit from the economic
opportunities these areas had. Many even chose to stay there permanently due
to the development advantages that these areas had as part of CCPs
developmental strategy, leading also to urbanization. Yet as a consequence of
this, Chinas agriculture began to decline due to the lack of laborers as well as
Chinas unfair developmental policies, challenging Chinas food sufficiency and
security. Nevertheless, this essay seeks to argue that the effects rural-urban
migration brought onto the agrarian economy were overall positive as the
problems it brings are short term and reparable by government policies and
economic development but the long term benefit it brings is that it paves the
way for the construction of larger and more productive farm which would solve
many root problems of the agrarian economy.
Rural urban migration has had a negative impact on the agrarian economy as it
threatens food production and food sufficiency. Low income and inferior living
quality in the countryside have resulted in many peasants abandoning their rural
livelihood. As millions migrate to cities, lands are untilled. Chineses population
increased by 90.59 miillion, but per capita grain supply decreased from 412kg in
1996 to 378kg in 2006. Meanwhile, 210miillion of the 900million rural population
began to work for urban and township enterprises. This shifts meant fewer
people who produce rain and more people who only consume.
However, the impact of rural urban migration on food sufficiency might not be
that great as it there are government measures in place to make up for the food
shortages. China has rolled out a number of policies in the past decade to
improve the lot of farmers and ensure they continue to produce enough food for
a wealthier nation. It halted a two-millennia-old grain tax, set a floor for the price
of grains and stooped forcing farmers to sell to the state and issued subsidies for
seeds, equipment and fertilizers. Textbooks would be provided free for students
under compulsory education in all rural areas, subsistence allowances should
increase for boarders from low-income rural families and more such students
should be covered by the service, and subsidies should be raised for public funds
and teaching building maintenances fees of primacy and middle schools in rural
areas. The quality of teachers in rural primary and middle schools should be
raised and college graduates would be encouraged to teach at such schools.
Construction of medical services networks is reinforced and pharmaceutical
supply for rural areas should be supervised.
Rural urban migration has had a negative impact on the agrarian economy as it
threatens food security. China has 20% of the worlds population but only 7% of
its arable land. As such, the problem of rural urban migration is particularly bad
for the Chinese economic as the loss of land to encroaching cities worsen the
situation of shortage of arable land, thereby threatening Chinas food security.
Chinas increasing dependence on global supplies for its own food demands also
posed grave threats to Chinas food security. Since 2007, China has become a
net importer of rice and wheat. China had already faced opposition in places like
the Philippines, where senators and farm groups stalled a plan inn 2007 to give
access to agricultural resource Chinese companies in exchange for US$4.9 billion
of investments. The huge political risks are the reason why Chinese companies

are less active now in farming overseas. Hence, rural urban migration has had a
negative impact on the agrarian economy as it threatens food security.
However, the impact of rural urban migration on food sufficiency might not be
that great as the government as diversified food supply to ensure stable food
sources. In the past few years, China has sealed some 30 agricultural
cooperation deals with developing countries in Africa and SEA to give its
companies access to farmland in exchange for technologies, training and money.
To keep farmers in their own land, the government has also improved the market
for transferring land contract and management rights in line with the law and on
a voluntary compensated basis. His country encouraged arable land to be held
by large-scale farmers to support the development of efficient modern
agriculture and economies of scale. Peasants are encouraged arable la to be held
by large-scale farmers or find paid jobs outside their hometowns. Manufacturing
and serve industries were being expanded to provide more jobs for peasants who
abandoned their land use rights and apartments would be built for them in urban
areas. As such, the impact of rural urban migration on food sufficiency might not
be that great
In the long run, rural urban migration may have a positive impact on the agrarian
economy as it lays the groundwork for the agrarian economy to become more
productive. Due to labor shortage which leaves the government with little option,
under the auspices of the Number One Agriculture Work Document, the CCP
government is focusing on high-tech investments including genetically modified
crops to improve productivity of the agriculture sector. Worried that cities lack
the infrastructure to absorb migrants, policymakers have encouraged investment
in provincial towns and tried to improve farm productivity.
Despite governmental measures to improve productivity in agrarian economy,
obstacle due to rural urban migration persists in the short run. Many migrants
are reluctant to entirely give up their claim to family plot, in part because they
do not enjoy the full rights in cities. This hinders the consolidation of plots that
could lead to more mechanization and efficient farming. This is made worse by
the reluctance of the government to tackle the broader structural land reforms
issues. The Communist party is not willing to let farmers have title to land for
fear that many will immediately sell once they have it, creating a destabilizing
class of landless poor. Yet farmers without title will continue to have no collateral
to expand production as there is little protection for them when collective land is
taken for factories, housing or a local vanity project. State-defined rate for land
compensation which is well below the market rate only serves to perpetuate
legalized land grabs, leaving villagers vulnerable to developers and officials to
rezone and buy over their farmland, keeping productivity persistently low due to
the lack of motivation from farmers. Hence, inefficiency that essentially sprouted
out from rural urban migration impedes government effort to improve efficiency
in the agrarian sector.
In conclusion, effects rural-urban migration brought onto the agrarian economy
were overall positive as the problems it brings are short term and reparable by
government policies and economic development but the long term benefit it
brings is that it paves the way for the construction of larger and more productive
farm which would solve many root problems of the agrarian economy.