Development of Vegetable Production and Employment Structure in Inland Rural Areas of Fujian Province, China

Since 1978, the development of China's economy has led to an increase in the outflow of workers from rural areas. However, there is still a mass surplus of laborers staying in agriculture because rural-to-urban migration is strictly regulated and off-farm jobs are insufficient in rural China. Therefore, it is important to analyze how the transformation of the employment structure is affected by the development of commercial agriculture in rural China. In this paper, the author attempts to clarify why vegetable production has expanded and what the characteristics of the employment structure are in rural China. The author investigated a village in the inland rural areas of Fujian Province that is currently experiencing a sharp increase in vegetable acreage. The main research method used was an investigation of 59 farmers in the study area. Fujian Province, a remote vegetable producing area in China, has been experiencing a continuous increase in vegetable production since the 1980s. This increase is driven by the liberalization of the distribution system for agricultural products, the decline of suburban vegetable producing areas, and the expansion of vegetable consumption caused by the advancement of urbanization. Since 2000, many inland rural areas have also been playing an essential role in the expansion of vegetable production in Fujian Province. These inland rural areas have been integrated into the national food supply system because of improvements in the transportation infrastructure. Futou Village, which is located in the interior of Fujian Province, has also achieved a great expansion in vegetable production. The factors for promoting vegetable growing are proximity to the urban area of the local city and the better infrastructure situation in Futou Village. With the expansion of vegetable production, the employment structure in the inland rural areas has transformed. Because there are limited off-farm job opportunities in Futou Village, the majority of farmers have begun to grow vegetables. Large-scale farmers, devoting many family laborers to agriculture, earn a high income through growing various vegetables. Other farmers, who are mainly engaged in off-farm jobs that came with the increase in vegetable production, rely heavily on off-farm income. This could explain the tendency of these farmers to have a smaller vegetable acreage in Futou Village. Women, who are always under-employed in rural China, also work at part-time jobs to aid in their household economy. These employment opportunities for women are mainly brought about by the increase in vegetable production. However, men, who are mostly self-employed in the village, are concentrated on small-scale farms. The younger generation, who are almost all migrant workers, still tend to search for their jobs in urban areas. Vegetable growing in rural inland areas does not appeal to the younger generation because it is highly labor intensive and requires basic knowledge that they do not have. Finally, the author points out that the increase in vegetable production brought some changes to one segment of men who are in their 30s or 40s. They left the urban areas and started working in rural areas. As stated above, the expansion of vegetable production in inland rural Fujian Province has contributed to the improvement of agricultural productivity and the increase of employment opportunities for women. These changes can help to solve the three problems found in rural China: low productivity of agriculture, devastation of rural areas, and the poverty of farmers. Additionally, the phenomenon of young people returning to farms is also significant for the sustainable development of China's agriculture.