Search Results (709)

Housing is a crucial determinant of population migration. However, the mechanisms through which urban housing influences floating-population re-migration, as well as its role in guiding the efficient spatial allocation of populations, remain underexplored. This study investigated the impact of urban housing status on population re-migration based on the spatial equilibrium theory, and empirically tested this relationship using nearly 370,477 individual migration intentions records from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS). The key findings are as follows. First, urban housing status is related to shaping population re-migration intentions. In particular, owner-occupied housing and government-provided low-rent housing are associated with lower re-migration intentions. Second, institutional constraints on migrant populations can vary somewhat depending on household registration status. Rural-registered floating populations may sometimes face somewhat more restrictions in accessing urban housing and public services. By contrast, high-wage areas has less re-migration intentions primarily through labor income gains, leading to heterogeneous housing status effects on migration intentions. Further analysis reveals spatial and individual heterogeneity in how urban housing status shapes population re-mobility. Floating populations residing in first-tier, second-tier, and provincial capital cities prioritize employment opportunities. In comparison, first-generation floating populations, those with local spouses, and individuals engaged in low-risk occupations exhibit stronger demand for stable residence. Full article

Cordyceps militaris is a high-value medicinal mushroom with growing demand in functional-food and nutraceutical markets, yet practical frameworks for small-scale, family-operated cultivation remain limited. This study presents an integrated technical and economic feasibility analysis of small-scale Cordyceps production under two scenarios: a one-room setup (Scenario 1) and a two-room configuration with a shared processing area and staggered scheduling (Scenario 2). Both use consistent biological, operational, and market assumptions with no hired labor, and the analysis covers capital expenditure (CapEx), operating costs (OpEx), profitability, payback, and break-even thresholds, complemented by sensitivity analysis of parameters such as biological efficiency and contamination rates. Both scenarios were technically and financially viable. Scenario 1 achieved a net present value (NPV) of $1761, an internal rate of return (IRR) of 10%, a 4.7-year discounted payback, and a 133% five-year return on investment (ROI); Scenario 2 attained an NPV of $85,437, a 66% IRR, a 1.6-year payback, and a 366% ROI. Because gross margins were consistent across scales, the expansion’s advantage stemmed from more efficient CapEx amortization rather than improved unit profitability. Cordyceps cultivation emerges as a viable family-operated, small-scale enterprise that can diversify family income, generate supplementary or primary earnings, and support urban and rural livelihoods. Full article

Background/Objectives: Dengue prevention in rural Amazonian communities is shaped by knowledge, household feasibility, sociocultural dynamics, institutional continuity, and trusted communication. This study explored behavioral, sociocultural, and institutional barriers to dengue prevention and control in rural communities of the Peruvian Amazon. Methods: An exploratory qualitative study with an ethnographic orientation, informed by the Communication for Behavioural Impact (COMBI) framework, was conducted in three anonymized rural settlements in San Martín, Peru. The qualitative corpus included 120 adults, 84 in-depth interviews, six focus group discussions with 36 participants, 22 household and community observation records, 13 institutional communication materials, and seven local operational documents. Data were analyzed using an inductive thematic approach and triangulated across participant profiles, settlements, and sources. Results: Dengue was widely recognized as a mosquito-borne disease, but the central finding was a gap between general awareness and practical, routine application. Participants’ understanding of breeding sites, warning signs, and feasible source reduction was uneven. Prevention was mainly reactive, increasing after nearby cases, alerts, or fumigation, but weakening when risk was not visible. Irregular water supply, water storage, waste accumulation, gendered domestic labor, competing household priorities, reluctance to confront neighbors, and intermittent institutional action limited sustained prevention. Fumigation was perceived as the most visible institutional response, while communication was more credible when mediated by trusted local actors. Conclusions: Dengue prevention requires locally feasible household practices, safe water-storage guidance, trusted communicators, neighborhood coordination, continuous pre-outbreak engagement, and intersectoral support. Full article

This study presents the design, development, and evaluation of an integrated solar-powered seed sowing and fertilizer-watering system to enhance planting efficiency, improve resource utilization, and reduce labor in small-scale agriculture. The prototype features a 600-watt photovoltaic panel, DC motors, and a manual mechanical dispensing mechanism, enabling automated seed placement, water distribution, and fertilizer application in off-grid farm environments. Development was guided by a product-based design approach using locally sourced materials to ensure cost-effectiveness, maintainability, and accessibility for rural users. Field simulations and performance trials assessed charging efficiency, seed sowing accuracy, irrigation flow rate, and fertilizer dispensing precision. Results showed high consistency in operational performance, including up to 99% seed placement accuracy, efficient water delivery, and reliable fertilizer timing, with solar energy providing adequate power storage during periods of peak irradiance. Expert evaluations using a standardized instrument demonstrated strong agreement on the system’s usability, material availability, ergonomic features, modularity, and overall functional design. Findings indicate that the system can minimize manual labor, reduce operational costs, and offer a practical transition toward clean-energy–assisted mechanization in agriculture. The study concludes that integrating renewable energy into essential farm operations can contribute to sustainable productivity and recommends future enhancements through sensor integration, increased battery capacity, and adaptive control mechanisms to support wider agricultural adoption. Full article

There is renewed interest in local sourcing, regional supply chains, and the rebuilding of fiber-to-fashion systems. However, limited attention has been paid to the upstream role of fiber farmers and the infrastructure that enables or constrains regional textile economies. This study investigates the opportunities and challenges of fiber farming in West Virginia and explores the motivations that drive participation in this sector. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 fiber farmers across West Virginia. The findings revealed five interconnected themes: heterogeneous actants, the translation of wool, regional network breakdown, festivals and social media as network hubs, and institutional gaps and network fragility. The results indicate that fiber farming persists through strong community networks, adaptive entrepreneurial strategies, and deep attachments to place. However, its economic viability is constrained by declining processing infrastructure, labor shortages, weakened institutional support, and fragmented supply chains. These challenges also have important sustainability implications. Most notably, wool is often discarded because processing and transportation costs exceed its market value, resulting in the waste of a renewable and biodegradable fiber that could otherwise remain in productive use. This study contributes to the literature on local sourcing, rural entrepreneurship, and sustainable and circular economies by highlighting the relational infrastructures required to rebuild regionally embedded textile systems in Appalachia and beyond. Full article

Promoting the high-quality development of farmers’ specialized cooperatives and narrowing regional development gaps is critical for advancing China’s rural revitalization strategy. Based on provincial panel data covering 30 Chinese regions from 2015 to 2023, this paper constructs a five-dimensional evaluation index system including standardized operation, operational performance, service scope, driving effect, and industrial upgrading, and adopts the entropy weight method to quantify the comprehensive development level of cooperatives. By combining spatial autocorrelation, kernel density estimation, the Dagum Gini coefficient and the Geodetector model, this paper explores the spatio-temporal evolution, regional disparities and multi-factor coupled driving mechanism of cooperative development. The main findings are as follows: (1) While the total quantity of cooperatives keeps expanding nationwide, their overall development level presents an evolutionary feature of declining first and then rising; industrial upgrading gradually becomes a new growth engine, whereas operational performance and driving effect slip downward. (2) The spatial layout of cooperatives maintains a typical pyramid structure; high-value agglomeration shifts from the Yangtze River Delta to southeast coastal regions, and low-value clusters are persistently concentrated in Northeast China. (3) The overall Dagum Gini coefficient reflects widening-then-shrinking regional gaps, and intra-eastern provincial differences constitute the primary source of nationwide spatial divergence. (4) Household consumption and rural labor force stock serve as core driving factors; regional economic development, agricultural production efficiency, rural human capital and land resource allocation form a coupled driving system, and all explanatory variables show mutual enhancement effects without offsetting interactions. Targeted policy suggestions are put forward to realize balanced and high-quality development of farmers’ specialized cooperatives across China. Full article

Although rural livelihoods act as a critical mediator between poverty alleviation policies and sustainable outcomes, the spatial heterogeneity of this interaction remains underexplored within those agrarian systems that are crucial for food production. This study examines how China’s Targeted Poverty Alleviation policies shape livelihood strategies and the livelihood diversity of rural households across different spatial contexts in Jilin Province, a main grain production region of Northeast China. Using survey data from 2306 households, this study employs multiple logistic and linear regression models. The results indicate that (1) industrial and employment policies are associated with development-oriented strategies, whereas enterprise-driven and cash transfer policies tend to reinforce asset-based or welfare-dependent livelihoods; (2) these policy effects exhibit significant spatial heterogeneity, mediated by local agricultural productivity conditions, labor endowments, and off-farm livelihood availability; and (3) industrial policies show stronger associations with agricultural livelihoods in the east, while financial policies are more effective in sustaining agricultural engagement in the capital-constrained west. Integrating the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework with a spatial lens, this study shifts the focus of policy assessment from static outcome metrics to process-oriented analysis and reveals the mechanisms underlying the spatial divergence of livelihood strategies, providing a nuanced analytical framework for assessing the impacts of PAPs across diverse agricultural contexts. Based on these findings, this study highlights that spatially differentiated, livelihood context-sensitive policies are essential for securing sustainable and long-term poverty reduction in grain production regions, offering a replicable template for policy evaluation and practical implications for achieving SDGs 1 and 2 in agrarian regions. Full article

Urban–rural integration (URI) is essential for achieving sustainable regional development and addressing the long-standing urban–rural dual-structure divide. This study investigates the impact of factor mobility—specifically labor, capital, and land—on URI across 1712 Chinese counties. By constructing a multidimensional evaluation system for URI and employing a Spatial Durbin Model (SDM), we unpack the direct and indirect effects, as well as the spatial spillover effects of these factors. The results indicate that URI levels in China exhibit significant positive spatial autocorrelation and distinct regional disparities. Labor and capital mobility significantly promote URI, manifesting robust positive direct effects and spatial spillovers that benefit neighboring counties. By contrast, land mobility reveals a “structural mismatch,” whereby inefficient land-use conversion can hinder integration, particularly in less-developed regions. Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the effects of factor mobility are strongest in Eastern China, while Western regions face structural constraints. These findings suggest that sustainable urban–rural transformation requires not only the free flow of production factors but also a coordinated spatial strategy to mitigate regional imbalances. This study provides policy-relevant insights for policymakers aiming to optimize factor allocation and enhance grassroots-level sustainability within the framework of rural revitalization and integrated regional development. Full article

Income inequality remains a central impediment to inclusive growth, yet whether government-led digital infrastructure programs mitigate or exacerbate distributional disparities is empirically contested. Exploiting the staggered rollout of China’s “Broadband China” (BBC) demonstration cities as a quasi-natural experiment, this study employs a multi-period difference-in-differences (DID) framework on a panel of 281 prefecture-level cities spanning 2009–2022 to estimate the designation effects of national digital infrastructure policy under the DID identifying assumptions. After parallel-trends validation, permutation-based placebo tests, and propensity score matching, the baseline estimates indicate a dual distributional pattern: BBC designation is associated with a wider urban-rural income gap and lower within-prefecture nighttime-light-based spatial income inequality. Candidate-channel analysis provides evidence consistent with financial deepening and factor mobility as plausible pathways: expanded financial coverage and cross-regional labor reallocation are associated with spatial convergence, whereas asymmetric usage depth and selective labor mobility reinforce urban-rural divergence. Exploratory heterogeneity analysis across four institutional dimensions, officials’ political promotion incentives, local fiscal capacity, traditional infrastructure endowments, and urban hierarchy, further shows that this distributional pattern varies across local contexts. Furthermore, this study extends the analytical lens to the spatial dimension by employing a spatial DID framework. The results identify significant cross-border externalities characterized by cross-prefecture spillovers associated with lower within-prefecture nighttime-light-based spatial income inequality in neighboring cities. These findings provide an integrated policy-evaluation framework that disentangles the complex, multidimensional distributional consequences of digital infrastructure investment, offering actionable insights for designing more equitable digital public policies in developing economies. Full article

In order to better promote the use of intelligent agricultural machinery, enhance the efficiency of grain production, optimize resource utilization, and effectively address the practical problem of the reduction in the rural labor force, while theoretically clarifying the mechanism that affects the adoption of intelligent agricultural machinery by farmers in Changsha County. Based on a questionnaire survey of farmers in Changsha County, Hunan Province, the ordered logit model was used to identify the significant factors influencing farmers’ adoption of intelligent agricultural machinery. The empirical results show that male farmers, farmers with a non-agricultural occupation, and farmers with a lower education level (below high school) have a lower willingness to adopt intelligent agricultural machinery. As the risk of purchasing intelligent agricultural machinery decreases, market demand increases, and the number of agricultural services provided by the government increases, the likelihood of farmers adopting intelligent agricultural machinery also increases. Based on these findings, this paper proposes targeted suggestions aimed at increasing the adoption of intelligent agricultural machinery by farmers in Changsha County, Hunan Province. Full article

Promoting low-carbon agricultural development has become increasingly important in the context of climate change and sustainable development. Using panel data for 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2012 to 2023, this study employs a two-way fixed-effects model to examine the effect of agricultural new quality productivity (ANQP) on total agricultural carbon emissions (TACE) and the channels through which this effect operates. The results show that ANQP significantly reduces TACE. Mechanism analysis further indicates that this effect operates mainly through agricultural technological innovation, higher rural labor productivity, and improved agricultural land productivity. In addition, the carbon-reduction effect of ANQP displays significant regional heterogeneity and is stronger in the central and western regions, major grain-producing areas, and regions with relatively weak digital infrastructure. Overall, this study provides new empirical evidence on the environmental implications of ANQP and clarifies the conditions and channels through which productivity upgrading can contribute to low-carbon agricultural transformation. Full article

The agricultural industry is at a critical juncture, experiencing global pressures in the form of climate volatility, a shortage of labor, and an increase in production costs. Although artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential for revolution due to its predictive analytics and self-controlled machinery, it has not achieved widespread and even distribution for use, especially among small-to-medium-sized farms in the Midwestern United States. This study formulates and empirically examines a comprehensive socio-technical model to determine the drivers and barriers to the adoption of AI in this agricultural region. Based on a synthesized framework of the “Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology” (UTAUT) and “Task–Technology Fit” (TTF), the study incorporates agriculture-specific contextual factors such as “environmental risk, access to broadband, economic constraints, and policy support”. The analyses of the 489 farmers in the U.S. Midwest were conducted through the “partial least squares structural equation modeling” (PLS-SEM) “SmartPLS v.3.9”. The findings provide full empirical evidence of the proposed model, which supports 11 hypothesized relationships. The key results show that the strongest positive predictors of adoption intention are “performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and trust”. On the other hand, data security concerns and financial restrictions are strong deterrents. The paper also outlines the significant facilitating functions of the broadband infrastructure and policy support in building farmer perceptions of technology’s ease-of-use and facilitating conditions. These lessons can provide policymakers, ag-tech developers, and extension agencies with a roadmap on how to create more equitable and contextual interventions that overcome the rural digital divide and create resilient data-driven farming systems. Full article

Across Latin America, numerous traditional agroecological systems face increasing challenges in integrating into formal markets. This issue is also evident in the Chakra Kichwa, an ancestral agroecological production system primarily managed by Indigenous women. Despite its cultural, environmental, and nutritional significance, its integration into the formal market is hindered by structural limitations that keep producers in conditions of subsistence and marginalization. This study analyzes the economic benefits derived from the commercialization of agricultural products by 642 producers, intermediaries, and vendors who belong to 20 associations based in the rural parishes of Tena canton (Napo Province) and who market their products in urban areas. A total of 234 surveys were conducted, with a 95% confidence level and a 5.2% margin of error. Findings indicate that the sale of Chakra products generates an average monthly net income of $211.06, provided the value of family labor is not accounted for. However, when imputing the monthly cost of this unpaid labor, the system shows losses of $409.48. Additionally, four scenarios are simulated: the first three assess the profitability of the commercial circuit under alternative transportation logistics; the fourth explores potential gains from increased selling prices associated with improvements in infrastructure, inputs, and transportation. In all cases, sales labor is replaced with hired personnel. The results indicate that these scenarios could increase net income by between 28.45% and 92.23%. Nevertheless, when accounting for family labor costs, all scenarios continue to reflect losses. Consequently, the model indicates that achieving economic breakeven would require quadrupling the current productivity of the Chakra system. Full article

Cropland abandonment is increasing in the upper and middle Yangtze River Basin due to complex terrain, urbanization, and labor migration. This threatens regional food security. To address the challenge of monitoring abandonment in fragmented hilly areas, we developed a framework. We integrated machine learning with time-series analysis. We mapped cropland probability using multi-source remote sensing data, random forest, and kernel density estimation, then applied LandTrendr to detect land-use changes and track the spatiotemporal evolution of abandonment from 2000 to 2022. Next, we combined Geodetector and linear regression to identify driving factors. The results show that abandoned cropland exhibited an increasing trend from 2000 to 2010, with an average annual growth rate of 20.4%. From 2010 to 2013, the area of abandoned cropland declined rapidly, decreasing by 44.6%. Between 2013 and 2022, abandoned cropland decreased steadily, with an average annual reduction rate of 24.7%. Spatially, abandonment was clustered in the central mountains and southern hills. Key drivers included distance to towns (DtT), total grain output (GTO), and GDP. Our approach supports cropland management and rural revitalization in regions with complex terrain. Full article

Social sustainability is central to resettlement induced by development. However, the long-term dynamics of cultural change among involuntary resettlers remain underexplored. This paper draws on a 25-year longitudinal ethnographic study of Three Gorges Dam migrants relocated to rural Anhui, China (2000–2025), including participant observation, archival research and in-depth interviews with 22 households. It also examines how cultural adaptation, rupture and continuity unfold over extended time horizons. A rationality-driven analytical framework is used. Three coexisting modalities of cultural change are identified. They are adaptations in livelihood strategies and household labor divisions, rupture via the abandonment of low-return farming and distant kinship ties, and continuity in dialect, cuisine, funerary rituals and close kinship. This paper demonstrates that these modalities are selectively mobilized by three interacting rationalities: survival (ensuring subsistence security), economic (maximizing material returns) and social rationalities (upholding identity and moral obligations). When these rationalities are in conflict, survival rationality commands the highest priority, while social rationality retains veto power in identity-defining domains. In the long run, this leads to a stable pattern of “segmented acculturation”, which involves separation in social interactions, assimilation in economic spheres and cultural distinctiveness in identity-relevant domains. These findings reconceptualize cultural change as an agency-driven process of strategic selection and offer policy guidance for the long-term governance of resettlement communities. Full article