Search Results (595)

The transition toward integrated urban–rural development represents a complex socio-technical challenge in post-poverty alleviation China. This study examines how the reform of agricultural service systems—especially the rollout of full-process socialization services—reshapes urban–rural integration by embedding new institutional, technological, and organizational structures into rural production. Drawing on staggered provincial pilot programs, we apply a double machine learning framework to assess the causal impact of service reform on the urban–rural income gap, labor reallocation, and agricultural productivity. Results show that agricultural socialization services enhance systemic efficiency by reducing labor bottlenecks, increasing technology diffusion, and fostering large-scale coordination in agricultural operations. These effects are most pronounced in provinces with stronger institutional capacity and higher levels of mechanization. The findings highlight agricultural service reform as a systemic intervention that alters resource allocation logics, drives institutional change, and fosters structural convergence across urban and rural domains. This research contributes to the understanding of agricultural modernization as a systems-engineered solution for regional inequality. Full article

This study presents a cost-effective, carbon-negative construction material for affordable housing, developed entirely from locally available agricultural wastes: rice husk ash, wood ash, and rice straw—materials often problematic to dispose of in many African regions. Rice husk ash provides high amorphous silica, acting as a strong pozzolanic agent. Wood ash contributes calcium oxide and alkalis to serve as a reactive binder, while rice straw functions as a lightweight organic filler, enhancing thermal insulation and indoor climate comfort. These materials undergo natural pozzolanic reactions with water, eliminating the need for Portland cement—a major global source of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions (~900 kg CO₂/ton cement). This process is inherently carbon-negative, not only avoiding emissions from cement production but also capturing atmospheric CO₂ during lime carbonation in the hardening phase. Field trials in Kenya confirmed the composite’s sufficient structural strength for low-cost housing, with added benefits including termite resistance and suitability for unskilled laborers. In a collaboration between the University of Tartu and Kenyatta University, a semi-automatic mixing and casting system was developed, enabling fast, low-labor construction of full-scale houses. This innovation aligns with Kenya’s Big Four development agenda and supports sustainable rural development, post-disaster reconstruction, and climate mitigation through scalable, eco-friendly building solutions. Full article

This study investigates the critical link between child care accessibility and local labor force participation, addressing a gap in current research that often lacks local spatial granularity. While over half of the U.S. population resides in child care deserts, disproportionately affecting rural, low-income, and minority communities, the economic implications for local labor markets remain underexplored. Leveraging Michigan child care license data and Census tract-level demographic and employment characteristics, this research employs a spatial econometric approach to estimate the impact of geographic distance to child care facilities on labor supply using descriptive data. Our findings consistently demonstrate that increased distance to child care is significantly associated with reduced labor force participation. While female labor force participation is lower in areas with constrained access to child care, we also found that households with two parents are also less likely to have full labor force participation when access to child care is constrained. The cost-effective framework used here can be replicated to identify specific communities most impacted by child care-related employment disruptions. The analytical findings can be instrumental in targeting and prioritizing child care policy interventions. Full article

Given the significant shifts in rural labor mobility patterns and their continuous influence on the transformation of the land factor market, it is crucial to understand the relationship between labor factor prices and land factor prices. This understanding is essential to keep land factor prices within a reasonable range. This study establishes a theoretical framework to investigate how migrant workers’ return shapes land price formation mechanisms. Using 2023 micro-level survey data from eight counties in Jiangsu Province, China, this study empirically examines how migrant workers’ return affects land transfer prices and its underlying mechanisms through OLS regression and instrumental variable approaches. The findings show that under the current pattern of labor mobility, the outflow factor alone is no longer sufficient to exert substantial downward pressure on land transfer prices. Instead, the localized return of labor has emerged as a key driver behind the rise in land transfer prices. This upward mechanism is primarily realized through the following pathways. First, factor substitution effect: this effect lowers labor prices and increases the relative marginal output value of land factors. Second, supply–demand effect: migrant workers’ return simultaneously increases land demand and reduces supply, intensifying market shortages and driving up transfer prices. Lastly, the results demonstrate that enhancing the stability of land tenure security or increasing local non-agricultural employment opportunities can mitigate the effect of rising land transfer prices caused by the migrant workers’ return. According to the study’s findings, stabilizing land factor prices depends on full non-agricultural employment for migrant workers. This underscores the significance of policies that encourage employment for returning rural labor. Full article

Small-scale fisheries and aquaculture play a crucial role in securing food, income, and nutrition for millions, especially in the Global South. Rural small-scale aquaculture (SSA) is characterized by limited investment and technical training among farmers, diversification and dispersion of farms over large areas, reduced access to competitive markets for inputs and products, and family labor. Small-scale integrated circular aquaponic (ICAq) systems, in which systems’ component outputs are transformed into component inputs, have significant potential to increase circularity and promote economic development, especially in a rural context. We offer an integrated and comprehensive approach centered on aquaponics or aquaponic farming for small-scale aquaculture units. It aims to identify and describe a series of circular processes and causal links that can be implemented based on deep study in SSA and ICAq. Circular processes to treat by-products in ICAq include components like composting, vermicomposting, aerobic and anaerobic digestion, silage, and insect production. These processes can produce ICAq inputs such as seedling substrates, plant fertilizers, bioenergy, or feed ingredients. In addition, the plant component can supply therapeutic compounds. Further research on characterization of aquaponic components outputs and its quantifications, the impact of using circular inputs generated within the ICAq, and the technical feasibility and economic viability of circular processes in the context of SSA is needed. Full article

Background/Objectives: In Japan, task shifting reduces the working hours of pediatricians, who face excessive workloads. The status of task shifting under the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare’s reforms remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the current status and barriers of task shifting in pediatric care in Japan. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted among pediatricians working in hospitals in Japan. The results were compared with those from 2020. Results: Questionnaires were sent to 835 hospitals, and valid responses were received from 815 pediatricians in 316 hospitals (response rate: 37.8%). The largest group (31.0%) was 40–49 years, and 34.4% of the participants were women. Among the items surveyed, most pediatricians indicated “shifted” in “Patient transfer (transporting between hospitals using an ambulance)” and “Intravenous injection of antibiotics.” Most physicians believed task shifting improved care quality; 10.3% felt it worsened. The most common estimate for daily working hour reduction due to task shifting was “1 to <2 h” (44.9%). Precisely 15.8% of pediatricians believed that task shifting had “not progressed at all,” with rural areas and non-university hospitals showing lower task-shifting implementation. National university hospitals had a higher likelihood of task shifting than public hospitals. No significant associations were observed for the total hospital bed count or the number of full-time pediatricians. Conclusions: Task shifting in pediatric care remains underdeveloped. While many pediatricians support the concept and report modest reductions in working hours, actual implementation remains limited. Future efforts must address systemic, institutional, and regulatory challenges to facilitate meaningful task redistribution and improve healthcare delivery. Full article

With accelerated population aging, the importance of older adults’ self-rated health is constantly increasing. Self-rated health is influenced by complex relationships between the built environment and psychosocial factors. Therefore, this study constructs a pathway framework of “material (housing quality and environmental pollution)–psychological (depression and social capital)–self-rated health” elements to explore the influencing mechanism of older adults’ self-rated health. This study utilized the 2018 China Labor Force Dynamics Survey Database to explore the relationship between built environment factors (housing quality and environmental pollution), depression, social capital, and older adults’ self-rated health, using structural equation modeling. The heterogeneity between urban and rural areas is also analyzed. Better housing quality and less environmental pollution were found to be related to higher levels of self-rated health. Depression and social capital were important mediators in the relationship between housing quality, environmental pollution, and self-rated health. Regarding urban–rural heterogeneity, the direct impact of environmental pollution on self-rated health was only significant among urban older adults. Secondly, the multiple mediating roles of social capital were only reflected among rural older adults. The government and relevant entities should promote improvements in housing quality and reduce environmental pollution to achieve a healthy and livable environment. Full article

Understanding the reintegration of returning rural migrants in China is crucial due to the large scale of return migration and its associated challenges. While existing research has largely focused on economic reintegration, this study broadens the scope to include social, cultural, and civic dimensions. Using data from the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS) 2016 and employing multilevel ordered logistic regression, the research uncovers the following key patterns: (i) Determinants differ largely across dimensions; (ii) The roles of the same determinants can also differ significantly across dimensions; and (iii) There are significant community-level variations across dimensions. The findings emphasize that success in one dimension, such as economic reintegration, does not necessarily translate into success in others. Moreover, complex interconnections between dimensions reveal positive, negative, and non-linear relationships, underscoring the multidimensional nature of reintegration. These insights highlight the importance of considering multiple dimensions to fully understand the reintegration processes of returning migrants. Full article

Onion cultivation in the Republic of Korea is increasingly threatened by labor shortages and an aging rural population, underscoring the growing importance of mechanization. This study evaluated the combined and individual performances and economic feasibility of mechanized transplanting, stem cutting, harvesting, and collecting operations using work efficiency; the missing plant, stem cutting, damage, and dropout rates; and foreign matter content as indicators. Mechanized operations achieved up to 358-fold higher work efficiencies than manual labor operations. However, in terms of marketability, performance was inferior due to missing plants, improperly cut stems, damaged bulbs, dropped onions, and foreign matter contamination. The economic analysis indicated that the use of individual machines is advantageous for farms larger than 10.2 ha for transplanting, 1.14 ha for stem cutting, 0 ha for harvesting (i.e., profitable regardless of farm size), and 6.95 ha for collecting. For fully mechanized operations, using machines for all four processes, the break-even area was found to be 3.63 ha, with a payback period of 2.1 years. These findings are expected to serve as a foundational reference for onion growers considering the adoption of mechanization. Full article

Rural tourism has emerged as an efficient strategy for rural revitalization while having various impacts on rural governance. Previous studies predominantly focused on the social implications of rural tourism and its impact on institutional arrangements while neglecting the influence of rural tourism on collective action in rural governance. This study employed a social–ecological system (SES) framework to investigate the influence of rural tourism on rural collective action, utilizing survey data from 22 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), 178 villages, and 3282 rural households across China. The findings revealed that rural tourism exerted a positive influence on collective action, primarily through labor force reflow mechanisms. Specifically, the leadership of village cadres had a moderating role in enhancing this positive correlation. Further analysis revealed significant heterogeneity in tourism governance effects: non-plain regions and villages with medium to low economic development levels exhibited substantial improvements in collective action, whereas plain areas and economically advanced villages may manifest potentially negative impacts. Theoretically, this study contributes to elucidating tourism-driven self-governance mechanisms by applying the SES framework, thereby transcending the traditional dualistic debate between state-market and development-governance paradigms. Practically, we propose institutional designs that embed collective action mechanisms into the coupled synergistic development of rural tourism and community governance, thereby activating endogenous motivations for rural self-governance. Full article

This study investigates the complex dynamics of new-type urbanization in resource-based county-level cities, using Wuan City in Hebei Province, China, as a representative case. As China pursues a high-quality development agenda, cities historically dependent on resource extraction face profound challenges in achieving sustainable and inclusive urban growth. This research employs a multi-method approach—including Theil index analysis, industrial shift-share analysis, a Cobb–Douglas production function model, and a composite urbanization index—to quantitatively diagnose the constraints on Wuan’s development and assess its transformation efforts. Our empirical results reveal a multifaceted situation: while the urban–rural income gap has narrowed, rural income streams remain fragile. The shift-share analysis indicates that although Wuan’s traditional industries have regained competitiveness, the city’s economic structure is still burdened by a persistent negative structural component, hindering diversification. Furthermore, the economy exhibits characteristics of a labor-intensive growth model with inefficient capital deployment. These underlying issues are reflected in a comprehensive urbanization index that, after a period of rapid growth, has recently stagnated, signaling the exhaustion of the city’s traditional development mode. In response, Wuan attempts an “industrial transformation-driven new-type urbanization” path. This study details the three core strategies being implemented: (1) incremental population urbanization through development at the urban fringe and in industrial zones; (2) in situ urbanization of the existing rural population; and (3) the cultivation of specialized “characteristic small towns” to create new, diversified economic nodes. The findings from Wuan offer critical, actionable lessons for other resource-dependent regions. The case demonstrates that successful urban transformation requires not only industrial upgrading but also integrated, spatially aware planning and robust institutional support. We conclude that while Wuan’s model provides a valuable reference, its strategies must be adapted to local contexts, emphasizing the universal importance of institutional innovation, human capital investment, and a people-centered approach to achieving resilient and high-quality urbanization. Full article

(1) Background: Global grain production faces challenges such as increasing demands due to population growth, limited arable land resources, and climate change, with natural resource and environmental constraints becoming increasingly stringent. Traditional smallholder economies struggle to meet the increasing demand for grain, resulting in a tight balance between grain supply and demand. Therefore, to improve grain production efficiency (GPE), clarifying the specific effects of agricultural production services (APS), a new driving force on farmers’ GPE, is critical for ensuring grain security and achieving sustainable grain production. (2) Methods: Through the super-efficiency Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Tobit models, and utilizing microdata from 747 farmers from the China Rural Revitalization Survey (CRRS), we analyzed the differences in farmers’ operating scales and types of agricultural production services to determine the extent and specific implementation effects of agricultural production services on the farmers’ GPE. (3) Results: agricultural production services enhanced the farmers’ GPE. Specifically, labor-intensive services (LIS) markedly improved the GPE of smallholder farmers but not large-scale farmers; technology-intensive services (TIS) did not have a substantial influence on either the smallholder farmers or large-scale farmers. There were significant regional differences in the threshold effect of agricultural production services on the GPE of the farmers. (4) Conclusions: Providers of agricultural production services should enhance their service capabilities to meet farmers’ diverse service needs. Government departments should establish uniform service standards and regulate industry development. Village and community organizations should leverage their grassroots coordination functions to facilitate the efficient operation of services. In addition, tailored development models should be developed for farmers of different scales, and they should be provided with financial and technical support as well as institutional guarantees. Full article

The export expansion of wood forest products (WFPs) generates substantial socio-economic benefits. Unfortunately, the WFP manufacturing industry frequently experiences challenges in accessing finance and high financing costs. Since profit scramble between financial sector and real economy sectors has become a critical global concern, it is worth investigating how banking sector profits (BSPs) impact WFPs’ export margins, and whether a “financial concession” policy can mitigate or amplify this effect. Drawing on over four million trade records from China’s Customs Database and the United Nations Trade and Business Database, this study quantifies the WFPs’ export margins of 31 provinces in Mainland China to 184 countries during 2007–2022. Then it assesses the effects of regional BSP on the WFPs’ export margins. The results indicate that the extensive, intensive, and quantity margins of WFPs’ export exhibit an overall upward trend with fluctuations, while the price margin has shown steady growth since 2016. Regional BSP has significant negative effects on the extensive, intensive, and quantity margins. The observed upward trend of WFPs’ export margins implies that low BSP may facilitate export growth of WFPs. Further heterogeneity analysis indicates that the BSPs’ negative impact is more pronounced for labor-intensive WFPs’ exports. China’s “financial concession” policy effectively mitigates the BSPs’ adverse effects. Moderation effect analysis demonstrates that a larger number of bank institution outlets, a higher share of rural bank institution outlets, and the development of digital finance significantly reduce the BSPs’ negative effects. Full article

The impact of urbanization on the agricultural economy has long attracted scholarly attention. Taking China as a case, this study investigates the relationship between urbanization and agricultural development under the dual progress of urbanization and the rural revitalization strategy. Based on panel data from 31 mainland provinces, this paper measures agricultural economic efficiency using the global slack-based measure (SBM) model and employs quantile regression to systematically analyze the influence of various urbanization factors across different levels of agricultural efficiency. A Tobit regression model is further adopted for robustness checks. The results show that representative urbanization factors, such as the proportion of urban population and the prevalence of higher education, exert significant negative impacts on agricultural efficiency, particularly in regions with higher efficiency levels. Freight volume has a significantly negative effect in regions with medium and low efficiency, while freight turnover negatively impacts medium- to high-efficiency areas. In contrast, improvements in healthcare services and digital infrastructure are found to consistently enhance agricultural efficiency. Although the corporatization of agriculture is often regarded as a key outcome of urbanization, its efficiency-improving effect is not statistically significant in most models and is mainly concentrated in high-efficiency regions. Overall, the improvement in China’s agricultural economic efficiency relies more on direct support from the rural revitalization strategy, while rapid urbanization has failed to bring substantial benefits and has even led to structural negative effects. These adverse outcomes may stem from the rapid occupation of suburban farmland, increased logistics costs due to the relocation of agricultural activities, and the ineffective absorption of surplus rural labor. This study highlights the need for future urbanization policies in China to pay greater attention to the coordinated development of the agricultural economy. The methods and findings of this research also provide reference value for other developing regions facing similar urbanization-agriculture dynamics. Full article

Background: Soybean is an important global crop in food security and agricultural economics. Accurate estimation of soybean pod counts is critical for yield prediction, breeding programs, precision farming, etc. Traditional methods, such as manual counting, are slow, labor-intensive, and prone to errors. With rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), deep learning has enabled automatic pod number estimation in collaboration with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). However, existing AI models are computationally demanding and require significant processing resources (e.g., memory). These resources are often not available in rural regions and small farms. Methods: To address these challenges, this study presents a set of lightweight, efficient AI models designed to overcome these limitations. By integrating model simplification, weight quantization, and squeeze-and-excitation (SE) self-attention blocks, we develop compact AI models capable of fast and accurate soybean pod count estimation. Results and Conclusions: Experimental results show a comparable estimation accuracy of 84–87%, while the AI model size is significantly reduced by a factor of 9–65, thus making them suitable for deployment in edge devices, such as Raspberry Pi. Compared to existing models such as YOLO POD and SoybeanNet, which rely on over 20 million parameters to achieve approximately 84% accuracy, our proposed lightweight models deliver a comparable or even higher accuracy (84.0–86.76%) while using fewer than 2 million parameters. In future work, we plan to expand the dataset by incorporating diverse soybean images to enhance model generalizability. Additionally, we aim to explore more advanced attention mechanisms—such as CBAM or ECA—to further improve feature extraction and model performance. Finally, we aim to implement the complete system in edge devices and conduct real-world testing in soybean fields. Full article