Jikun Huang

Chinese Academy of Sciences | CAS · Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy

This study examines the complex interplay between rural transformation and water scarcity in China, focussing on how shifts towards high‐value agriculture and non‐farm employment affect water resources. Utilising data spanning 2 decades, it evaluates the impact of economic activities on water scarcity through the lens of the Environmental Kuznets C...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of different information source on consumer attitudes toward genetically modified food. Design/methodology/approach The data used in this study are obtained from a large-scale nationwide consumers' survey in urban China conducted by the China Center for Agricultural Policy, Peking Universi...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has generated significant economic loss and an unprecedented challenge to people’s livelihoods. Using household data collected in November 2020, this study shows that the COVID-19 outbreak has significantly affected consumers’ perceptions and consumption of genetically modified (GM) food in China. Th...

Grassland is the second largest terrestrial ecosystem in China and provides a large variety of ecosystem services to human beings. However, its economic value and the associated realization mechanisms still require in-depth research. Compiling the current literature and using meta-analysis, this study systematically evaluates the economic value of...

This study examines the impacts of farmers' drought-severity perceptions on two adaptation strategies-ex-ante use of drought-tolerant varieties and ex-post irrigation use-employing a large-scale survey data of maize farmers in northern China. The former is helpful for saving water while the latter may increase the intensity of water use in drought...

We use high-frequency data to quantify the nature and performance of online food delivery platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic in urban China, and to estimate the short- and long-term effects of lockdown and reopening measures. A staggered difference-in-differences (DID) estimation strategy and event study approach are used to identify the effect...

Grasslands provide a variety of ecosystem services (ESs) that contribute to human beings. However, most grassland ESs are public goods with no market value and consequently ignored in private land use decisions. Thus, it is important for grassland conservation to consider the potential economic value of grassland ESs in policymaking. We tried to pr...

Background Grasslands provide a wide variety of ecosystem services that contribute to human wellbeing. While an increasing number of studies are evaluating the monetary value of grassland ecosystem services, most of them focus on specific grassland ecosystem services at regional or local scales, and they use different assessment methods. Methods T...

This article reviews China’s agricultural development history and prospects China’s agricultural development by 2050 considering the implications of global agricultural development trends on China’s agriculture. The transformations of the overall economic structure and the rural economy should be combined to enhance agricultural labor productivity...

To achieve common prosperity, we need to equalize the labor productivity in agriculture with that in other non-agricultural sectors. China’s agricultural labor productivity is less than 1/3 of that in the manufacturing and service industries. Our analysis on the trend of agricultural development suggests that it is essential to raise the agricultur...

While the expansions of natural rubber in the greater Mekong region from the 1990s were ambitious, the persistently low commodity price of rubber from 2012 makes smallholder rubber farmers suffer from vulnerable livelihoods. This study sheds light on the adjustments in livelihood strategies of smallholder rubber farmers when the upsurge in rubber p...

Although the number of studies on ecosystem service value (ESV) has steadily increased, large variations and inconsistent patterns in the estimated results have motivated us to systematically explore the factors underlying such discrepancies. Therefore, this study aims to explore the role of different ecosystems, ESs, valuation methods, and economi...

This study identifies the role of labour constraints in the use of rubber intercropping among smallholder farmers in Southwest China, drawing on a panel dataset collected from a sample of over 600 farm households in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture (XSBN). The analysis is based on two models: (i) a panel model to analyze the factors resp...

Purpose In rural areas, geographic location is key to market access and labor mobility of farm households. This paper aims to investigate the opportunities and constraints of smallholder rubber farmers in southwest China to adjust to the changes in economic and institutional conditions, namely the declining rubber prices, emerging land rental marke...

This article examines the impact of farmers' perceptions of temperature change on implementing environmentally friendly agriculture practices on rubber plantations. Based on the data collected from 611 smallholder rubber farmers in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture (XSBN) in the upper Mekong region, an endogenous switching probit model and an...

This paper investigates the role of information communication technologies (ICTs) in the transformation of rural economies by evaluating the use of smartphones among farmers in China. We use unique three-wave panel data to document the transformation path of rural economies in recent years. An endogenous switching probit model and a counterfactual...

Climate change may significantly affect the labor market by generating disproportionate damage to marginal returns to labor across sectors. However, this potentially important channel through which climate change may affect social welfare has not received the attention it deserves. We provide the first estimate of the long-term effects of climate c...

Researchers have spent substantial effort to identify factors influencing pesticide use intensity. However, few studies have compared the relative importance of these factors. This study examines four categories of factors that potentially influence farmers’ pesticide use decisions by evaluating incentivized experiment data, farm survey data, and r...

Improving land rights in China is often considered as an important factor that facilitates farmers’ investments in agriculture. However, whether securing land rights is important for farmers’ adaptation to changing climate or not has not been addressed in the literature, particularly with respect to management decisions. This paper examines the rel...

Nationwide citizen science data show the importance of farmland outside protected areas for China’s avifauna. We urge the government of China to develop a national strategy for policy and research to protect biodiversity and traditional knowledge of sustainable agriculture to meet the post-2020 goal of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

The past four decades have witnessed unprecedented economic growth and rapidly rising food demand in China. This paper provides an introduction to readers with useful information summarising the development of China’s agricultural sector and the transformation of its rural economy over the 40 years of economic reform. It is, however, impossible to...

While the biocontrol potential of natural enemies is well established, it is largely unknown how landscape‐mediated effects on pest and natural enemy communities impact the cascade of biocontrol potential, crop injury, yield and profit, taking into account crop management and surrounding landscape composition. We compared natural biocontrol with ch...

Urbanization and increasing income per capita in Asian countries are leading to an increasing opportunity cost of time and increasing consumer demand for easier food preparation. One manifestation of this shift in demand is an increase in eating food prepared outside the home. The objectives of this paper are (a) to gather and analyze data on trend...

While migration is widely recognized as a valid option for improving farmers' income, the welfare effects of migration on left-behind family members are ambiguous. This study examines the impacts of migration on left-behind family members' food consumption and nutrient intake, particularly in remote rural areas in China. Based on household survey d...

In recent years, the sustainability of the economic benefit of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops has been subject to substantial debate. Using seven rounds of household survey data, this study shows that the economic benefit continued for 15 years after the commercialisation of Bt cotton in China. Owing to Bt cotton adoption, farmers have saved 8.4...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of mechanization services on farm productivity in Northern China from an empirical perspective, with the aim to identify the underlying market and institutional barriers. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply the regression method with the control of village fixed effects to...

The global geographical balance of food and agricultural R&D spending is shifting, characterized by a declining U.S. share and a rising middle-income-country share, propelled heavily by the rapid rise of spending in China. Based on our newly compiled data, we estimate that China now outspends the United States on both public and private food and ag...

This article tests the hypotheses of convergence to a single level of total factor productivity (TFP) and a steady state of TFP growth rate in China’s agricultural sector. Based on multilateral TFP estimates we found that China’s agricultural sector has rebounded in recent years from a slower TFP growth in the 2005–2007 period. While convergence te...

Growing evidence indicates that climate change will exacerbate the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events, particularly drought. The North China plain is an important agricultural production region that is subject to a significant shortage of water and is often hit by extreme weather events, particularly drought. Therefore, this study ai...

Rubber farming expansion in Xishuangbanna, in the Upper Mekong region of Southwest China, has resulted in profound land use change and led to the severe degradation of the local environment. This study explores the dynamics of land use change as a result of the rubber boom, examines the factors influencing the heterogeneity in farmers' land allocat...

A novel scheme for photonic generation of broadly tunable radio frequency signal using a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) is demonstrated. A continuous wave emitted from the laser diode is modulated by a Mach–Zehnder modulator, then the modulated optical carrier is injected into the RSOA. Due to the four-wave mixing effect in the R...

We propose and experimentally demonstrate a switchable microwave photonic filter based on polarization dependence of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). The continuous optical wave from a tunable laser source is split into two branches. One branch serves as the SBS pump source and another branch serves as the signal source which are interactiona...

https://www.grin.com/document/446281 Natural rubber (NR) represents a key industrial commodity of modern societies. Often inconspicuous, it is a component of thousands of products making everyday life easier, more comfortable, or safer. The most prominent one is definitely the vehicle tyre which consumes about two thirds of the global rubber produc...

China's food security has been facing several challenges, which are likely to be worsened due to climate change. The purpose of this paper is to provide an evidence on the impacts of climate change on China's agriculture, with particular attention to the market and trade responses. Using projected crop yield changes for China and its’ main trading...

Wheat is the second most important food crop in China and its yield has increased significantly since the early 1980s. While the rise in yield is obviously owed to the adoption of modern varieties and the rising use of inputs, little research has examined the yield gains as a result of the improvement of germplasms through international exchanges i...

This study examines the impacts of sunk costs and path dependency of rubber farming on farmers' production responses to expected changes in the price of rubber based on a simple choice experiment implemented in the upper Mekong region in March, 2013. The results show that nearly 73% of farmers choose to adjust their production behaviors when the pr...

Rising real wages create an incentive for relatively large landholders to increase their scale of operations allowing them to mechanize and save labor (or to allow farmers to work more off farm). Using panel data collected in 2000 and 2008 from 951 farm households in 6 provinces in China, the empirical analysis shows that (i) changes in the willing...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of the supply reliability of groundwater irrigation, and discuss how it is affected by climate change and tubewell density in rural China. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a nine-province village survey and secondary climate data. A Tobit model (or censored regression m...

Significance Changes in land use, climate, and agricultural technologies affect pest severity and management. We analyzed long-term longitudinal data (1991–2015) on three major cotton pests for 51 Chinese counties. Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) insect-resistant cotton had pervasive effects on the whole pest complex and its management. Adoption result...

Evidence on the adverse effects of agricultural pesticide use by farmers under the actual field conditions on their peripheral nerve conduction in China is limited. This study was to investigate the association of agricultural pesticide use with the abnormalities of farmers' peripheral nerve conduction based on two rounds of conventional nerve cond...

The water-food-energy-GHG nexus under climate change has been gaining increasing attention from both the research and policy communities, especially over the past several years. However, most existing nexus studies are qualitative and explorative in nature. So far, very few studies provide integrated analysis of this nexus across all the four secto...

Little empirical evidence on the economic value of biological control of pests at farm level is available to improve economic decision-making by farmers and policy makers. Using insect sampling and household survey in an integrated bio-economic analysis framework, this paper studies farmers' crop management practices in cotton in the North China Pl...

Rural economy has experienced significant transformation in Asia, although the transformation differs largely among the countries. This paper examines the path, major driving forces and the likely consequences of rural transformation (RT) in China and other developing countries in Asia. We argue that: 1) There is a general path and trend of rural t...

The rapid expansion of natural rubber farming in southern China has led to negative environmental consequences, such as soil erosion and biodiversity loss. Therefore, local governments have made the restoration and protection of ecosystems a major policy issue. However, such efforts will only be successful if local communities participate. Using cr...

In this chapter Jikun Huang and Yangjie Wang provide an overview and case studies of the connection between agriculture, foreign aid and climate change, and argue the extent to which agriculture is heavily underfunded and that foreign aid needs to be scaled up significantly to tackle the great challenge of food security in a climate change context....

Understanding the extent to which agriculture can adapt to climate change and the determinants of farmers' adaptive capacity are of paramount importance from a policy perspective. Based on household survey data from a large sample in rural China, the present article adopts a panel approach to estimate the potential benefits of long-run adaptation a...

Rice, China's most important food crop, is highly dependent on irrigation, but an increasing number of extreme drought events have challenged rice production in many regions. This paper investigates the role of local irrigation infrastructure in improving farmers' ability to respond to drought and its effectiveness in mitigating the drought risk in...

China's food supply and demand have significant implications for both China's own national food security and that of the world. This study reviews China's food security prospects and their implications, focusing on international trade in the coming decade. The results show that China's policies for ensuring food security will be enhanced and China...

Rural land rental markets in China play an increasingly important role in the transformation of the agricultural sector. This study focuses on the rural land rental market in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Southern China, a mountainous region, where rapid changes in land use have taken place with the transition from traditional agri...

Even though the impact of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) cotton on pesticide use has been well documented, all previous studies focus on the mean value of pesticide use. Using seven unique waves of panel data collected between 1999 and 2012 in China, we show that Bt cotton adoption has not only caused a reduction of the mean value of pesticide use, bu...

This paper investigates how land tenure reform has affected livestock production in the pastoral areas of China. County-level data for Inner Mongolia between 1985 and 2008 are used in a fixed effects model to disentangle the effects of land tenure reform on livestock production from factors related to market forces, grassland condition, technologic...

Pollination by insects is key for the productivity of many fruit and non-graminous seed crops, but little is known about the response of pollinators to landscapes dominated by small-holder agriculture. Here we assess the relationships between landscape context, pollinator communities (density and diversity) and pollination of oilseed rape in 18 lan...

While the expansion of smallholder rubber farming in southwest China has contributed to the local rural economy, it has also had negative environmental consequences. The economics and potential risks of smallholder rubber farming remain unclear due to the lack of quantitative evidence. Based on data collected in a comprehensive survey of 612 smallh...

Purpose Previous studies have mainly focused on public opinions regarding genetically modified (GM) technology and GM food. This study aims to assess scientists’ attitudes on whether China needs to develop its national agricultural GM technology and their willingness to buy GM food. Design/methodology/approach A stratified sampling method was us...

Purpose Economic interest groups such as seed, pesticide, feed, and food companies play an important role in supporting or preventing the production of genetically modified (GM) crops. The purpose of this paper is to examine firm managers’ attitudes toward GM technology, biotechnology R&D investment, and political lobbying activities. Design/metho...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential economic impacts of China’s insect-resistant GM maize and provide new evidence for decision making concerning its commercialization. Design/methodology/approach This study uses data drawn from the production trials of insect-resistant GM maize and expert interviews to determine the impa...

The goal of this paper is to examine the impact of changes in China's rural land policy on agricultural investments. Dramatic changes occurred in China's rural land policies after 2000, including the extension of rural land contractual period, restriction of land reallocation among villages and villagers groups, elimination of agricultural taxes fo...

The short-run benefit of insect-resistant Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) crops has been well documented, but its sustainability in the long run has not been well studied. On the other hand, pest resistance build-up and secondary pest outbreaks have caused concern regarding the sustainability of this benefit. Using seven unique waves of panel data coll...

A series of Ecological Construction Programs have been initiated to protect the condition of grasslands in China during recent decades. However, grassland degradation is still severe and conditions have not been restored as intended. This paper aims to empirically examine the effectiveness of these programs for protecting the grassland condition in...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess whether China’s public sector can continue to generate advanced genetically modified (GM) technologies that will be competitive in the market. Design/methodology/approach The authors investigated all the research teams that have been conducting research projects under the variety development special p...