Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how the promotion of integrated forage/ruminant-livestock industries forms a key plank in efforts to improve rural household livelihoods in Western China. Design/methodology/approach – The paper critiques how this industry development has...

Purpose – In recent years, the focus of the Chinese Government has deviated from economic growth to overall societal balance and harmony. One of the major policy adjustments is to strengthen the supply of public goods in rural areas and set up the rural cooperative medical system (RCMS)...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the adverse selection in participation in the New Rural Cooperative Medical Scheme (NRCMS), as well as in outpatient and inpatient service utilization, in Chaoyang, Beijing, China. Design/methodology/approach – Probit model is established to...

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to examine chemical fertilizer use efficiency at the household level and provide an assessment of the causes of efficiency variation. Design/methodology/approach – A stochastic frontier production function approach is employed to estimate fertilizer...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to perform an investigative analysis of the distribution of agricultural growth in China and the evolution of the decision mechanism. Design/methodology/approach – The kernel density estimation method was used to investigate the distribution of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to fill a knowledge gap by examining the changes in fruit and vegetable consumption of Chinese households. Design/methodology/approach – Using 1993 and 2001 household survey data from three selected provinces in China, the authors estimated a quantile...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to apply a market efficiency theoretical framework to analyse and postulate solutions to the challenges confronting China in engaging smallholders in higher value, specialty, agricultural product markets. A marketing experiment/trial to test these ideas...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a financial liberalization index (FLI) and evaluate its impact on agricultural growth. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses the autoregressive distributed lag approach to determine the long run and short coefficients. Findings – The...

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impact of remittance income on rural households in China. Design/methodology/approach – Using data from a large survey of farming households in three Chinese provinces, the impacts of remittances and other types of income on...