Farmer Innovation System in the Loess Plateau of China: An International Research and Training network
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: China Policy Institute
Abstract
Sustainable ecosystem services and poverty alleviation in China's Loess Plateau - an ecologically fragile area suffering from serious soil erosion and massive poverty - involves changing the perceptions and production behaviours of the rural poor. This is a difficult and challenging task, according to two decades of development practices in this area, as top-down government intervention often ignores the complexity of local ecosystems, the diversity of the needs of the rural poor, and alternative livelihoods. Nonetheless, farmer participatory technology learning and project design are being paid increasing attention in China and specifically in the Loess Plateau. By establishing a UK-China research and training network, this project attempts to bring the rural poor into the centre of ecosystem services and poverty alleviation programmes. The network brings together key researchers to investigate a range of issues relating to farmer innovation systems and poverty alleviation in the Loess Plateau, in order to understand the complexity of local ecosystems, the diversity of farmer production behaviours and coping strategies, the potential of farmer innovation, and the limitations of government development intervention. The network will undertake a number of activities aimed at enhancing the capacity to conduct research in this area. In particular it will collect, analyse and disseminate the good practices of farmers leading innovation nationwide; bring a group of UK experts to north Shaanxi to carry out interdisciplinary observation and communication with Chinese scholars, local authorities and farmers directly; and arrange for a Chinese delegation to visit Britain in order to enhance collaboration with policy makers, research institutions and representatives of international environmental NGOs in the UK.
People |
ORCID iD |
Bin Wu (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Li, C.
(2013)
China's Development and Harmonization
Qi, G.B.
(2013)
China's Development and Harmonisation
Wu B
(2022)
Bridging social capital as a resource for rural revitalisation in China? A survey of community connection of university students with home villages
in Journal of Rural Studies
Wu B
(2013)
Farmer innovation diffusion via network building: a case of winter greenhouse diffusion in China
in Agriculture and Human Values
Wu B
(2015)
Variations in village migration profiles in rural China: An analysis based on the Second National Agricultural Census data
in Asian and Pacific Migration Journal
Wu, B.
(2013)
Empty Villages in Poor Areas of China: A Case Study of Rural Migration in North Shaanxi
in SVILUPPO LOCALE
Zhang L
(2018)
Farmer innovation system and government intervention: An empirical study of straw utilisation technology development and diffusion in China
in Journal of Cleaner Production
Description | -local knowledge and farmer innovation practices in China as well as their contribution to sustainable ecosystem services and poverty alleviation in Loess Plateaur; -farmer innovation diffusion via network building and implications for government intervention in China; _Roles of government intervention in farmer innovation diffusion in the context of China; _social capital as a key resource for rural revitalisation in China |
Exploitation Route | The experience of Chinese farmers' innovation diffusion in the 1990s and beginning of 21st century sheds new light on the potential of grassroots innovation and interfaces with external intervention (both government and non-governmental organisations) in low income countries. It calls for international cooperation to foster communications and interactions between Chinese grassroots innovators and their counterparts in Africa and other developing countries in order to share their experience and the transfer appropriate technologies across national boundaries for the purposes of poverty alleviation and rural sustainability in the developing world. |
Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Environment |
URL | https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cpi/research/funded-projects/fis/index.aspx |
Description | Research findings from this project has been used to design a new project in Liangshan, a poorest and Yi Minority region in Sichuan, China to understand, mobilise and empower small farmers to participate in potato industrialisation for outside of markets. An exploratory trip has been conducted by multi-disciplinary and multiple stakeholders in early January of 2020 to visit to this region, leading to partnerships and project initiatives between universities, potato seeding and breeding companies, governmental and non-governmental agencies, cooperative leaders . |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy |
Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
Description | Farmer Innovation Diffusion in China |
Organisation | Tianjin University of Finance & Economics |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | This project focuses on the process and mechanism of farmer innovation diffusion in China since the 1980s. Special attention is paid to the roles of collaborative network within rural communities and between farmers and external stakeholders. |
Collaborator Contribution | Creating a database for grassroots innovation across China and conducting field researches for in rural China |
Impact | Co-authored publications in international journals (one published and another in process); Mutual visits between Nottingham and Tianjin every year; Joint field visits in rural China for updated information; Student internship for for UoN students in Tianjin. |
Start Year | 2010 |
Description | Farmer innovation in Loess Plateau |
Organisation | China Agricultural University (CAU) |
Department | College of Humanities and Development Studies |
Country | China |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Joint fieldwork and co-authored publications |
Collaborator Contribution | Chapters to the edited volume published by Routledge. |
Impact | Access ti resources for farmer professornal cooperatives in China (Chapter 13); Farmer innovation in ecologically fragile areas of China (Chapter 14). |
Start Year | 2009 |