Does rubber expansion hinder the migration of rural labor? Evidence from southwest China?

• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Author: Ningan Yang,Yawen Ding,Shi Min,Junfei Bai
• Date: 01 May 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12865

1108 

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     wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/rode  Rev Dev Econ. 2022;26:1108–1131.

© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Received: 4 December 2020 

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  Revised: 21 December 2021 

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  Accepted: 15 January 2022

DOI: 10.1111/rode.12865  

REGULAR ARTICLE

Does rubber expansion hinder the migration of

rural labor? Evidence from southwest China?

NinganYang1

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YawenDing2

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ShiMin1

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JunfeiBai3

1College of Economics and Management, 

Huazhong Agricultural University, 

Wuhan, China

2China Center for Agricultural Policy, 

Peking University, Beijing, China

3Beijing Food Safety Policy & Strategy 

Research Base, China Agricultural 

University, Beijing, China

Correspondence

Shi Min, College of Economics and 

Management, Huazhong Agricultural 

University, 430070 Wuhan, China.

Email: min.ccap@pku.edu.cn

Funding information

The Sino- German “SURUMER Project”, 

funded by the Bundesministerium 

für Wissenschaft, Technologie und 

Forschung (BMBF), Grant/Award 

Number: FKZ: 01LL0919; Huazhong 

Agricultural University Scientific& 

Technological Self- innovation 

Foundation; National Natural Sciences 

Foundation of China, Grant/Award 

Number: 71761137002 and 71673008

Abstract

The expansion of agroforestry crops in South Asia has re-

sulted in the reallocation of local agricultural resources, 

including  labor  force.  Based  on  two- wave panel  data 

collected from more than 600 smallholder rubber farm-

ers in southwest China, this study examines the impacts 

of  rubber  expansion  on  the  migration  of  rural  labor. 

The results show  that smallholders planting  more rub-

ber plantations have significantly  fewer migrant family 

members and  lower  likelihood of  migration, revealing 

a  significantly  negative  effect  of  rubber  cultivation  on 

the migration of rural labor. Given that the migration of 

rural labor is a major trend in rural  economic transfor-

mation, rubber farming appears to result in the resource 

curse  in  rubber  planting  areas.  In  addition,  a  positive 

interaction  effect  between  rubber  cultivation  and  the 

price of  natural rubber  on the migration of rural  labor 

reveals that  the resource  curse effect of  natural rubber 

decreases with the decrease  in the price of natural  rub-

ber. A period with  a relatively low price of natural  rub-

ber provides  an  opportunity to  foster  the migration  of 

rural labor in rubber planting areas.

KEYWORDS

agroforestry, labor transfer, natural rubber, rubber price

JEL CLASSIFICATION

Q12; Q23

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YANG et al.

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INTRODUCTION

In the past few decades, the farming of agroforestry crops (e.g., coffee, rubber, and oil palm) has 

been expanding in  South Asia,  resulting in a  profound impact on  local land use,  environment, 

and socioeconomy (Baird,2010; Grogan etal.,2019). As a typical example, the rapid expansion of 

smallholder rubber farming  in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture  (XSBN), southwest 

China, has attracted scholars and policymakers. On the one hand, the expansion of  smallholder 

rubber farming has had negative consequences on the local ecological environment, for example, 

deforestation, biodiversity loss, and  soil erosion (Ahrends et al.,2015; Guo et al.,2002). On the 

other hand, the cultivation  of natural rubber as  a cash crop has also played  a significant role in 

increasing farmers’ income, reducing poverty, and fostering the growth of local rural economies 

(Fox & Castella,2013; Fu etal.,2010; Liu etal.,2006).

The introduction  of  rubber has  also  caused the  reallocation of  resource  endowments (e.g., 

land and labor) of smallholders in XSBN. In terms of land use, most traditional agriculture, such 

as terraced rice and maize, has transformed into  specialized rubber plantations (Fu, Brookfield, 

etal.,2009; Xu,2006). The study by Min, Waibel, etal.(2017) found that nearly 80% of household 

land in XSBN  is used to cultivate rubber. Moreover, rubber expansion  may affect the allocation 

of family  labor (Fox et al.,2018). For  instance, a case  study by  Fu, Chen, et al.(2009) in  Daka 

village of XSBN showed that rubber  plantations occupied most family labor. This is not difficult 

to understand because rubber farming is highly labor intensive, and rubber prices were relatively 

high in the past (Min etal.,2018). Therefore, the migration of rural labor in rubber planting areas 

is less than that in other  regions, while, therefore, it can be hypothesized that rubber expansion 

may hinder the migration of rural labor.

However, since  2013, rubber  price  has decreased  almost  to the  breakeven price,  and  some 

smallholder  rubber  farmers  have  migrated  for  off- farm  employment,  but  the  migration  rate 

of rural  labor in  the rubber planting area of  XSBN is  still lower  than the migration  rate found 

in other  areas in  China (Wang et al.,2011).  Most previous  studies on  the migration  of  rubber 

in XSBN  were conducted based  on the  situation with a  relatively high  price of  natural rubber. 

Unfortunately, so far, there is no study providing a reasonable explanation for why the migration 

rate of  rural labor in  the rubber  planting area is  still relatively  low in the  context of  decreased 

rubber prices. No study  on the impact of  rubber cultivation on  the migration of rural  labor has 

considered the price of natural rubber.

In  fact,  the  transfer  of  labor  out  of  agriculture  contributes  to  increasing  farmers’  income 

(Zhao,1999), while  the migration of  rural labor  is an important  component of  rural economic 

transformation. Migrant workers usually remit part of their income to their families in the remote 

countryside (Hecht  et al.,2015),  which  can have  positive  effects on  agricultural development 

by enabling the  family to purchase  agricultural inputs, such as  seeds and fertilizers  (Manivong 

etal.,2014). Thus, if the expansion of  rubber negatively impacts the migration of rural labor lo-

cally, it will not only lead to a direct decrease in income but  also indirectly and negatively affect 

local agricultural development,  thereby hindering the development  of the  local rural economy. 

This consequence implies that the cultivation of natural rubber is similar to a resource curse for 

local rural development.

While previous studies have extensively investigated the migration of rural labor (Constant & 

Zimmermann,2013; Du etal., 2005; Zhang & Song,2003; Zhang et al.,2001), to the best of  our 

knowledge, no study has assessed the impact of rubber cultivation on the migration of rural labor. 

Generally, labor migration can be considered a decision resulting from differences in various so-

cioeconomic aspects  and  in individual  and  household characteristics,  such  as education,  age,