Studies On Rural-Households' Part-Time Farming Behaviors In Suzhou Rural Area

Rural-household is the basic unit of rural society. Rural-household economy is essentially a family unit of production organization system. In the production and business activities, Rural-household display a remarkable features. no doubt, Act as the most important leading role in the new rural construction, the economic behavior of Rural-household are bound to make an important impact on the future development of rural economy and society. So studying the economic behavior of Rural-household seems very important at present.Part-time farming is an extremely rich connotation. It means that Rural-households transfer their factor of production such as labor, capital from agriculture to other non-farm fields, it can be also regard as the Rural-households make an occupation shift without migration. Rural-households in Suzhou rural area had taken part in non-ariculture activities long time before. It can be traced back to Ming, or Qing dynasty, maybe even earlier. All the time, Rural-households in Suzhou rural area rely on a small-scale arable land, at the same time, it is quite common that they are engaged in non-agriculture activities or meals locally. Even in the people's commune era, farmer-households did not stop their non-agriculture activities, such as be engaged in household handicraft industries, or community enterprises. As things stand, in rural areas in Suzhou, a noticeable tendency that the degree of non-agricultural activities turns deeper has already had a major impact on local rural economy. To study the reason, causal factors, and the developing trend definitely has so many realistic significance.In this paper, the part-time farming behaviors of farmer-households are the research object. Using the theory of household production, and agronomy related theories, based on the historical research on the occurrence and the evolution of the part-time farming activities of Rural-households in Suzhou rural area, this paper explores the nature and the general regularities of part-time farming. Based On authentic investigation, using the method of quantitative and statistical analysis, this paper studies the causal factors to farmer-households'behaviors of part-time farming, and part-time farming behaviors impact on the family income of farmer-households, and the willingness of migration, and so on.The structure and the main points of each part of the paper are as follows: Firstly, in the introductory part expounds the research objects, aims, and methods of this paper. In this paper, the main object of study is rural households in Suzhou area. Based on the general analysis and empirical study of part-time farming behaviors in Suzhou, the Objective of the study is to explore the status of part-time farming behaviors, and the phenomenon of non-agricultural activities turn deepen of Rural-households, and their effects On the local economic and social development in economically developed areas, to provide a basis for the formulation of relevant policies.Research methods, including historic and trend analysis of longitudinal, Section Analysis and Comparison study of horizontal.Secondly, states some theories which are related to part-time farming behaviors of farmer-households, including the theory of farmer-household economics, the theory of human capital, and the theory of household production. Using the theories above, the research achievements of other scholars in such fields, and the authentic investigation in Suzhou rural districts, this paper conceives an analysis model on part-time farming behaviors of farmer-households.Thirdly, this paper explores into the historical Changes of part-time farming behaviors of farmer-households. Analyze the appearance, features of part-time farming behaviors, and its effects on society and economy in different historical periods such as Tang, Ming, Qing dynasty.Fourthly, analyze the present situation and the causal factors to the farmer-households' behaviors of part-time farming in Suzhou rural area. Using the data of farmer-households which come from recently authentic investigation in Suzhou rural area, this paper interprets the present situation of part-time farming behaviors of farmer- households, and then, using the Logit quantitative model, investigate the connection between part-time farming behaviors of farmer-households with some internal causes or external causes such as the category of farmer-households, the scale of arable land, educational level, property, structure of family member, the region where the village seated, local natural resources conditions, the growth degree of local labor market, and so on.Fifthly, using the method of quantitative and statistical analysis, this paper explores the micro-economical effects of the part-time farming behaviors of farmer-households. Based on recent field survey on migration willingness and other data of farmer households in rural area of Suzhou, this paper probes the effects the part-time farming behaviors have on the family income, consume behavior, willingness of deviate from agriculture field, and so on. Sixthly, probe the macro- economical effects of the part-time farming behaviors of farmer-households. Based on the micro-economical effects analysis, this paper explores the effects the part-time farming behaviors of farmer-households have on the income distribution, the development of agriculture, and so on. Based on the analysis of the agricultural pursuit willingness of different category farmer-households respectively, this paper probes the direction the part-time farming take, and explores the Organizational forms of agricultural production and management in future in Suzhou rural area.