Study On The Household Income Of Tobacco Planters Based On Tobacco Control

On November 10th, 2003, Chinese government officially signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and became the 77th signing country of the Convention. The signing of the Convention means that Chinese government is willing to cooperate with the world on tobacco control within this framework. As China is the largest tobacco producer, the question of what impact the FCTC will cast on farmers growing tobacco stands out with great importance and significance at a time when China is determined to resolve the "three rural issues".Compared with other agricultural plants, fluecured tobacco usually has higher production value, especially in Yunnan province, where fluecured tobacco claims the highest production value among all agricultural plants. However, taking account of investment and labor, the cost-benefit ratio of planting fluecured tobacco does not have significant advantage over other plants any more. Among the many factors affecting farmers' income, what role does tobacco play? If tobacco significantly affects their income, farmers planting tobacco should have more income than those who do not. However, the study leads to an opposite conclusion. The paper develops its argumentation considering the high production value of tobacco, the large share of household income claimed by tobacco in planters and the high opportunity cost, which reduces the farmers' income in growing other agricultural plants and their non-agricultural income. All these factors combine to make the household income of tobacco planters lower than that of those who do not. The paper then searches for the reasons underlying this finding and explores the factors that affect the household income of farmers who do and do not grow tobacco, thus laying a solid foundation for the paper's conclusion and the study on Countermeasures.Under the circumstances of tobacco control, the paper, based on large amount of research data obtained on the spot, studies farmers' household income from the perspective of tobacco control. By means of processing and discussion of the data, the paper begins with comparison of the cost and benefit of tobacco and other agricultural plants in the same and different areas, then makes a factor analysis of the factors affecting tobacco planters' income, finding factors that have a real influence on the planters' income, and, given that the factor analysis finds land as a factor greatly affects tobacco planters' household income, discusses the influence that key production materials have on farmers' income. The paper proceeds to analyze the relativities between farmers' total household income, net household income, household income per capita, and household net income per capita on one hand and the planting acreage of a household on the other, and the relativity between tobacco planters' household income and their planting acreage. Lastly, a comparison between the income structures of farmers who do and do not grow tobacco finds that their major difference lies in non-agricultural income and the reason underlying this difference is that tobacco-planting process requires large amount of labor investment and at least two persons in collaboration. Based on this discussion and actual situations, and considering that tobacco planting is less likely to disappear or its planting acreage significantly decrease, the paper offers some Countermeasures aimed at minimizing the negative impact of tobacco control on the household income of tobacco planters. The Countermeasures include two parts: one is to practice centralized planting, maintain the production, and ensure and increase the farmers' income, while the other is to create various means aimed at minimizing surplus agricultural labor and increasing farmers' income.