Mountain Farmers Entrepreneurship Research

Currently, the "Three Rural Issues" has become an outstanding problem in the process of China's economic and social development. In order to solve the "Three Rural Issues", multiple approaches and a great variety of tools and resources must be taken to promote rural economic development, to increase farmers'income, to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas, and to improve the living standards and environment of the rural residents. Farmer entrepreneurship is an effective and significant way for them to get rid of poverty and to alleviate the social economic pressures arising from the Three Rural Issues.Based on the actual situation of entrepreneurial farmers in the mountainous areas, this paper explores the concept of farmer entrepreneurship, its influencing factors and functions in promoting rural economic development. This paper focuses the field study on the Wuyang Village in Zhuoshui Town, Qianjiang District, Chongqing City. The entrepreneurial status there is observed and analyzed. Through the field study, the author finds that the primary occupation of the farmers in Wuyang Village is tobacco cultivation; the business scale is limited; entrepreneurial activities are unequally distributed; there are few independent enterprises; and the entrepreneurship is inactive. Based on the findings, the author analyzes data collected from the survey, and constructs a measurement model from three dimensions:the land yield, agricultural labor productivity, and income levels of farmers. The model is conducted to analyze the performance of the entrepreneurial farmers, which indicates significant positive contribution on the local economy. Furthermore, the paper puts forth some strategies to some existing issues in the village concerning the infrastructure, the entrepreneurial cognition and skills, as well as inputs and technical support.The case of the entrepreneurial farmers in the Wuyang Village shows that farmers are able to take advantage of the local resource and utilize it to start new enterprises, which in turn can drive the rural and agricultural development, improve farmers' income, reduce the rural-urban disparity, and greatly alleviate a series of contradictions arisen from the "Three Rural Issues".