Migration And Its Impact On Household Food Consumption In Poor Rural Areas Of China

The consumption pattern of residents in China is being upgraded,consumption of grain has decreased,and consumption for animal foods has increased significantly.It has also been found that food consumption and food security in poor rural areas are lower than the average level in China's rural areas.With widespread migration from rural to urban areas,the impact of migration on household food consumption in poor rural areas is worth studying.Data from 1368 households in six counties including Zhen'an,Luonan in Shaanxi province,Wuding,Huize in Yunnan province and Pan,Zheng'an in Guizhou province in 2015 are used for the analysis.Since migrants self-select into migration,Propensity Score Matching is taken to analyze the relationship between migration and total food expenditures per capita.The study further took the model of Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System to analyze the migration's impact on household food consumption.The main conclusions are summarized as follows:1.The poor rural areas have a large number of migrant workers.Almost half of the households have migrant workers,accounting for 52.16% of the total.The basic characteristics of migrant workers in poor rural areas are generally similar to the countrys',mainly male,young and middle-aged,junior high school education,provincial workers,nonagricultural employment,and long term employment.2.The annual per capita food consumption expenditure of households in poor rural areas is 3,895.06 yuan,which is account for 34.1% of the total consumption.From the perspective of the share of food consumption expenditure,the food consumption structure of households is dominated by grain,vegetables,fruits and animal foods.Among them,food consumption is the largest,animal foods,fruits and vegetables are consumed less.In addition,consumption of tobacco,alcohol,tea and beverages are not low.Households were categorized according to different characteristics.Cross-analysis was conducted between the income level,poor households,ethnic minorities,migration and food consumption.There was a significant difference in the consumption of most food types.3.Migration is an important factor that affects the household food consumption.Propensity Score Matching was taken to analyze the relationship between migration and total food expenditures per capita.Overall,the results indicated that migration does improve total food expenditures per capita,and have played an improved role in their food consumption.4.The QUADIS model was used to analyze the impact of migration's characteristics on the household food consumption.It was found that the characteristics of migration had a significant impact on the share of food consumption expenditure,especially the head of the householder,the type of work,and the percentage of migration.This means migration had impacts on household food consumption from the head of the household,the type of work outside,and the proportion of migration.From the perspective of control variables,the impact of education level,income level,market development level,and regional differences had a significant impact on the share of food consumption expenditure.