Prospects of interventions to alleviate rural–urban migration in Jiangsu Province, China based on sensitivity and scenario analysis

H. Lyu, Z. Dong, M. Roobavannan, J. Kandasamy, S. Pande*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
36 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Rural–urban migration is an adaptive response to location-specific environmental or socio-economic stressors. Jiangsu Province, China is witnessing rapid economic growth fuelled by manufacturing and services sector. Rural–urban migration in Jiangsu, which brings higher stress to resource-carrying capacity of urban areas, is driven by rural “push” factors, principally labour surplus and unemployment in agriculture. This study investigates possible policy interventions aimed at relieving the rapid rural–urban migration in Jiangsu based on a sensitivity analysis of driving factors in rural agricultural production. It shows that rural–urban migration is sensitive to input elasticities of precipitation and labour. Two groups of scenario analysis corresponding to possible policy interventions are implemented. The first policy focuses on providing government subsidies to rural non-agricultural industries then compensate for the shrinking agricultural production. Another policy supports education in rural areas to provide more skilled labour resource which can be absorbed by non-agricultural industries. Both two policies are effective in reducing rural unemployment and alleviating rural–urban migration.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2175-2184
Number of pages10
JournalHydrological Sciences Journal
Volume65
Issue number13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Keywords

  • agriculture
  • labour demand
  • policy interventions
  • rural–urban migration

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