IESR is excited to announce that Thousand-Village Survey in Guangdong Report 2018 has been finally released!
Thousand-Village Survey in Guangdong Briefing 2018 took place on January 10, 2019 at the Institute for Economic and Social Research. Shouying Liu (Professor at Renmin University of China, Assistant Minister of Research Department of Rural Economy, DRC) and Wenrong Qian (Vice President of ZJU School of Public Affairs, Executive Director of China Academy for Rural Development) were invited to the briefing to give some valuable comments and suggestions regarding the survey. 6 village committee representatives from the cities of Guangzhou, Qingyuan, Foshan and Yunfu also attended the briefing and joined everyone in the roundtable discussion afterwards.
About the Thousand-Village Survey in Guangdong
This survey aims to document recent rural and agricultural development in Guangdong province and provide researchers with household data to evaluate the impact of the rural vitalization strategy implemented by the central government since 2018. The survey records detailed information about targeted poverty alleviation, rural governance, ecological environment, education, land acquisition, development of rural finance, and other aspects.
In 2018, Survey Data Center (SDC) implemented the baseline survey. During this wave, Thousand-Village Survey collected valid samples of over 100 villages and more than 3,000 households that cover over 14,000 family members in Guangdong Province. The second wave is under preparation at this time.
The Report 2018
The report of Thousand-Village Survey in Guangdong addressed the main areas calling for urgent attention throughout the villages in Guangdong province:
General situation of villages in Guangdong province and its ecological environment. As survey results show, public lavatories and fitness facilities are not that widespread in rural areas, so it needs to be improved. Ratios of land transfer in villages of Pearl River Delta is very high but the rent prices are still far below the ones in the eastern and western wings of Guangdong province. As regards ecological & environmental issues, soil erosion is relatively severe in villages situated in Jieyang, Zhanjiang and Heyuan. Rural households mainly rely on tap water for drinking but some districts have their own preference; for instance, residents in the mountain areas prefer spring water, whereas residents of the western Guangdong are used to drink well water. As for the Western Guangdong regions that are highly developed in agriculture, survey reveals that the use of fertilizers and pesticides is of enormous scale there. Straw burning is still very common in rural Guangdong while returning crop stalks to the field is rarely practiced.
Report by IESR Professor Chengzheng Li
Rural household employment, income and consumption. The employment rate of working-age population in Guangdong rural areas is 59%, out of which – 52% are employees. Rural migrant workers are mainly characterized by a relatively low marriage rate, young age and high education level. Migration destination is concentrated within the province, especially in the region of Pearl River Delta, whereas the scale of rural migrant workers from northern Guangdong province working in the same area is extremely low. As regards annual rural household income and consumption per capita, the main sources of household income are wages, remittance from migrant workers, farm income and non-farm business income. Household consumption in rural Guangdong mostly consists of expenditures on food, health care and education.
Report by IESR Professor Jingliang Lu
Rural governance. On average, village committees are made up of 16 people: 8 regular employees, 3 temporary employees, 2 graduate village officials and 3 social workers. As for the informal institutions, survey shows that clan organizations in Guangdong province are highly developed –71% of administrative villages in Guangdong and 93% in Chaoshan region (conurbation in the east of Guangdong) have ancestral halls. The survey also reveals that 50% of overall Guangdong rural population and 70% of Chaoshan population share three most common Chinese family names (Wang, Li, Zhang). Elderly associations are also widespread in rural areas. What concerns the mode of governance, around 70% of important collective decisions are made by voting in village general meetings which are summoned to discuss public service and which usually focus on household impoverishment in the area. The report also points out that, while traditional clan organizations together with its culture serve well to the local governance, they may also have a negative influence on it.
Report by IESR Professor Shujuan Li
Targeted poverty alleviation. The selection of poverty-stricken households for targeted poverty alleviation is based on household income, its ability to work and overall family burden; social relationships in the household do not have any significant impact. Most of the poverty-stricken families subjected to targeted poverty alleviation are situated in the Pearl River Delta region but the amount of financial support those households received is the lowest. There is a high likelihood of receiving the support in the administrative villages but very few households have the power to decide by themselves how to use the money they receive. Over the course of poverty elevation process (made up of 8 separate stages), higher percentage of villagers had chosen to participate in poverty elevation in the areas of social security and industry, rather than other areas. The financial support that households receive is mainly used for living expenses, medical care, children education and etc.; some of it also goes to agricultural production, and very rarely to the bank savings or project investment.
Report by IESR Professor Mengqi Niu
Rural education. The level of participation and completion of compulsory education in Guangdong rural areas has already reached the average of the whole rural China. The enrolment and dropout situation in rural primary schools are comparatively good – enrollment rate is close to the national level, while the dropout rate of primary school-age children is about 0.5%. As regards junior high schools, the enrollment rate is slightly lower than the national level and the dropout rate of middle school-age children is 5%. The percentage of left-behind children in rural Guangdong is 42.56%, which is way above national rate (28.52%). 90% of administrative villages in Guangdong have primary schools and only 12% of them have junior high schools. Households in villages that lack one (or both) types of schools increase children education expenses (around 1000 RMB per household), and especially education-related living expenses.
Report by IESR Professor Yujie Han
Rural finance. Rural areas in Guangdong province are still financially underdeveloped. Over the last 5 years, only less than 3% of survey subjects have borrowed from formal financial institutions and less than 1% borrowed from informal financial institutions. Over the same period, around 40% of families borrowed money from other individuals; 60% of that borrowed money have been used among their close relatives. Most of the borrowings are made using verbal agreements and very few of them have formal contracts; also, borrowings usually are interest-free and do not have any repayment date. Generally speaking, both formal and informal financial operations are very rare, with most of the borrowings concentrated between individuals who seek to help each other out. Borrowings between individuals occur because of the need to maintain their standard of living rather than the need of investment.
Report by IESR Professor Xiang Ma
Thousand-Village Survey in Guangdong Briefing 2018
