The role of bamboo plantations in rural development: The case of Anji County, Zhejiang, China

Bamboos have often been viewed as inferior products, labeled as the "poor m an's timber." Development groups have proposed bamboo production as an oppo rtunity fbr increasing the wealth of the lower-income groups. This paper is a study of the household economy of 200 bamboo farmers in eight townships of Anji County in china. The authors describe the process of transformation of rural China from communes to the household responsibility system, the d ifferentiated rate of development among farmers and the role of bamboo in t hat change. A multiple regression analysis was carried out to study the fac tors that influence farmers' incomes and their evolution. A warning is soun ded against using bamboo production to target low-income groups, as well as relying solely on aggregated data when drawing conclusions on income dispa rities in China. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. Ail rights reserved.