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.