Miaomiao Qi

As the Chinese state loosens its regulations on transfers of farmland, migrant farmers are flooding into rural areas of Yunnan Province seeking cheap land and labor for growing high-value crops. The small-scale land accumulation organized through translocal networks is transforming the region’s agrarian landscapes, livelihoods, and the labor regime. This project explores how migrant entrepreneurial farmers secure and mobilize the capital, land, labor, care, and knowledge required across rural spaces for successful farming operations in the land rush area. It contributes to the understanding of socio-spatial mobility and agrarian transition in China through examining rural-to-rural dynamics in migration flows.