How Agricultural Farmers Respond to Risks during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Exploration through the Dual Social Capitals Approach

Mingsong Hao, Chuntian Lu, Xi Zhou and Jing Xu ()
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Mingsong Hao: Department of Sociology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Chuntian Lu: Department of Sociology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Xi Zhou: Department of Sociology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Jing Xu: Department of Sociology, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-18

Abstract: The degree of risk to which agricultural farmers are exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they tackle those difficulties is a critical topic. Although the topic has been paid considerable attention by worldwide scholars, this study intends to compensate for it via conducting a ground-breaking analysis based on sample survey data. Integrating theoretical perspectives of individual- and collective-level social capitals rooted in sociology, and using NPRM (Nested Poisson Regression Model) to analyze a sample survey data collected in rural China in August 2020, we generated the following findings. (1) The overall risks and damages to agricultural production and management are relatively minimal. Thus, farmers are highly confident in conquering the pandemic and recovering their business. (2) Compared with micro- and macro-level influencing factors, social capital at both levels could greatly help agricultural farmers obtain informal and formal supporting resources (such as encouragement and financial supports), thus helping them to cope with the pandemic shock. (3) Specifically, the acquisition of informal supporting resources is mainly affected by the size of farmers’ ordinary networks (Spring Festival Visiting Network) and the frequency of public activities held in a village; gaining access to formal supporting resources is also influenced by the frequency of public activities, but the state of farmers’ personal connections with official departments plays a crucial role in determining the amount of such resources can be obtained. According to these empirical findings, suggestions on how to suppress the negative effects and lift the positive effects of dual social capitals in the process of responding to risks are proposed.

Keywords: agricultural farmers; risk response; individual-level social capital; collective-level social capital; supporting resources (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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