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Explora: Environment

and Resource

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Industrial development and benefit sharing of

mountain agriculture: The Tartary buckwheat
(Fagopyrum tataricum Gaertn.) industry in

Southwest China

Chiyin Ruan* , Jiaxin Zhang, and Yuanyuan Xiang
Department of Social Work, Faculty of Public Administration, Guizhou University of Finance and
Economics, Guiyang, Guizhou, China

Abstract

In the context of corporate-led agricultural industrialization, the agricultural
systems in the mountainous areas of Southwest China are undergoing significant
transformations, profoundly impacting the local agroecological environment and
farmers’ livelihoods. This study aims to investigate how the “company + farmer” model
influences the cultivation of buckwheat in the Liangshan Yi region in Southwest China.
*Corresponding author: The study hypothesizes that while this model provides market opportunities for
Chiyin Ruan farmers, it also marginalizes them from equitably benefiting from industrial growth,
(1049945049@qq.com) leading to the abandonment of traditional crop production and negative impacts on
Citation: Ruan C, Zhang J, the local agroecological environment and food culture. Drawing on anthropological
Xiang Y. Industrial development fieldwork, this study gathers qualitative data from participant observation and
and benefit sharing of mountain interviews to analyze the socioeconomic and ecological implications of these
agriculture: The Tartary buckwheat
(Fagopyrum tataricum Gaertn.) changes. The findings revealed that the push for agricultural industrialization has
industry in Southwest China. resulted in the replacement of traditional food crops, including buckwheat, with cash
Explora Environ Resour. crops, fostering a monoculture system that undermines biodiversity and local food
2025;2(1):5696.
doi: 10.36922/eer.5696 security. The study concludes that future rural development efforts must prioritize
the cultural and ecological roles of traditional farming communities and promote a
Received: October 29, 2024
farmer-centered, diversified agricultural production system.
1st revised: January 1, 2025
2nd revised: February 1, 2025 Keywords: Mountainous agriculture landscapes; Agricultural industrialization; Food
3rd revised: February 15, 2025 culture; Food security
Accepted: February 25, 2025
Published online: March 19, 2025
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s). 1. Introduction
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the In the era of globalization and market-oriented reform, Chinese agriculture is undergoing
Creative Commons Attribution a profound transformation. The transfer of land use rights has led to the rapid emergence
License, permitting distribution, of new agricultural business entities, including agricultural leading enterprises, large-
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is scale professional farming households, farmers’ cooperatives, and family farms.
properly cited. These changes are reshaping the traditional smallholder-dominated agricultural
Publisher’s Note: AccScience landscape. At the same time, the growing commercialization and industrialization of
Publishing remains neutral with agriculture are altering cropping patterns in many rural areas, with cash crops gradually
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional replacing traditional food crops. As a result, the agricultural production system in the
affiliations. mountainous highland of Southwest China is undergoing fundamental changes, which

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2025) 1 doi: 10.36922/eer.5696