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Explora: Environment
and Resource The Tartary buckwheat industry

ethical, responsible, and qualified manner, making it well- Labor shortage and the advancement of agricultural
suited for scientific development. Hence, consumers can industrialization have also had a profound impact on the
fully trust the company to provide high-quality health local ecological environment. The traditional circular
products. In this context, native knowledge of plant agroecosystem is becoming unsustainable as more farmers
species, customs, traditions, and religious ceremonies are are forced to give up animal husbandry due to reduced
valued and respected, framed as potential solutions for the family labor. Some families are even reducing the amount
crisis of modernity. This approach adds value to buckwheat of land they farm. The decline of animal husbandry has
products, ultimately helping the enterprise above-average not only diminished sources of agricultural income but
profits in the food products market. also weakened families’ ability to manage risks, making it

However, most Yi farmers find it difficult to benefit harder to maintain a healthy ecological cycle in farming.
from these development projects. The buckwheat industry In the past, soil fertility largely depended on homemade
is disconnected from villagers’ lives, even though they fertilizers made from a mixture of fermented sheep and pig
supply the raw materials and are the original creators/ manure, buckwheat straw, pine needles, and oak leaves. At
practitioners of this cultural resource. As the processing present, farmers increasingly rely on chemical fertilizers.
and market linkages are controlled by corporations, For instance, in maca cultivation , high costs of seed led
5
farmers can only derive labor income from the crop. For farmers to use excessive fertilizers and pesticides to ensure
example, the yield of bitter buckwheat is extremely low, high yields, while neglecting crop rotation and fallow
typically 100 – 150 kg/acre of land, while the market price periods. This practice has detrimental effects on the local
is 3 – 4 yuan/kg . Cost accounting revealed that this price environment, including loss of agricultural biodiversity,
3
could not even cover the cultivation costs . In addition, deforestation, soil compaction, and contamination of
4 31
farmers have to face natural and market risks. In fact, agricultural plastics.
farm income typically covers only basic food and clothing With the nationwide promotion of genetically modified
needs, making it difficult to meet the broader reproductive crops, such as maize and soybeans, agricultural biodiversity
needs of a modern family, such as education, healthcare, is likely to decline even further. In addition, many
and elder care. As a result, young and middle-aged farmers traditional seeds have been patented by large agribusiness
are forced to seek alternative employment opportunities. companies through biotechnological interventions,
Unfortunately, urban migrant workers also often face resulting in farmers losing their rights to these seeds.
unfair treatment in the labor market. 32
Commercial cultivation not only impacts the local
The issue of fair distribution within local communities ecosystem but also threatens the sustainability of local
directly affects the sustainable development of the bitter culture and food systems. As traditional crops, such as
buckwheat industry. As a large number of farmers migrate buckwheat and oats, are increasingly replaced by cash
for work, the shortage of local agricultural labor has crops, people are gradually adopting a rice-based diet and
become more pronounced, resulting in the abandonment becoming more reliant on the food market, consequently
of bitter buckwheat in many villages. This affects the altering their lifestyles and cultural values. Moreover, the
stability of the bitter buckwheat raw material supply and volatility of cash crop prices has led to more speculative
hinders the further expansion of leading bitter buckwheat cultivation decisions among farmers, increasing the
enterprises. Enterprises complain that the supply of raw precariousness of their livelihoods and altering their
materials is tight, forcing them to compete fiercely to perceptions of wealth accumulation through hard work.
purchase unprocessed buckwheat. We can observe this
situation in the following news report about the buckwheat 4. Conclusion
tea industry: “Consumers love it; farmers won’t plant it;
investors build lots of plants; lack of raw material base areas In the process of enterprise-led agricultural modernization,
to supply them. Annual production is high but enterprises the agricultural production system in the mountainous
struggle to buy in.” In fact, the question of who will farm regions of Southwest China has undergone a profound
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has become an urgent issue for China. transformation. The traditional pattern of local diversified
cultivation is gradually giving way to monoculture
3 More specifically, according to market research, from structure and non-food cultivation, as farmers shift from
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2009 to 2013, the market price of buckwheat ranged from subsistence agriculture to commodity agriculture focused
2.2 to 2.8 yuan/kg. In 2014, it reached a record high of on meeting market demand. Recently, with the acceleration
3.4 – 3.6 yuan/kg, but declined to 2.6 – 2.8 yuan/kg in 2015.
4 In 2012 – 2017, the local market price for rural labor was 5 A plant of South American origin that had exploded onto the
60 – 100 yuan/day. Cultivating an acre of buckwheat requires Chinese market between 2011 and 2016 and became widely
an investment of about five labor days. grown in the southwestern mountains.

Volume 2 Issue 1 (2025) 6 doi: 10.36922/eer.5696