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Biomass is widely used by households for cooking and heating in rural China. Along with rapid economic growth over the last three decades, increasing rural households tend to use less biomass and more commercial energy such as coal and electricity. In this paper, we analyzed the key drivers behind energy consumption and switching by rural households based on survey data of energy consumption by rural households in ten villages of Shanxi province in China. Our econometric results show that income growth can induce less use of biomass and more use of coal and modern fuels. However, no evidence shows that even wealthy households has abandoned biomass use in Shanxi, mainly due to the "free" access to land and agricultural resources in these villages. Previous wealth of a household represented by house value can lead to more time spent on biomass collection. Access to land resources has positive effects on biomass use and collection. Other key variables include education, household size, the number of elderly members, and coal price. We also find huge differences between villages, indicating the importance of access to agricultural resources and markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stresses of low temperature and weak light are major environmental limiters for horticultural production in greenhouses in northern China during winter and early spring. Grafting is regarded as a promising approach to enhance cucumber tolerance to these environmental stresses. However, it is still unclear why cucumber plants grafted on different rootstocks usually exhibit different tolerance. The responses of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L. cv. 'Xintaimici') seedlings that were grafted on three rootstock cultivars ('Kilameki', 'Tielizhen', and 'Figleaf gourd') to low temperature (5 °C) and weak light (100 μmol m-2 s-1) were investigated in this study. The results showed that, compared to ungrafted seedlings, the electrolytic relative leakage rate and malondialdehyde (MDA) content were significantly reduced in grafted cucumber, especially in 'Figleaf gourd'. Seedlings grafted on 'Figleaf gourd' had the highest proline content, as well as activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX), followed by 'Tielizhen' and 'Kilameki'. Relative expression of Cu/Zn-SOD, Mn-SOD, and CAT mRNAs was consistent with activities of the corresponding enzymes, and higher levels were found in grafted seedlings, especially in 'Figleaf gourd'. APX activities and the relative expression of APX were also stimulated in grafted seedlings, although their changes were not completely consistent. All evidence indicated that the differences in rootstock-mediated tolerance improvement in cucumber were mainly attributed to the different stimulation of antioxidative defense systems under low temperature and weak light stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the impact of Chinese rural taxation reform (RTR) on farm household income is investigated, using panel data collected from nearly 1,000 farm households in fifteen villages in the Yangtze river delta (YRD) area between 1995 and 2005. The results from fixed-effect regression show that RTR had a significant impact, increasing farmer income by 6.82 percent. This increase is much more than the direct income increase brought about by an exemption from the agricultural tax. When the dynamic impact of RTR on farm household income was examined, it was found that the most significant income increase occurred in the first three years after the execution of the new tax policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]