New-type professional farmers: How to make use of different types of social capital to engage in agriculture specialization

Abstract

The emerging new-type professional farmers (NTPFs) in China form a subset of new farmers worldwide who, while benefiting from certain advantages, also face challenges as they enter the agricultural industry. Existing literature has highlighted the importance of social capital within traditional agricultural communities, but it has not thoroughly examined how different types of social capital are utilized by these new farmers. This study fills this gap by investigating the social network configurations of NTPFs, drawing on the case of fruit farmers from Lishui District in the suburban area of Nanjing. Based on in-depth interviews and observation, our findings reveal that the use of social capital among different NTPFs is diverse and evolves. First, the varying compositions of bonding, bridging, and linking social capital among NTPFs as a heterogeneous group in the process of agricultural specialization are influenced by their socio-demographic characteristics and motivations. This challenges the notion of idealized agricultural communities and adds complexities to the duality of continuer and newcomer farmers. Second, as NTPFs experiment with different agricultural production and marketing strategies to maximize profit, their social capital configurations shift over time. This finding adds nuance to previous research on how farmers balance different types of social capital. Moreover, this research highlights the context-specific strategies of new farmers by examining Chinese NTPFs and their engagement in agricultural specialization. This expands the mainstream academic focus beyond the Western context, where new farmers are often associated with peasant-like farming strategies.