China’s rural areas are undergoing profound demographic and economic change. Migration and population aging are reshaping villages, family structures, and agriculture, while government strategies such as “Rural Revitalization” and “Common Prosperity” seek to improve living and working conditions in rural areas.
In the latest episode of the DCZ podcast Agrar in China, the podcast of the Sino-German Agricultural Centre (DCZ), host Annette Weiß speaks with Dr. Lena Kaufmann from the University of Freiburg about who lives in China’s villages today, regional differences in rural development, and efforts to attract young and well-educated people back to the countryside.
The conversation also explores how digitalization is changing Chinese agriculture. Can drones, autonomous machinery, and artificial intelligence compensate for labor shortages while creating new rural employment opportunities? And could these developments leave older or lower-income groups behind?
Looking ahead, the episode asks what Chinese agriculture could look like in ten or twenty years: Will millions of small family farms continue to dominate, or will larger farms and professional agricultural service providers using modern technologies play an increasingly important role?
Guest: Dr. Lena Kaufmann, Research Associate and SNSF Ambizione Fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of Freiburg and head of the research project Digital agriculture: Sino-European contrasts, correspondences and collaborations
Host: Annette Weiß, funkenweiss
Agrar in China is a podcast by the Sino-German Agricultural Centre (DCZ) exploring current developments and debates in China’s agriculture and food sector.
Please note: This podcast episode is available in German only.
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