Inter-regional Migration in the Global South:Chinese Migrants in Ghana

While the migration of Chinese people to Africa dates back to the 1960s, it has increased significantly in the last two decades. Despite growing interest in such inter-regional migration flows, there is little understanding of the drivers and effects of such movements. Drawing on a combination of data generated through a quantitative survey and in-depth interviews, this chapter examines the drivers and impacts of Chinese migration to Ghana, a country which has been a significant destination for Chinese migrants for several decades. The findings indicate that the migration of Chinese people to Ghana has both positive and negative impacts. Positively, incomes and livelihoods of some Chinese migrants and Ghanaians who work for Chinese investors have improved. However, financial rewards have benefited some more than others, with increased income inequalities along gender and social class lines. Negative impacts include environmental degradation, violation of Ghana’s trade and mining laws, and exploitation of some Ghanaians by Chinese migrants. While Chinese migrants and their families left behind in China benefit through improved incomes and remittances, migration and associated financial flows contribute to a deepening of inequalities in migrants’ sending areas

The Challenges of China’s Food and Feed Economy

China’s transformation from a net food exporter to a net food importer has occurred in a very short period of time and this has implications for both China and the world. This paper argues that there is strategic and practical significance in China-Africa agricultural cooperation, as the current import structure of food and other agricultural products is imbalanced and China’s food supply-demand imbalances will continue to expand. This raises the possibility of political and economic crisis for China and threatens those poor countries who are relying on international food markets. Africa possesses substantial areas of arable land that can be developed and utilised; thus, China-Africa agricultural cooperation can potentially enhance African nations’ productive capacity and contribute to local food security, through which it can indirectly improve global food security and stabilise the international food market under China’s increasing food demand context

Perseverance in the Face of Hardship: Chinese Smallholder Farmers’ Engagements in Ghanaian Agriculture

This paper uses qualitative research methods to study small-scale Chinese farmers in Ghana, in contrast to research generally found in mainstream media and academic literature which focuses on large-scale Chinese farms in Africa. Through field-based observations of three small Chinese-run farms, this article explores how some Chinese expatriates are engaging in agricultural development in Ghana. We argue that this engagement contributes diverse new agricultural products to the local market. Furthermore, we find that the activities of these farmers are driven by increasing numbers of Chinese migrants in Africa, and that instead of being powerful competitors, they are in fact squeezed into the margins of the local market. They meet the needs of a specific niche market through perseverance and learning from failure. In doing so, they face unfamiliar challenges from both the natural climate and the social environment, and they are at a disadvantage in this process compared to local farmers who have over the years developed better adaptive mechanisms. Looking ahead, a decline in the specialised market for Chinese goods caused by a decline in Chinese migrant labour presents real challenges for the future viability of small Chinese farms in Ghana

Microscopic evidence for strong periodic lattice distortion in 2D charge-density wave systems

In the quasi-2D electron systems of the layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) there is still a controversy about the nature of the transitions to charge-density wave (CDW) phases, i.e. whether they are described by a Peierls-type mechanism or by a lattice-driven model. By performing scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments on the canonical TMD-CDW systems, we have imaged the electronic modulation and the lattice distortion separately in 2H-TaS$_2$, TaSe$_2$, and NbSe$_2$. Across the three materials, we found dominant lattice contributions instead of the electronic modulation expected from Peierls transitions, in contrast to the CDW states that show the hallmark of contrast inversion between filled and empty states. Our results imply that the periodic lattice distortion (PLD) plays a vital role in the formation of CDW phases in the TMDs and illustrate the importance of taking into account the more complicated lattice degree of freedom when studying correlated electron systems

Effects of partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure on the activity of enzyme and soil bacterial communities in the mountain red soil

IntroductionThe partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure takes on a critical significance to enhancing soil quality and boosting sustainable agricultural development. However, rare research has studied the effects of partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure on soil bacterial community diversity and enzyme activity in maize field in the mountain red soil region of Yunnan.MethodsIn this study, four treatments were set up in which chemical fertilizer (the application rates of N, P2O5 and K2O were 240, 75 and 75 kg·ha−1, respectively) was substituted by 10% (M10), 20% (M20), 30% (M30) and 40% (M40) of organic manure with equal nitrogen, as well as two control treatments of single application of chemical fertilizer (M0) and no fertilization (CK). The maize (Zea mays L.) crop was sown as a test crop in May 2018. The effects of partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure on soil physicochemical properties, soil bacterial community diversity and enzyme activity were studied.ResultsThe activities of Cellulase (CBH), Invertase (INV) and β-glucosidase (BG) increased with the increase of organic manure substitution ratio. The activities of β-1,4-N-acetylglucosaminidase (NAG), Urease (URE), and leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) also had the same trend, but the highest activities were 159.92 mg·g−1·h−1, 66.82 mg·g−1·h−1 and 143.90 mg·g−1·h−1 at 30% substitution ratio. Compared with CK and M0 treatments, Shannon index increased notably by 82.91%–116.74% and 92.42%–128.01%, respectively, at the organic manure substitution ratio ranging from 10% to 40%. Chao1 and ACE index increased significantly at the organic manure substitution ratio ranging from 10% to 30%. Proteobacteria was the dominant phylum in all treatments, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria decreased as the organic manure substitution ratio increased. Redundancy analysis showed that microbial biomass C was the main factor affecting the bacterial community composition under partial replacement of chemical fertilizer treatment, while Actinobacteria was the main factor affecting the enzyme activity. In addition, the maize yield of M30 and M40 treatments was significantly higher than that of CK and M0-M20 treatments, and the yield of M30 treatment was the highest, reaching 7652.89 kg·ha−1.ConclusionTherefore, the partial substitution of chemical fertilizer with organic manure can improve soil biological characteristics, while increasing bacterial community diversity and soil enzyme activity. Therefore, a thirty percent organic manure substitution was determined as the optimal substitution ratio for maize farmland in the mountain red soil area of Yunnan, China

A Chinese Empire in the Making? Questioning Myths from the Agri-Food Sector in Ghana

While China’s expanding presence in Africa is often framed as a new project in empire building, the Chinese authorities explain their engagement on the continent as simple ‘SouthSouth cooperation’. Taking the agricultural sector in Ghana as a case study, this article challenges both narratives and argues that Chinese farmers in Africa are not a ‘silent army’ (either malevolent or benevolent), but instead are largely precarious individuals attempting to meet their livelihood needs

The flow of people matters

No abstract available