An Assessment of geographical indication to initiative promote longtan pearl plum on poverty reduction in China

Abstract

This study focuses on the intervention of the geographical indication product "Longtan Pearl Plum" on poverty alleviation in Tian'e County, Guangxi, in order to help policy makers formulate policies effectively.To achieve this main objective, this study will measure from the following aspects:the overview of the Longtan Pearl Plum project, and how Tian’e county government promote this project in Guangxi.The overview of the Longtan Pearl Plum value chain, quantitative analysis of stakeholders in the value chain.The impact of promoting Longtan Pearl Plum to the people in Tian’e County by Difference in difference method. The data for this study were obtained from Tian'e County farmers who were used to participate in planting Longtan pearl plums, and from Tian'e County residents who were not involved in planting. I conducted key information interviews with 40 Tian'e County residents by telephone or face to face before and after, and finally obtained valid data from 20 Tian'e County households. The collected data were divided into treatment group (participant) and comparison group (non participant) to analyze the impact of the "Longtan pearl plum" effect on poverty reduction through a difference in difference model, and the model results were tested for robustness and parallel trend test. It was found that planting pearl plum increased the farm income and net income of pearl plum by 3.987 and 4.906 times, respectively. And by computing the differences in total revenue/mu, agricultural income and net income of pearl plum between the farmer group and non farmer group, it was found that the households in the farmer group who planted pearl plum increased RMB 911.459/mu, 18,316.802 yuan and 42,320.877 yuan, respectively, than those households who did not plant pearl plum. Families in the non farmer group who planted pearl plums boosted 1366.266 yuan/mu and 33998.755 yuan in total income/mu and agricultural income, respectively, than those who did not. Therefore, the pearl plum project has a positive impact on local poverty alleviation.