Mingyue Liu

Poverty alleviation through relocation (PAR) is a milestone project in winning the battle against extreme poverty. Its aim is to relocate poor people from inhospitable areas and lift them out of poverty. Assessing the vulnerability to multidimensional poverty (VMP) of relocated households is of great significance for consolidating the achievements of targeted poverty alleviation and preventing a large-scale return to poverty. This study constructed a multidimensional poverty index (MPI) of relocated households and analyzed relocated households’ VMP and its influencing factors using panel data of 1009 households in 16 counties across eight provinces in China. The results reveal that the mean VMP of the relocated households gradually decreased from 2016 to 2020. Moreover, the VMP of the relocated households that have moved into centralized resettlement communities is relatively low compared to those that have moved into decentralized resettlement communities. In addition, the impact of household endowment on VMP is the highest, followed by supporting policies, such as PAR, industrial development, and employment policy. Therefore, the assistance mechanism must be improved to prevent a return to poverty, enhance the sustainable development capacity of relocated households, and optimize follow-up policies for PAR.

Antimicrobial residues and resistance caused by farmers’ overuse of veterinary antimicrobials have seriously threatened food safety, the ecological environment, and public health. With the popularization of the Internet in rural areas, especially in developing countries, the constraints of obtaining agricultural technical information provided by governments or organizations are greatly eased, farmers’ knowledge and skills are significantly improved, and the agricultural standardized production system is effectively constructed. However, there is still a research gap on whether information acquisition via the Internet (IAI) can induce farmers to standardize the use of antimicrobials. Using the data of 675 hog farmers in the Hebei, Shandong, Henan, and Hubei provinces, China, the IV-Heckman and mediating effect models were used to analyze the phenomenon empirically. The main findings revealed that the IAI had exerted a significant influence on the standardized use of veterinary antimicrobials by hog farmers, i.e., the IAI not only helped farmers to decide to standardize the use of antimicrobials but also reduced the amount of investment in the standardized use of antibiotics. Moreover, information-sharing and feedback mechanisms partially mediated the relationship between the IAI and farmers’ standardized use of antimicrobials. Finally, considering the heterogeneity of individual endowments, the study further revealed that the IAI significantly impacted the standardized use of antimicrobials for farmers below the age of 36 years. However, the IAI was found to positively and significantly promote farmers’ standardized-use decisions only if they had less than five years of breeding time.