(ECNS) -- A just-released report says that about half of Chinese farmers are unwilling to move to cities despite government initiatives to accelerate urbanization, according to the 21st Century Business Herald.
Research by the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Social Sciences Academic Press, and Henan University of Economics and Law focused on the challenges posed by industrialization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization in central and western regions.
Among respondents in the report, those who "highly want", "quite want" and "generally want" to relocate to cities account for 11.83 percent, 21.73 percent and 17.45 percent respectively. The remaining 49 percent say they are not interested in leaving their rural hometowns for a variety of reasons.
The top five reasons farmers stay in villages are aging (20.63 percent), no one to take care of their children or parents (18.12 percent), lack of skills (15.94 percent), unwillingness to leave farming behind (10.03 percent), and unfamiliaraty with cities (8.93 percent).
The study says some of the reluctance is caused by the hukou household registration system, which denies rural residents access to the social benefits of their urban counterparts.
The return of migrant workers to rural areas is a barrier to China's urbanization process, according to the report.
In the country's 13th Five-year Plan, China aims to increase its urbanization rate from 56.1 percent in 2015 to 60 percent by 2020. But statistics show the growth rate of migrant workers is falling year by year, from 5 percent in the past to 0.4 percent in 2015.
Dang Guoying, director of the institute's macro-economic research center, said urbanization needs to be underpinned by safeguards of farmer's rights in education, employment, and labor relations. Measures should include a unified hukou and social security policies, as well as lower housing prices.
He also said the country needs to encourage investment in small and medium-sized cities to create employment opportunities.
In the research, over 66 percent said they will certainly go back to their hometowns when they grow old, with only 10.3 percent saying they will try to stay in cities.
