indeed as the rural sector develops farmers are faced with the choice of raising farm productivity or reallocating their resources to allow other farmers to scale up operations enabling the latter process is particularly important in china as historical land assignment practices have resulted in a high proportion of small farming operations relative to other middleincome countries following the experience of other middleincome and oecd countries farmers commonly follow alternative routes during the adjustment phase i stay working the farm and raise productivity ii transition away from agriculture to pursue offfarm employment or in discontinue operating their farmland without taking up employment elsewhere usually the elderly and less able