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Figure 2. Composition of Cash Expenditure on Family Business in 2000Construction 1%Industry 4%Fishery 3%Others 10%Agriculture52%Husbandry29%Source: NBS 2002b, 211.Forestry1%These findings were something of a disappointment to those who assumedthat migrant workers would return to start their own businesses in ruralareas, drawing on the new ideas, skills and savings (from remittances)that they had accumulated over several years of working in urban areas.Contrary to these assumptions, research conducted in Anhui and Sichuanin 1999–2000 revealed that only a very small number of returned migrantworkers successfully established their own businesses (Bai et al. 2002).However, we will underestimate the significance of remittances forinvestment if we fail to recognize that, on the one hand, the troublingstate of rural development in the late 1990s prevented households frominvesting remittances in industrial or non-agricultural activities, and, onthe other hand, that investment in agriculture is just as important for ruraldevelopment. The authors’ recent research on a village in Chifeng showsthat some households have acquired and farm more land than before. 5 Inthis case, they have used remittances from other family members to investin the farmland and pay land rents to the owners. In other cases, investmentsin husbandry, fishery and forestry, which make up a significant portion ofrural households’ income (see Table 5), may depend on remittances for theinitial period.2265As more and more households move to urban areas, their farmland becomes available to those whostay behind. This phenomenon can be observed in many villages in other areas in rural China.