Search Results (18)

The compensated withdrawal of rural homesteads can revitalize idle land resources, which is of significant importance for both farmers and rural development in China. Drawing upon data from the China Land Economic Survey 2022, this study uncovers the impact of participation in social security on farmers’ willingness of homestead withdrawal, as well as its mediating factor. The main conclusions are as follows. First, participation in social security can increase farmers’ willingness of homestead withdrawal. This conclusion has passed robustness tests. Second, facilitating entrepreneurial activities is an important mediating factor through which participation in social security increases the willingness of homestead withdrawal. Third, rural entrepreneurship training and finance accessibility can both have a positive moderating influence on the positive relationship between participation in social security and the willingness of homestead withdrawal. Fourth, for farmers who experienced significant negative events in their households, the enhancing effect of social security participation on their willingness of homestead withdrawal is diminished, while for farmers engaging in farmland transfer-out, the enhancing effect of social security participation on their willingness of homestead withdrawal is strengthened. This study provides policy implications for China in promoting the exit of rural farmers from homesteads through social security policies, thus achieving rural revitalization. Full article

This paper examines the interaction between land policies and rural labor migration in China and Europe, highlighting how land reforms guide labor mobility and their impacts on land and social structures. In China, the Household Contract Responsibility System and land transfer policies have facilitated agricultural scale expansion and the urbanization of the rural labor force. Homestead reforms have further enhanced farmers’ asset liquidity. In Europe, using Spain as a case study, EU agricultural policies have spurred agricultural modernization, economic diversification, and intensive land use. These advancements benefitted from a mature land transfer market and increased non-agricultural employment opportunities. Both China and Europe face challenges of population aging and rural depopulation, necessitating improvements in land use efficiency, the balance of the scale, and the protection of farmers’ rights and interests. Europe addresses labor shortages through technology, mechanization, and cooperatives, while China employs land trusteeship, transfer platforms, and the “three rights separation” system to combat land abandonment and labor shortages. Future research should strengthen comparative studies between China and Europe, quantify interactive relationships, consider the impact of transnational labor mobility under globalization, explore policy innovations, and foster international cooperation to address demographic changes and agricultural labor shortages. Additionally, promoting sustainable land use and farmers’ rights, equalizing urban–rural public services, enhancing education and training, and improving the social security system are crucial for integrated urban–rural development. Full article

The imbalance of rural human–land relationships has become a notable problem in China’s urbanization process. The dual urban–rural system is widely regarded as the crucial factor contributing to this problem in China. Although the significance of institutional forces has been substantially recognized, the rural homestead system seems to be generally under-evaluated in this issue. Most of the previous literature focuses on the dual household registration system, while the effects and the detailed mechanisms of the rural homestead system on human–land relationships lack depth in research. The objective of this research is to help fill this gap in the literature on the complex effects and the detailed mechanisms of the rural homestead system on rural human–land relationships. In view of this, this paper establishes a conceptual framework on the basis of land function theory and public domain of property rights theory and proposes two mechanism hypotheses: one is the land attachment mechanism of farmers’ rights and interests (LAM), the other is the land finance preference mechanism of local governments (LFPM). Then, this article examines them empirically using the panel model with the data of 41 cities from 2010 to 2021 in the Yangtze River Delta of China. The main conclusions are as follows: (1) LAM promotes the imbalance of rural human–land relationships due to the attachment of farmer’s social security rights and property expectant interests to the rural homesteads; (2) LFPM drives the imbalance of rural human–land relationships, owing to both the preference of land transfer revenue and the exclusion of rural migrants’ citizenship financial cost on local governments; (3) the moderating effects suggest that LFPM can strengthen the effect of LAM, and the spatial Durbin model results show that both LAM and LFPM have spatial spillover effects. It is hoped that the findings will provide a reference for deepening the rural homestead system reform. Full article

Upscaling sustainable intensification (SI) technologies is crucial to enhancing the resilience of fragile farming systems and vulnerable livelihoods of smallholder farmers. It is also critical to shape the future land-use and land-cover changes in a region. Zero-tillage potato cultivation (ZTPC), introduced as an SI intervention in parts of the Indian Sundarbans, has demonstrated promises of rapid upscaling, and thus, changes in the seasonal land-use pattern in the region. This study aims to understand the socioecological complexity of farming systems to comprehend how the nascent stage of ZTPC thrives at the farm level and what preconditions are necessary to upscale them. The objectives are to analyse the farm resource recycling pattern in ZTPC, and map and simulate its system’s complexity to strategize ZTPC upscaling in the region. The analysis of farm resource recycling data reveals that ZTPC stability hinges on managing trade-offs in resource allocations, specifically involving straw, organic manure, sweet water, and family labour. The decision to manage such trade-offs depends on farm type characterizations by their landholdings, distance from the homestead, pond, and cattle ownership, competing crops, and family composition. Using a semiquantitative systems model developed through fuzzy cognitive mapping, the study underscores the significance of effective training, input support, enterprise diversification by introducing livestock, timely tuber supply, access to critical irrigation, and capacity building of local institutions as the essential preconditions to sustain and upscale ZTPC. This research contributes a systems perspective to predict agricultural land use within technology transfer initiatives, providing insights into how farm- and extra-farm factors influence resource allocations for ZTPC. Public extension offices must understand the trade-offs associated with straw, organic matter, and harvested water and design differentiated supports for different farm types. The most compelling interventions to upscale ZTPC includes farm diversification by introducing livestock through institutional convergence, pragmatic agroforestry initiatives to enhance on-farm biomass and fuel production, building awareness and integrating alternative energy use to save straw and cow dung, building social capital to ensure access to sweet irrigation water, and developing and/or strengthening farmer collectives to ensure the supply of quality tuber and marketing of farm produce. Full article

Because of the increased expansion of the non-agricultural industry spurred on by vigorous urbanization, labor migration or transfer from farm to urban regions is to become more predominant in China. Studying the effect of labor transfer on farmers’ willingness to withdraw from land is conducive to deepening the understanding of the reality of the “separation of human and farmland”. As most rural livelihoods, directly and indirectly, depend upon farming, the socio-economic impact of leaving the homestead fosters profound research value. Moreover, it would provide a decision-making reference for the government to improve the design of the rural land withdrawal system and related support policies. This article uses the survey data of 953 farmers in Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Anhui, China, to empirically analyze labor transfer’s effect on farmers’ willingness to withdraw from farmland. We construct a bivariate Probit model by eliminating the endogenous issue to craft its findings. This study outlines its findings: (i) 61.805% of the farmers were unwilling, and 18.048% were willing to withdraw from the contracted land and homestead. While 12.067% of the farmers were only willing to withdraw from the contracted land, 8.080% of the farmers were only willing to withdraw from the homestead. Further testing found a positive correlation between farmers’ willingness to withdraw from contracted land and the homestead. (ii) The overall labor transfer of households can increase the willingness of farmers to quit contracted land and homestead farming. The incomplete labor transfer of households can improve the willingness of farmers to quit contracted land. Still, it has no significant impact on the willingness of farmers to quit their homesteads. The family’s complete labor transfer incentivizes farmers’ willingness to withdraw from contracted land and the homestead, which is more potent than incomplete family labor transfer. (iii) Incomplete labor transfer of female households has an incentive effect on farmers’ willingness to quit contracted land, and the effect is more robust than that of incomplete household labor transfer. Seemingly, complete female labor transfer of households has an incentive effect on farmers’ willingness to quit contracted land and the homestead, and the effect is stronger than the complete labor transfer of the family. Because of this, the government should respect the wishes of farmers and strengthen the effective connection and mutual promotion between the homestead and contracted land withdrawal policy. Moreover, pay concentrated attention to the vital role of different types of labor transfer, and targeted labor transfer mechanisms should be used to guide farmers in an orderly manner. Full article

In the process of urban-rural Integration, the reform of the “separation of three rights” of homesteads has released huge institutional dividends for the vigorous utilization of rural homesteads. With the gradual deepening of the reform of the homestead system the number of disputes related to the transfer of the land use of rural homesteads is increasing rapidly. Based on the quasi-case research method, this paper integrates the relevant case facts, the focus of the dispute, the legal basis, and other case elements and realizes the judgment of case similarity based on the legal argument model, which aims to solve the problem of realizing justice in the distribution of land value-added benefit in homestead disputes. It also puts forward the realization mechanism reform suggestions based on the perspective of judicial governance, so as to demonstrate the ways in which conflicts arise and are resolved in the distribution of value-added benefit in China’s rural homestead transfer system. By using the search tool of the “China Judgment Document Network” to screen a total of 305 valid samples, it was revealed that the core problem of China’s homestead governance is the unfair distribution of land value-added benefit; that is, it is difficult to achieve effective distribution of land value-added benefit among farmers, collectives, and governments. The core litigation points in rural homestead disputes include homestead policies and the application of law, the litigability of cases, the scope of the subject, and the realization of powers, as well as the quantitative basis and rule scheme. From the perspective of judicial governance, the deep-seated issues in the distribution of value-added benefits reflected in the points of dispute are examined as follows: (1) the subject of the dispute faces judicial avoidance; (2) There is a game relationship in the value of subject rights; (3) it is difficult to quantitatively adjudicate under the existing allocation rules; (4) Institutional difficulties such as insufficient eligibility of applicable policies. Based on the conclusions of the above problems, this study proposes a judicial governance path for the realization of homestead value-added benefit distribution justice: the governance model is reorganized and optimized based on the purpose of realizing distributive justice; the value of rights throughout the process is integrated based on initial acquisition and redistribution; a multi-center linkage governance mechanism is constructed based on the coordination of homestead value-added benefit through all stages, which is supposed to provide an important reference for the judicial governance path for developing countries with similar difficulties, including China, to achieve justice in the distribution of land value-added benefit. Full article

In the process of rapid urbanization and industrialization, there is a significant gap between farmers’ participation and rural homestead reorganization for the more diversified external environment. Despite considerable research focused on homestead withdrawal, the transfer of rural residential land development rights has received comparatively little attention. To realize the optimal use of rural homesteads’ resources and reducing potential living risks, this paper conducted an empirical study on the impact of farmers’ livelihood capital on their behavioral intention of rural residential land development right transfer within Wujin District as an example by incorporating the concepts of livelihood capital and risk perception into the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The results of this research show that the increase in livelihood capital may reduce the level of risk perception. The livelihood capital influences farmers’ intentions towards rural residential land development right transfer through risk perception and individual cognition. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested to diversify livelihood strategies and improve the quality of livelihood capital, in order to reduce the constraint impact of risk perception on farmers’ behavioral intention (BI). Full article

Few studies have analyzed the mixed effects of city size and land factors at the macro level on migrant socio-economic integration. On the basis of survey data on migrants in the Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRDMR), this study developed a system of multidimensional indicators for analyzing the degree of migrant socio-economic integration and factors influencing it. This study demonstrated the following: (1) The overall degree of socio-economic integration of migrants in the PRDMR was low. Factors including city size, hometown landholding, year of birth, education level, gender, and migratory duration exerted effects of varying extents on the degree of the socio-economic integration of migrants. (2) Better job positions were offered and infrastructure was more developed in first-tier cities, so the degree of migrant economic integration was higher, and the sense of identity was stronger in first-tier cities. Given the low housing prices in second-tier cities, migrants therein were more likely to buy a house and achieve family integration, and the degree of their social integration was stronger. (3) In terms of source landholding factors, the degree of socio-economic integration was relatively low among the migrants who owned arable land and homesteads, and who were born outside Guangdong Province. The study tries to measure the socio-economic integration of immigrants more comprehensively and provide reference for the implementation of differentiated socio-economic integration policies and land transfer policies in the immigration and emigration areas. Full article

In China, rural homesteads are strategic elements for coordinating the people and land resources relationship between urban and rural regions and are powerful means for increasing the property income of farmers. The rural homestead transfer issue has always concerned policymakers. In this paper, the risk system theory framework is employed to identify risk source (risk perception), risk control (the control measures and institutions), and risk receptor (farmers’ characteristics) to explore farmers’ intentions towards rural homestead transfer from the perspective of first- and second-order observation. The results demonstrate that farmers’ intentions are significantly affected by risk source from first-order observation, and risk control and risk receptor from second-order observation. The heterogeneity of outcomes is examined by grouping of ages and regions of sampled farmers. It is suggested that the risk perception needs of farmers should be respected, land tenure of rural homesteads should be tightly protected, and farmers’ characteristics should be of great concern. Moreover, more attention should be paid to idle homesteads, and full advantage taken of rural resources to develop featured rural industries. Full article

The key to advancing urbanization is to promote the urban integration of numerous migrant workers. Two stages of decision making are involved for migrant workers, including residence (staying in cities) and settlement (transferring hukou into cities). The homestead is a necessity for migrant workers to keep their “peasant” status, which will further affect migrant workers’ identification with cities and influence their decision making towards urbanization. This paper uses data from the 2017 China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS), through the coarsened exact matching (CEM) method and the analysis of mediation effects, to estimate how homesteads influence migrant workers’ urbanization intention and how the sense of identity serves as a mediator variable in this mechanism. Empirical results show that the ownership of homesteads is negatively correlated with migrant workers’ urbanization intention. Migrant workers with homesteads are 1.2% less likely to stay and 4.4% less likely to settle down in cities compared with their counterparts who do not have a homestead. In addition, identity plays a mediating role in the influence mechanism of homesteads on migrant workers’ urbanization intention. That is, the homestead has an indirect effect on migrant workers’ willingness to stay and settle down in cites through the sense of identity, aside from its direct effects. The mediation effect accounts for 20.87% of the total effect for willingness to stay and 25.63% of the total effect for willingness to settle down. This paper also represents how these coefficients vary by different regions and migration distances. Therefore, policymakers should provide institutional support for correctly guiding migrant workers to “abandon their land and enter the city” and strengthen their sense of identity to the city. Full article

Actively promoting the orderly and voluntary withdrawal of idle rural house bases and effectively activating “sleeping” land assets are considered important measures to accelerate the modernization of agriculture and rural areas, as well as promoting the integrated development of urban and rural areas. However, few studies have focused on the superimposed effects of negative psychological and social environmental factors on the willingness of farmers to withdraw from their homestead. Therefore, we conducted this study in order to clarify the logical ideas of rural home base withdrawal, analyze the factors that influence the decision of home base withdrawal behavior of interest subjects, and provide a scientific decision basis for promoting rural home base withdrawal and accelerating the process of transferring citizens of agricultural population in terms of policies, measures, and paths, so as to design and develop an incentive mechanism for home base withdrawal of citizens of agricultural transfer population. The results of the study show that: (1) the findings indicate that social deprivation, economic deprivation, and emotional deprivation all significantly and negatively affect farmers’ willingness to withdraw from their homesteads; (2) social trust plays a mediating role between relative deprivation and farmer homestead withdrawal behavior; and (3) urban integration plays a moderating role between social and emotional deprivation and the social trust of farmers, but does not have a significant moderating role in the relationship between economic deprivation and social trust. Furthermore, it plays a moderating role between all deprivation factors (i.e., economic, social, and emotional deprivation) and farmer homestead withdrawal behavior. This study aims to provide useful guidance and policy suggestions for optimizing policies related to farmer homestead withdrawal behaviors, and for scientifically designing the homestead withdrawal mechanism and policy system. Full article

China’s social and economic development is in a critical period of transition. With the implementation of the Rural Revitalization Strategy, new rural industries and new formats have developed rapidly. Profound changes have taken place in the human–land relationship, population structure, industrial structure, and rural functions in the vast rural areas, which have a huge impact on the function and value of rural homesteads. The functional evolution of rural homesteads has a strong driving effect on the change of function value of the homestead. The functional value of rural homesteads is affected by the social and economic development conditions, location, resource endowment, land use policy, rural land trading market, the development of new industries and new formats, and the evolution of homestead function; different homestead functions have different values, especially in the non-agricultural production function and asset function of the homestead. To revitalize the idle and inefficient use of the homestead and fully manifest its value when the homestead is transferred or withdrawn, it is necessary to scientifically calculate the homestead value according to the principle of “what function is lost and what value is compensated”. This paper adopts basic geographic data, rural land transaction data, and social and economic data, and it uses participatory rural appraisal, the land estimation method, and the comparative analysis method. According to the classic theory of “structure determines function and function determines value” in systems engineering, the equivalent substitution method and market value method are used to measure and compare the functional values of traditional agricultural villages and tourist homestay villages before and after the functional evolution. The results show that (1) the leading functional evolution of homestead landlords is closely related to the level of social and economic development. The change in the functional value of the homestead presents the same law as the evolution of its leading function. (2) The functional evolution of the homestead has a strong driving effect on its value change. The increase in value caused by the functional evolution of homesteads in homestay villages is significantly higher than that in traditional agricultural villages. (3) The functional value of the homestead is affected by the social economy, location, resource endowment, land use policy, rural land trading market, business development, and the functional evolution of the homestead. (4) It is suggested that the state formulates the compensation standard for voluntary and paid withdrawal of homesteads according to the “functional value theory of homesteads”, to reduce the unfair value compensation caused by location differences. Full article

In China, rural construction land refers to the construction land of townships (town) and villages. The construction land of townships (town) and villages refers to the land used by township (town) and village collective economic organizations and rural individuals to invest or raise funds for various non-agricultural construction. Rural collective construction land is divided into three categories: homestead, land for public welfare public facilities, and land for business. Complete market transaction rules can make the market of rural collective construction land run more openly, fairly, and justly, thus protecting the rights of villagers and collective economic organizations and, at the same time, reducing the transaction cost of the village collective. In this paper, we choose the formal rules of the urban and rural land linking quota trading market in Ezhou, Hubei Province, China, to analyze the three dimensions of the market transaction rules and villagers’ willingness. We also provide suggestions for the development of the RCCL market and the improvement of trading rules. The research results of the logistic model show the following: (1) Under the arrangement of the transaction rules of the RCCL, there are high transaction costs, especially labor costs and time costs, so the villagers’ willingness to enter the market is not very strong. (2) Asset specificity affects villagers’ willingness. The larger the area of RCCL involved in the transaction, the higher the transaction cost, the lower the villagers’ willingness to support the RCCL transfer. (3) The greater the uncertainty of the RCCL transaction environment—mainly due to the problems of the openness, equity, and justice of the transaction rules, which lies in the transaction information not being transparent and the income distribution and the pricing being unreasonable, resulting in villagers’ rights being denied—the more the villagers are unwilling to support the RCCL entering the market. Therefore, we suggest that more open, fair, and just trading rules of the RCCL market should be formulated to protect the security of villagers’ property rights. Moreover, the land value should be displayed reasonably, which can also standardize the good trading order and trading environment, thus making the market development more effective and stable. Our work provides some insights for improving the efficiency of the land market, which will contribute to the development of the worldwide RCCL market. Full article

Rural homestead transfer is of considerable significance for the revitalization of rural land assets and sustainable use of land resources. “Amphibious” farmers are the most likely to transfer their homestead. As such, it is important to study their transfer behavior and influencing factors to promote homestead transfer. The study involved distributing questionnaires to 768 “amphibious” farmers in Guangdong Province, China, and 747 samples were valid. The impact of the farmers’ citizenship ability and homestead utility preference on their homestead transfer behavior was analyzed using a binary logistic model. The study found that: (1) the citizenship ability of “amphibious” farmers had a significant positive impact on their willingness; the stronger the citizenship ability was, the stronger the willingness to transfer homesteads was. (2) Property and the guarantee utility of the homestead have an opposite impact on the willingness of “amphibious” farmers to transfer their homestead; if the property utility of the homestead is strong, its transfer intention is strong, but if the guarantee effect is strong, its transfer intention is weak. If the amphibious farmers are older, more educated, and have longer working years in cities, their willingness to transfer homestead will be lower. (3) The “amphibious” farmers working in cities and towns were found to have a stronger willingness to transfer homestead than those working in rural areas. Hence, the government should formulate differentiated policies for homestead transfer according to the ability endowment of farmers, improve various urban services and security infrastructure based on the urban housing of “amphibious” farmers, weaken the security utility of their rural homestead to flexibly realize their homestead property value, help them become citizens, and promote homestead transfer. Full article

Rural decline has become an indisputable fact and a global issue. As a developing country, China is simultaneously facing unprecedented rapid urbanization and severe rural decline. The coordinated development of its rural human–land relationship is therefore of great significance for ensuring the country’s food security and achieving both rural revitalization and sustainable development. Yet, the related research on this complex subject has mostly focused on a single element: rural settlements. Since studies of the rural human–land relationship tend to only discuss the coordinated change in rural populations vis-à-vis rural settlement area, their degree of spatial matching and intensive utilization level of rural settlements has been largely overlooked. To rectify this imbalance, using data on rural populations and rural settlement area in counties of Shandong Province in 2009 and 2018, this paper applied the methods of per capita rural settlement area, the Theil index, and Tapio’s decoupling model to quantitatively identify the rural human–land relationship along three dimensions: intensive utilization level, spatial matching degree, and change coordination degree. The results revealed that the per capita rural settlement area in Shandong Province was as high as 212.18 m²/person in 2018, which exceeded the standard to varying degrees in all cities, having an overall geographical pattern of being high in the north and low in the south. The Theil index for all cities was small, which indicates that the spatial matching between rural population and rural settlements is high. To sum up, there are small differences in the utilization of rural settlements among cities, and their extensive utilization of rural settlements is a common phenomenon. In addition, the relationship between the changes in the rural population size and rural settlement area corresponded to a discordant state, in the form of strong negative decoupling, expansive negative decoupling, and expansive coupling; however, among them, the strong negative decoupling type was the dominant type. It is worth noting that all of these three types will exacerbate the extensive utilization of rural settlements. Accordingly, this paper proposes policies and measures, such as the paid withdrawal of rural homesteads, an expanded scope of homestead transfer, cross-regional “increasing versus decreasing balance”, classified promotion of rural revitalization, and improved village planning. Full article