Search Results (30)

Against the backdrop of the current rural economic transformation and the intensification of the ageing process, land transfer, as an important land policy tool, has gradually become a key factor influencing the consumption behaviour of farmers, especially older farmers. Based on the four-period panel data of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), this study uses a two-way fixed-effects model to examine the impact of land transfer (land transfer-out, land transfer-in, and two-way land transfer) on the consumption behaviour of older farmers. This study finds that land transfer-out significantly increases the total consumption of older farmers and promotes subsistence, healthy, and hedonic consumption. In contrast, land transfer-in does not show a significant effect on hedonic consumption. The mechanism test reveals that household income plays a key mediating role in the process of land transfer, affecting the consumption behaviour of older farmers. Two-way land transfer promotes the consumption level and the upgrading of the consumption structure of older farmers through income portfolio optimisation and risk diversification. Full article

Xinjiang is located in an inland arid area, and it faces significant challenges in water resource supply and demand, with a fragile ecological environment. Exploring the internal relationship between the time–space distribution of agricultural water–soil matching and the evolution of the ecosystem service value (ESV) in the Tailan River Irrigation District of Xinjiang from 2000 to 2020, this study provides theoretical guidance for the balance of agricultural water–soil resources and the healthy and sustainable development of the ecological environment in the irrigation district. By integrating the water–soil matching coefficient and the equivalent factor method, the spatiotemporal distribution of agricultural water–soil matching and the spatiotemporal evolution of the ESV under the change of land use (LU) in the irrigation district are analyzed. Based on the Pearson correlation, the trade-off synergy between the two is explored. The results show that the following occurred in the past 20 years: (1) Grassland and dryland are the two categories of land with the biggest transfer-out and transfer-in areas in the Tailan River Irrigation District, and the conversion areas are mostly in Jiamu Town and Guleawati Township. (2) The area and reclamation rate of the irrigation district increased gradually, among which the highest reclamation rate was 85.93% in Kezile Town and the lowest was 76.37% in Guleawati Township. The average Gini coefficient of agricultural water–soil in the irrigation district is 0.118, which is absolutely fair. (3) Kezile Town has the highest agricultural water consumption, but the matching of agricultural water–soil always fluctuates between the best and the worst. The agricultural water consumption in Communist Youth League Town is the lowest, but the matching of agricultural water–soil has remained the best for many years. (4) The ESV of the irrigation district showed an overall increasing trend, from CNY 243 million in 2000 to CNY 678 million in 2020; in addition, soil conservation, hydrological regulation, grassland, and dryland contributed the most to ESV in each period. (5) There was a significant trade-off relationship between agricultural water–soil matching and ecosystem services in the Tailan River Irrigation District, while there was a significant synergistic relationship between ecosystem services. Full article

Enhancing farmers’ behaviors toward cultivated land quality protection is a crucial support in achieving sustainable agricultural development and the national food security strategy. This study aims to investigate the impact of land transfer-in on farmers’ behaviors regarding cultivated land quality protection, explore the underlying mechanisms, and analyze group heterogeneity. To achieve this, the study empirically estimates the impact of land transfer-in on farmers’ behaviors in protecting cultivated land quality using micro-survey data from 743 households in Hubei Province, while addressing endogeneity and conducting robustness checks. The study further explores the mechanisms and heterogeneity of the effects of land transfer-in on farmers’ cultivated land quality protection behaviors. The results reveal that (1) land transfer-in significantly increases the likelihood of farmers taking actual actions to protect cultivated land quality and enhances their awareness, thereby promoting protective behaviors; (2) land transfer-in facilitates these protective behaviors mainly through income incentives and social network interactions, while rental constraints may have a suppressive effect; (3) full-time farmers, those with higher agricultural literacy, those who access agricultural knowledge online, and those affected by natural disasters are more likely to engage in proactive land quality protection behaviors after land transfer-in. Full article

The digital economy is increasingly recognized as a key force behind sustainable agricultural development, transforming farm management and enhancing food security through innovation, resource optimization, and data-driven decision-making. This study examines how participation in the digital economy affects the agricultural management scale of high-quality farmers in Jiangxi Province, China. Based on survey data from 868 farmers collected in 2022, we apply Ordinary Least Squares regression models, instrumental variable approaches, and mediation analysis to identify the mechanisms at work. The findings indicate that digital economy participation significantly expands agricultural management scale by promoting land transfer-in and elevating farmers’ subjective social status. Further heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive impact is more pronounced among older farmers and those not intending to pursue further education. These insights highlight the essential role of digital tools in fostering sustainable and scalable farming practices and offer practical implications for rural digital transformation strategies. Full article

In the context of the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy in China, returning rural migrant workers are bound to have a certain impact on the rural economy, and land is a very important factor in the agricultural economy. Using data from the 2018 China Labor Dynamic Survey (CLDS), this study examines how migrant workers’ return behaviors influence farmland transfer-in. To address potential endogeneity, the analysis employs the Probit model, instrumental variable methods, and propensity score matching. The findings reveal that returning migrant workers significantly promote farmland transfer-in. Households with returning migrant workers exhibit stronger demands for land transfer-in and tend to operate farmland on a larger scale. Furthermore, returning migrant workers drive farmland expansion through mechanization labor substitution, enhanced access to agricultural loans, and reduced non-farm participation. Additionally, returning migrant workers who are highly educated and younger play a particularly influential role, underscoring the heterogeneous impacts across different migrant groups. This study provides empirical evidence for rural revitalization policies in China by systematically analyzing the effect of returning migrant workers in promoting land transfer-in and the path of influence on farmland scale. Full article

Promoting moderate-scale land management is a crucial pathway for achieving the transformation of agricultural modernization in China. Whether migrant workers with the advantage of human capital can effectively promote moderate scale management is a problem worthy of in-depth discussion. Based on survey data from three counties in Sichuan Province in 2024, this paper empirically analyzes the impact of migrant workers’ return on farmers’ land transfer-in behavior by constructing IV-Probit and IV-Tobit models. The results show that (1) the return of migrant workers significantly promotes the land transfer-in of rural households by enhancing their risk tolerance and increasing the participation of cooperative organizations; (2) however, there is some heterogeneity in these results. The effect of the return of migrant workers in plain areas and economically developed villages on land transfer-in is stronger than that in mountainous areas and economically weak villages. Based on these findings, this paper suggests that differentiated policies should be formulated according to the natural conditions and economic foundations of different regions, making full use of the human capital advantages of returning migrant workers to effectively promote the realization of moderate-scale management among farmers. Full article

This paper looks into the impact of China’s new rural land reform, the three rights separation policy (TRSP), on Chinese farmers’ income. Based on data collected from 360 rural households in Anhui Province, China, 2021, this paper constructed the influence pathways of the TRSP on household income and estimated the effects along different pathways using the structural equation model (SEM) model. It showed that through expanding the planting scale and promoting resource-use efficiency, the new land tenure system can indirectly increase transfer-in household income. However, the TRSP has a significant negative direct effect on transfer-out households’ income, and only a slight impact on transferring rural labor to other industries or relaxing the liquidity constraint. In short, the TRSP’s effect on income gains is more prominent in transfer-in households than transfer-out ones, which in the long run would lead to an increased income gap, more so if transfer-out households lack easy access to non-farm employment. Our findings suggest that public authorities should respect farmers’ autonomy in land transfer decisions and pay special attention to labor transfer in poverty alleviation. Meanwhile, widening income disparities among different groups should be heeded while implementing local governments’ service roles. Full article

This study focuses on the land transfer intentions of migrants and surrounding villagers in the SZ resettlement area of BS City, Guangxi. It systematically analyzes the coupling coordination relationship between migrants’ land transfer-in intentions and the land transfer-out intentions of surrounding villagers, verifying the practical value of the “Shared Land Resource Model” in the resettlement area and its surroundings. The study yields the following key conclusions: (1) there is a strong coupling between the land demand intentions of migrants and the land supply intentions of surrounding villagers, yet the actual coordination in the transfer process is limited, which constrains resource allocation efficiency and prevents land transfer from fully utilizing shared resources; (2) in the evaluation of migrants’ land transfer-in intentions, external environmental factors have the greatest influence (with a weight coefficient of 0.7877), while individual characteristics (0.0486) and psychological characteristics (0.0593) have relatively low weight coefficients, indicating that migrants primarily rely on government policy support and lack internal motivation; (3) the land transfer-out intentions of surrounding villagers are most affected by farmland resource endowment (weight coefficient of 0.3284), indicating that the quality and quantity of land resources are key factors affecting villagers’ transfer-out willingness, while individual endowment factors have the smallest impact (weight coefficient of 0.1220). Three recommendations are proposed: stimulating migrants’ intrinsic motivation to enhance livelihood autonomy, protecting villagers’ land rights to increase transfer participation, and building a systematic land resource sharing model to promote sustainable resource allocation. This study provides theoretical support for optimizing the land transfer mechanism in resettlement areas, aiming to improve land use efficiency, support the livelihood transition of migrants, and offer practical insights for land management planning in poverty alleviation and resettlement projects in other countries. Full article

In the context of the separation of three rights of land and agricultural modernization, this paper is based on the land economic survey data from eleven provinces in China in 2019, covering the eastern, middle, and western regions of China. Based on the value chain theory and its “second-round effect”, which pertains to the multi-round effects of value chain distribution theory, various research methods such as Probit, Tobit, the two-part model, SFA, PSM, and the intermediary effect model are employed to analyze the direct impact of the agriculture value chain (AVC) on farmers’ land factor inputs and the income effects caused by them, which are the “second-round effect” of the AVC on land factor inputs. The research results show the following: Firstly, the AVC has a significant positive impact on the behavior and area of farmers’ land transferring-in, which helps guide farmers towards large-scale land operation. Secondly, the AVC significantly improves farmers’ production efficiency and promotes land transfer through differences in production efficiency, representing the “second-round effect” mechanism of the AVC on land factor inputs. Moreover, the AVC will increase farmers’ net land production income by 48.74%, which is the “second-round effect” of the AVC on farmers’ agricultural income and also the motivation for farmers’ land factor inputs. Finally, the expansion of land area and the improvement of production efficiency jointly increase farmers’ agricultural income, among which production efficiency plays a partial intermediary effect in increasing agricultural income if farmers join the AVC. This paper believes that we should further promote the market-oriented reform of land factors, support the innovation of the benefit linkage mechanism of the AVC, and promote appropriate areas of land operation by farmers, thereby achieving common prosperity and promoting agricultural modernization in China. Full article

While the status of rural women in the family has undergone changes, rural land transfer has brought about transformations in both rural production and daily life. This paper adopts the perspective of rural land transfer, follows the research track of Marx and Engels’s theory of women, and based on the theoretical research of the changes in the status of modern women in the family, constructs a framework for analyzing the status of women in rural families. Drawing on the data from the 2014 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS2014), this article utilizes OLS (Ordinary Least Square) and ordered logit models to explore the impact of rural land transfer on the status of women in rural households. The study reveals the following findings: Initially, rural land transfer-out improves women’s household decision-making power and enhances the status of women in rural households. The reliability of these results is further confirmed through robustness tests and endogeneity discussions. Secondly, the heterogeneity analysis indicates that the transfer of agricultural land promotes the status of women in rural households in nonmajor grain-producing areas more than women in major grain-producing areas. The reason is that women in major grain-producing areas lack off-farm employment opportunities compared with women in non-major grain-producing areas and the main grain producing areas may have a strong patriarchal cultural atmosphere. Thirdly, the analysis of mechanisms indicates that rural land transfer-out improves the status of women in rural households by augmenting their independent income. Conversely, rural land transfer-in increases women’s private labor and decreases their independent income without promoting their family status. The study sheds light on rural women’s empowerment, the improvement of intra-household bargaining power, and the comprehensive development of rural women. The conclusion of this paper provides a new understanding and some recommendations for us to explore the change of rural women’s status in the family. Full article

The crop planting structure in the world has shown a trend of “non-grain”, which will shake the foundations of global food security in the long run. As a basic and important production factor, changes in land will have an impact on farmers’ crop planting decisions. In this paper, we take China, a country that is experiencing land transfer, “non-grain” production, and farmer differentiation, as the research area, use the household survey data at the national level, and adopt the methods of Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and multiple regression models to reveal the impact of land transfer-in on the crop planting structure and its heterogeneity among farmers. The results showed that land transfer-in can drive the crop planting structure to tend to be “non-grain” in China. The research conclusion was still valid after the robustness tests of expanding the sample size, increasing the number of control variables, and introducing endogenous problem management. The heterogeneity analysis indicated that the negative impact of land transfer-in on the planting of grain crops mainly exists for large-scale farmers and farmers with agriculture as the main source of income. Based on these findings, the Chinese government should formulate targeted policies to prevent the “non-grain” tendency of crop planting structure after land transfer-in. Full article

In China, characterized by its vast population and limited land, expanding the scale of agricultural operations through the transfer of land management rights is a crucial pathway to achieving agricultural modernization. Using data from the China Land Economic Survey (CLES), we empirically explored the influence of digital technology use on land transfer-in by farmers. Employing the Probit model and the KHB method, this study examined the mechanisms underlying this relationship and addressed the issue of endogeneity through the Conditional Mixed Process (CMP) model, grounded in the instrumental variable method. Key findings include: (1) both the accessibility and the depth of digital technology use significantly facilitated land transfer-in by farmers. For every one-unit increase in digital technology accessibility, the likelihood of land transfer-in escalated by 6.2%; similarly, a one-unit rise in the depth of digital technology use increased this probability by 2.6%. (2) An analysis of the mechanisms indicates that social networks and credit availability played partial mediating roles in the impact of digital technology accessibility and depth on land transfer-in, with social networks exhibiting a stronger mediation effect. (3) Heterogeneity analysis suggests that the impact of digital technology use on land transfer-in was more pronounced in peri-urban villages and among farmers with higher literacy levels. In light of these findings, we proposed policy recommendations to accelerate the development of rural digital infrastructure, enhance digital skill training for farm households, and vigorously promote rural digital inclusive finance. Full article

Topography plays an important role in restricting the formation of and change in land use/land cover (LULC) patterns. To compare the LULC change and topographic gradient effects between mountains and flatlands, the geo-informatic atlas, terrain position index, distribution index and diversity index were used to analyze the LULC patterns in Yuxi from 2000 to 2020. The results were as follows: (1) the temporal–spatial variation in LULC was obviously different. From 2000 to 2020, land use change in the flatlands was more severe than that in the mountains. The transfer amount of forestland in the mountains was the largest, with the transfer-out and transfer-in accounting for 48.53% and 31.05%. However, in the flatlands, the biggest changes were found in the transfer-out of cultivated land and the transfer-in of build-up land, which were 46.91% and 38.20%, respectively. The LULC types in the mountains changed dramatically from 2000 to 2010, while those in the flatlands changed dramatically from 2010 to 2020. (2) There were obvious differences in the topographic gradient effects. The dominant distributions of land use types in the low-terrain area were the same, but the dominance of build-up land in the flatlands and that of wetland in the mountains were the largest. In the mountains, the dominant distribution of grassland was in the medium-terrain position, while that of forestland was in the high position, and the opposite was found in the flatlands. In addition, the variation trend of the diversity index in the mountains was relatively simple, but the variation range was large, ranging from 0 to 1.677, and high diversity was mainly found in the medium- and high-terrain positions. However, the variation trend in the flatlands was complex, but only ranged from 0.918 to 1.994, and high diversity was found in the low-terrain positions. The differences in the LULC change and terrain gradient effects between the mountains and flatlands were mainly caused by natural, socio-economic and policy factors, which can provide a certain reference for differentiated land use policies for regional coordinated and sustainable development. Full article

As the transfer speed of land use rights accelerates, the production efficiency of farmer households keeps increasing as well. Based on field survey data of 1368 farmer households in Shandong in 2019, this paper applied the average treatment effect (ATE) and propensity score matching (PSM) to investigate the impact of land transfer on the productivity of farmer households. The results indicate that land transfer has a positive effect on the overall labor productivity of farmer households participating in land transfer. The impact of land transfer on productivity has an obvious asymmetry between transfer-in households and transfer-out households. More specifically, land transfer-in plays a greater role in promoting participants’ overall labor productivity, while land transfer-out has some positive effect on non-agricultural productivity. This study is of great significance in improving the overall welfare level of farmer households and promoting the reform and high-quality development of farm businesses. Full article

In building a market for the transfer of land contracting rights, it is crucial to clarify the influencing factors for farmers’ farmland transfer decisions to promote the orderly transfer of farmland. This article investigates the impact of social capital on farmland transfer and analyzes the moderating effect of marketization of farmland transfer using research data from 1017 farm households in Hubei Province. The results showed that social capital significantly contributes to farmers’ farmland transfer decisions; social networks and social trust have more potent effects on farmland transfer-in than farmland transfer-out and social norms have more substantial effects on farmland transfer-out than farmland transfer-in; and farmland transfer marketization plays a moderating role in the process of social capital’s influence on farmland transfer decisions. In terms of farmland transfer-out, marketization of farmland transfer plays a negative moderating role between social network, social trust, and farmland transfer decision, and a positive moderating role between social norm and farmland transfer decision. In terms of farmland transfer-in, marketization of farmland transfer plays a negative moderating role between social network, social trust, and farmland transfer decision, and no moderating role in social norm and farmland transfer decision. The study concludes that local governments need to strengthen the construction of social norms and the reconstruction of social trust and networks to create a favorable environment for agricultural land transfer while improving the construction of regional agricultural land transfer markets and promoting the development of market transformation. Full article