Search Results (80)

Given the significant shifts in rural labor mobility patterns and their continuous influence on the transformation of the land factor market, it is crucial to understand the relationship between labor factor prices and land factor prices. This understanding is essential to keep land factor prices within a reasonable range. This study establishes a theoretical framework to investigate how migrant workers’ return shapes land price formation mechanisms. Using 2023 micro-level survey data from eight counties in Jiangsu Province, China, this study empirically examines how migrant workers’ return affects land transfer prices and its underlying mechanisms through OLS regression and instrumental variable approaches. The findings show that under the current pattern of labor mobility, the outflow factor alone is no longer sufficient to exert substantial downward pressure on land transfer prices. Instead, the localized return of labor has emerged as a key driver behind the rise in land transfer prices. This upward mechanism is primarily realized through the following pathways. First, factor substitution effect: this effect lowers labor prices and increases the relative marginal output value of land factors. Second, supply–demand effect: migrant workers’ return simultaneously increases land demand and reduces supply, intensifying market shortages and driving up transfer prices. Lastly, the results demonstrate that enhancing the stability of land tenure security or increasing local non-agricultural employment opportunities can mitigate the effect of rising land transfer prices caused by the migrant workers’ return. According to the study’s findings, stabilizing land factor prices depends on full non-agricultural employment for migrant workers. This underscores the significance of policies that encourage employment for returning rural labor. Full article

Climate variability and extremes adversely affect the agricultural production system, food security, livestock sector, and water resources. With the cumulative effects of climate variability, there is a need to anticipate and develop appropriate adaptation strategies to cope with changing climatic conditions. It is necessary to study the adaptation strategies that are to be followed for climate change to examine the ability of vulnerable communities and people, frequently affected by drought and other climate-related risks, to adapt to climate change impacts. Hence, the present study examined the determinants of various climate change adaptation strategies followed by farmers as a measure to face climate variability, which will be ultimately beneficial and enlightening to policymakers to gain knowledge about the measures to be taken to mitigate the impact of climate change. The study was undertaken using data collected from 105 farm households with an organized pre-tested interview schedule in the central agro-climatic zone of Afghanistan. The multivariate probit econometric model was used to analyze the factors responsible for major adaptation strategies to mitigate the impact of climate change. The key findings of the model indicated that the probability of educated farmers migrating to the non-agricultural sector for employment has increased by 1.3 percent, and those who have more land area have adopted a reduction in irrigation by 5.2 percent as an adaptive mechanism. The study also found that having access to technical guidance from extension officials increased the likelihood of farmers changing their cropping pattern by 18.6 percent and of diversifying their farms by 19.2 percent. On the other hand, expert guidance reduced the likelihood of drilling new bore wells by 20.5 percentage points and decreased the probability of selling livestock by 10.8 percentage points. The results of the study provide policy insights to improve the ability of farmers to modify their practices through improvement in extension services, irrigation infrastructure facilities, watershed development, and climate-resilient agricultural systems. Full article

The digital economy is emerging as a transformative force for advancing inclusive sustainable development in rural China, particularly in addressing gender disparities in non-agricultural employment. Using the Digital Inclusive Finance Index and China Family Panel Studies data, this paper analyzes the digital economy’s impact on the gender gap in rural non-agricultural employment. It finds that the digital economy boosts women’s employment and wage, narrowing the gap. This effect is more obvious among groups with medium-high human capital, younger people, married people, and those with kids. The digital economy narrows the gap through the following three mechanisms: reshaping skill demands, reducing info-search cost, and promoting domestic labor socialization. It is an engine for growth and a force for gender equality in rural employment. Full article

Comprehensive land consolidation (CLC) significantly impacts farmers’ sustainable development, particularly in southwestern mountainous areas with limited alternative livelihood options. However, existing studies have rarely considered the impact of CLC on farmers’ livelihoods under different terrain gradients in mountainous areas. Therefore, this study employs elevation, slope, and the terrain position index to divide terrain gradient zones. Based on 307 responses from household survey data, this study measures the changes in farmers’ livelihood capital and livelihood strategies before and after CLC and analyzes the heterogeneity of the impact of CLC under different terrain gradients. The results show the following: (1) The growth of farmers’ livelihood capital and the net effect of CLC showed the terrain gradient effect of medium-terrain areas > low-terrain areas > high-terrain areas. (2) Traditional agricultural types are transitioning to modern agricultural types and agriculture multi-employment types, while agriculture multi-employment types are shifting to non-agriculture multi-employment types. (3) The direct impact of CLC on livelihood transformation is significant in the low-terrain areas, whereas in the medium-terrain and high-terrain areas, the effects are primarily indirect through livelihood factors. This study can provide suggestions for the sustainable development of farmers in different topographic gradients in the Anning River basin. Full article

As a cornerstone of agricultural modernization, agricultural mechanization plays a pivotal role in driving rural revitalization and establishing agricultural competitiveness. Drawing upon the theoretical framework of happiness economics, this study investigates the impact, mechanisms, and heterogeneous effects of agricultural machinery adoption on farmers’ subjective well-being, utilizing comprehensive household survey data collected from Jiangxi Province in July 2023. The empirical results demonstrate a significant positive correlation between agricultural machinery adoption and farmers’ subjective well-being, a finding that remains robust after addressing endogeneity concerns through instrumental variable approaches. The mechanism analysis reveals that the enhancement of well-being is primarily mediated through facilitated transitions to non-agricultural employment. The purpose of the mechanism analysis is to explain why agricultural mechanization adoption improves farmers’ subjective well-being. This analysis finds that agricultural mechanization adoption improves farmers’ subjective well-being by helping them transition to non-agricultural employment more smoothly. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis indicates that the beneficial effects are more substantial among male farmers, individuals with higher educational attainment, and younger demographic groups. These findings suggest that policy interventions should focus on enhancing innovation in agricultural machinery technology, optimizing subsidy programs for agricultural equipment, improving rural education systems, and facilitating the structural transformation of rural labor markets. Full article

Cropland abandonment (CA) is an increasingly severe global issue, with significant implications for achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger. In China, widespread CA is particularly evident in remote mountainous regions. However, the rugged terrain and highly fragmented cropland pose significant challenges in mapping abandoned cropland with high precision using remote sensing technology. Moreover, CA is the result of multi-level factors, yet previous studies have primarily analyzed its driving factors from a single level, leading to a lack of comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms. We took Sichuan Province, located in the mountainous regions of Western China, as a case study, utilizing satellite-derived high-precision CA maps to reveal the spatiotemporal patterns of CA. Additionally, we employed hierarchical linear model to explore the determinants of CA and their interactions at both county and municipal levels. The results indicate that the CA rate decreased continuously from 6.75% in 2019 to 4.47% in 2023, with abandoned cropland exhibiting significant spatial clustering. High-value clusters were predominantly concentrated in the western mountainous areas, and hotspots of CA exhibited a general migration trend from the northeast to the southwest. Furthermore, we found that CA is influenced by multi-level factors, with 61% and 39% of the variance in CA being explained at the county and municipal levels, respectively. The agglomeration index of cropland (AI) is a key determinant at the county level, with the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and the distance to roads also playing significant roles. At the municipal level, urbanization rate and the proportion of non-agricultural employment (PNAE) are dominant factors, and an increase in PNAE weakens the negative impact of AI on CA rates. To curb CA in mountainous areas, we recommend implementing land consolidation projects, improving rural land transfer markets, and strengthening legal mechanisms to combat CA. Our study has broad application prospects, providing critical support for assessing the ecological and environmental consequences of CA and exploring the potential of reutilizing abandoned cropland for food production, bioenergy, and carbon sequestration. Full article

Based on China’s structural transformation and the resulting rural social institutional changes, this paper clarifies how land certification affects non-agricultural employment, introducing trust culture as an informal institution and constructing a theoretical framework for their interactive effect on non-agricultural employment. Using data from the China Rural Household Panel Survey, the empirical research finds that land certification increases the likelihood of rural labor engaging in non-agricultural employment by reducing the risks of land loss, promoting land transfers, and facilitating credit financing. The interaction between land certification and social trust shows that increased social trust weakens the positive impact of land certification on non-agricultural employment. Full article

The vast urban–rural income gap (URIG) is a global challenge, particularly severe in underdeveloped regions. While the income-generating effects of transportation improvements are widely accepted, their income distribution effects remain controversial. This study focuses on national poverty-alleviated counties in central and western China, using a mixed-methods approach to quantitatively test the non-linear relationship between highway improvements and the URIG and qualitatively analyze the reasons behind the threshold effects of regional economic development levels. The main findings are as follows: first, regional economic development levels exhibit a double-threshold effect, with the impact of highway improvements shifting from widening to narrowing the URIG after surpassing the second thresholds. Second, inter-regional highways have a limited impact on narrowing the URIG, while intra-regional highways significantly reduce the URIG once crossing their thresholds, reflecting the distinct functions of different highway classes. Third, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact of highway improvements on the URIG varies depending on the external environment surrounding residents, including both the indirect and direct environments. Fourth, from the perspective of rural labor transfer to non-farm employment, regional economic development levels create threshold effects in two ways: for local employment, they influence non-agricultural industry growth and job distribution following highway improvements, affecting rural laborers’ participation; for migrant employment, they impact human capital investment, influencing rural laborers’ skills and wage returns after highway improvements. Full article

In order to contribute to the body of knowledge on sustainable poverty reduction by exploring the relationship between rural and structural transformations and rural poverty incidence in Asian developing countries, this paper selected China, the Philippines, and Vietnam as case studies. Based on a comparison with the provincial data from those three countries, both the graphic and regression analysis suggest that structural and rural transformations matter in rural poverty reduction in these three countries. There is strong evidence showing that raising the share of non-agricultural GDP and the share of rural off-farm employment significantly contributes to rural poverty reduction in all three countries. More importantly, with the expansion of the non-farm sectors in both urban and rural areas, high-value agricultural share has a statistically significant and negative correlation with rural poverty in China and Vietnam over time, while such a negative correlation is much weaker or even does not exist in the Philippines. This paper further concludes with several implications for policymakers to promote inclusive structural and rural transformations. Full article

Farmer cooperatives are one of the types of important entities for agricultural production and rural community development in China. This study aims to examine the effects of farmer cooperatives on rural labor employment and explores the mechanisms from the perspective of institutional advantage, factor redistribution, and value chain. Leveraging two-waved panel data from the China Rural Development Survey, a multinomial Logit model and Tobit model with panel data are adopted. The results show that farmer cooperatives significantly boost rural labor employment, with a more pronounced effect on fully farming and part-time farming. These effects are primarily seen through three mechanisms: income augmentation stemming from institutional advantages, factor redistribution by land transferring and technology service/adoption, as well as industrial clusters. The limited value chain extension of farmer cooperatives hinders its role in improving fully non-agricultural employment. The findings suggest that the government should support the high-quality development of farmer cooperatives to facilitate rural labor employment. Full article

The easement reform of collective forest land (ERCFL) is an important part of national park system construction, which plays an important role in promoting the employment transfer of forest farmers. On the basis of survey data from forest farmers in Qianjiangyuan–Baishanzu National Park in Zhejiang Province, this paper uses the propensity score matching-difference in differences model to empirically analyze the impact of ERCFL on the transfer employment behavior and employment quality of forest farmers to provide experience for promoting the employment transfer of forest farmers and improving the ERCFL in national parks. This research shows the following: (1) The ERCFL in national parks has significantly promoted the employment transfer and improved the employment quality of forest farmers. This effect remains significant when controlling for possible endogeneity issues. (2) Three mechanisms of the ERCFL affect forest farmers’ transfer of employment, namely improving non-agricultural employment skills, expanding the scope of non-agricultural employment, and increasing non-agricultural employment opportunities. (3) Significant gender, age, and education differences exist in terms of the impact of the ERCFL on the employment transfer of forest farmers. The impact on men, middle-aged and elderly groups, and low-education groups is more significant. Finally, this paper proposed forward countermeasures and suggestions to promote the employment transfer of forest farmers. Full article

Agricultural diversity, productivity, and human well-being have been popular topics in recent decades, partly fueled by our quest for sustainability. However, the exact nature of the interconnections among these global priorities remains an area yet to be fully understood and explored. We contribute to this literature by examining how community well-being interacts with distinct levels of diversity and productivity in cropping systems across multiple U.S. communities. Using data at the county-level from 2010 to 2019, we first analyze how well-being varies across communities that differ in their levels of crop diversity and productivity. Then, we investigate how well-being varies across both diversity–productivity characteristics and farming intensity levels. We employ mapping techniques in conjunction with descriptive statistics to uncover and visualize patterns in well-being across contexts. Study findings show a consistent pattern of high levels of well-being across most diversity–productivity categories, with the notable exception of areas that are both highly diverse and highly productive. In addition, places with substantial commercial operations, and where agriculture contributes greatly to overall GDP and employment generally appears to have higher well-being scores compared to other places. Our analysis also reveals that there is more variability in the index of community well-being within each group than across groups of counties. Overall, the results suggest that the differences in community well-being are not solely determined by agricultural indicators, such as diversity–productivity characteristics and farming intensity levels, but also depend on contextual factors, such as social infrastructure, non-agricultural job opportunities, or local economic diversification. 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

In this paper, we design and deploy an experimental approach to evaluate the efficacy of a social innovation initiative implemented in rural communities situated in the highlands of Peru, which confronted the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic in the midst of its implementation. Using three rounds of information collected before, during, and after participation, we examine the efficacy of the social innovation economic development approach at increasing household livelihoods. We present robust, statistically significant improvements in household economic well-being, food security satisfaction, and community outlook for participating households compared to non-participating households following program engagement. The results presented in this study suggest that the social innovation program facilitated a notable restructuring of the portfolio of household income and livelihood activities towards more lucrative and value-added pursuits. This transition manifested in increased involvement in entrepreneurial ventures and specialized labor associated with both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors while distancing from traditional agricultural and livestock-related endeavors. The income gains stemming from self-employment activities and wage labor outweigh the losses incurred from reduced agricultural and livestock earnings. Furthermore, our analysis underscores the resilience of innovative income-generating pathways in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, outperforming traditional agrarian value chains. These findings highlight the efficacy of social innovation programming in facilitating economic development and also shed light on sustainable strategies for economic resilience amidst unforeseen challenges such as the recent global health crisis. Full article

As the main service mode and management mode of socialized service, agricultural production trusteeship services (APTS) are an important way to realize the tight link between farmers and modern agricultural development, which is highly important for ensuring national food security. By constructing a utility model of farmers, this paper deduces the decision-making mechanism of farmers’ APTS from the dual mechanism of natural risk and non-agricultural employment income (NAEI) and uses the survey data of 956 farmers in the three northeastern provinces to verify the empirical results by using multivariate logit (Mlogit) and propensity score matching (PSM) methods. The research shows that natural risk hinders farmers’ choice of the APTS; NAEI has a positive impact on APST, and an increase in NAEI weakens the negative effect of natural risk on the choice of the APTS, and has an enhanced moderating effect. In addition, the scale heterogeneity analysis revealed that the impacts of natural risk and NAEI on farmers of different scales are significantly different. The NAEI adjustment effect has the greatest impact on small-scale farmers, followed by medium-scale farmers. In view of this, the government should stabilize the nonagricultural employment market and improve the nonagricultural employment opportunities of farmers. APTS organizations should transfer natural risks and improve the agricultural insurance system. According to the differences of different scales of farmers, different promotion policies are formulated, and the expansion of management and deepening services is proposed to further promote the development of APTS and consolidate the foundation of food security in China. Full article