Nonfarm employment, large-scale farm enterprises and farmland transfer in China: a spatial econometric analysis

Abstract

While farmland transfer in rural China has emerged as a critical issue in China’s land use policy, there are many unanswered questions about the factors behind ongoing farmland transfer. This study uses survey data from 243 villages in Southwest China to examine how nonfarm employment and large-scale farm enterprises might affect farmland transfer. Specifically, this paper employs a spatial autoregressive (SAR) model with a geographic distance weighting matrix at the village level to explore this effect. Empirical results suggest that the proportion of migrant workers and large-scale farm enterprises positively affects the scale of farmland transfer, while the proportion of local nonfarm workers negatively affects it. By comparing estimation results from the SAR with those from the OLS model, it is found that the OLS model may overestimate the positive impact of migrant workers and underestimate the negative impact of local nonfarm workers on farmland transfer.

Keywords:

• Nonfarm employment
• large-scale farm enterprise
• cultivated land transfer
• spatial econometric models
• village-level data

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The migrant workers we refer to in this paper are defined as having nonfarm employment outside their own villages.

2 Mu is the unit of land area used in China. One mu is equal to 667 m².

3 $\mathit{Wtare}{a}_j=\left[\begin{array}{cccc}{w}_{11}& w_{12}& \cdots & w_{1N}\\ w_{21}& w_{22}& \cdots & w_{2N}\\ ⋮& ⋮& \cdots & ⋮\\ w_{N1}& w_{N2}& \cdots & w_{NN}\end{array}\right]\left[\begin{array}{c}\mathit{tare}{a}_1\\ \mathit{tare}{a}_2\\ ⋮\\ \mathit{tare}{a}_N\end{array}\right].$

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Sichuan Social Science Base Project (grant no. SC15E094), Humanities and Social Sciences project of the Ministry of Education (CN) (grant no. 20YJA790069), The project of the Education Department of Sichuan Province (grant no. 16SB0006), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 71503212).

Notes on contributors

Dan Fan

Fan Dan is an associate professor in China Western Economic Research Center, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Her research interests include the land use in rural area, family labor utilization and food security. Her articles have appeared in Journal of Agricultural Science, Chinese Rural Economy, Southwest Finance.

Chang'an Wang

Wang Chang'an is a Ph.D student in Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. His research interests include industrial and agricultural economics. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Commercial Economics.

Junqian Wu

Wu Junqian is a lecturer in China Western Economic Research Center, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. His research interests include agricultural economics and rural development in China. His articles have appeared in China Economic Quarterly.

Qingbin Wang

Wang Qingbin is a professor in the Department of Community Development and Applied Economics, University of Vermont. His research interests include agricultural policy and China's economic development. His articles have appeared in Food Policy, and International Food and Agribusiness Management Review.

Xiaoqian Liu

Liu Xiaoqian is a Ph.D student in Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics. Her research interests include industrial and land economics. Her articles have appeared in Journal of JiShou University.