The Impact of Farmland Transfer on Rural Households’ Income Structure in the Context of Household Differentiation: A Case Study of Heilongjiang Province, China

Lili Chen, Hongsheng Chen, Chaohui Zou and Ye Liu
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Lili Chen: School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China
Hongsheng Chen: School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Chaohui Zou: Guangdong Guodi Land Planning Technology Co., Ltd., Guangzhou 510650, China
Ye Liu: School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou 510275, China

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Farmland transfer is an important factor affecting rural households’ income and sustainable development of rural areas in developing countries. However, recent studies have reached controversial conclusions on how farmland transfer affects rural households’ income because of ignoring the household differentiation and the difference in the impacts of farmland transfer-in and transfer-out on the income structure. Taking the Heilongjiang province, the major cereal production area in China, as the study area, the paper aims to estimate the impacts of farmland transfer-in or transfer-out of different rural households on income structure based on the Propensity Score Matching (PSM) model. Results showed that the total income of all rural households transferring-in farmland increased significantly while the income decreased after transferring-out farmland, and I part-time households have the largest increase, followed by pure-agricultural households and II part-time households, whereas I part-time households has the smallest reduction, followed by pure-agricultural households and II part-time households. Because the increase in the agricultural income and subsidies was greater than the decrease in the outworking income for I part-time households transferring-in farmland, while the outworking income not increasing but decreasing when II part-time households transferring-out farmland. We can conclude that (1) encouraging pure-agricultural and I part-time households to transfer farmland in and II part-time households to transfer out of farmland, and develop mutual assistance for the aged in rural areas should be strengthened. (2) Improving the farmland transfer market and promoting non-agricultural employment of surplus-labor need to be synchronized. (3) Agricultural subsidies should be provided to cultivators.

Keywords: farmland transfer; household differentiation; income structure; rural households; land use transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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