On the Ecological Compensation Standard of Cultivated Land Under the “Separation of Three Rights”: From the Perspective of Contract Rights

Nan Wang, Kaisheng Long () and Wenke Liu
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Nan Wang: College of Public Administration, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Kaisheng Long: College of Public Administration, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Wenke Liu: College of Public Administration, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-23

Abstract: Contracting farmers are the main entities in cultivated land protection. From the perspective of contractual rights, improving the ecological compensation standards for cultivated land under the “Separation of Three Rights” system helps coordinate interest relationships in ecological compensation and serves as the key to benefit distribution among multiple right-holders. Reasonable compensation to contracting farmers facilitates the dual consideration of food security and ecological safety in cultivated land. The study starts from the connotation of contractual rights, incorporates both opportunity cost losses and ecological values into compensation criteria based on the membership attributes of contractual rights and the nature of use rights. Employing the equivalent factor method, replacement cost method, and opportunity cost method, it calculates compensation standards for both transferred and non-transferred contracting farmers, using prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu Province as case examples. (1) Land-transferring contracted farmers: The compensation standard is calculated based on opportunity cost loss as the compensation basis. (2) Non-transferring contracted farmers: The compensation standard incorporates both opportunity cost losses and the ecological value generated through agricultural production. Research Findings: The average compensation standard for contracted farmland transfer in Jiangsu Province is 6275.79 CNY/hm 2 , primarily implemented through government compensation mechanisms. The average compensation standard for non-transferred contracted farmland in Jiangsu Province is 40,604 CNY/hm 2 , implemented through a government–market–community collaborative mechanism. The tiered compensation criteria, by accounting for differential contributions of farmland transfer participants and non-participants to agro-ecosystem services, effectively reconcile the dual imperatives of arable land preservation and livelihood enhancement for contracted farmers.

Keywords: contract right; compensation standard; ecological compensation of cultivated land; ecological value; opportunity cost (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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