Rethinking Rural Transformation Caused by Comprehensive Land Consolidation: Insight from Program of Whole Village Restructuring in Jiangsu Province, China

Fu Chen, Man Yu, Fengwu Zhu, Chunzhu Shen, Shaoliang Zhang and Yongjun Yang
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Fu Chen: School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221043, China
Man Yu: School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221043, China
Fengwu Zhu: Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Exploitation and Protection, Ministry of Land and Resource, Institute of Land Surveying and Planning of Jiangsu, Nanjing 210096, China
Chunzhu Shen: Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Exploitation and Protection, Ministry of Land and Resource, Institute of Land Surveying and Planning of Jiangsu, Nanjing 210096, China
Shaoliang Zhang: School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221043, China
Yongjun Yang: School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221043, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 6, 1-16

Abstract: China has made great progress in its economy and urbanization in the past 30 years, but rural development has lagged behind the cities and the gap between urban and rural areas continues to widen. The Chinese government implemented the “Building New Countryside Plan” in 2006, which used a new policy of increasing the urban land quota linked with decreasing rural construction land to promote rural transformation and the coordinated development of the urban–rural area. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of rural transformation caused by comprehensive land consolidation and to improve the future practical operability of the policy, a field survey on 42 projects in Jiangsu Province was conducted from March–August 2016. The results of this study showed that: (1) Comprehensive land consolidation had a significant role in promoting rural transformation based on the premise of excluding the average growth rate and 88.1% of the project’s farmers’ income achieved a faster increase than other areas; (2) the increase in the farmer’s income was mainly attributed to non-agricultural income as non-agricultural employment was still a precondition for rural transformation and the degree of local industrialization and educational levels received by farmers were limited for rural transformation; (3) the transfer fees of the land quota were the key factor to maintain the financial balance between demolition and resettlement, but local land quota demand and government capacity in financial operations affected rural restructuring; and (4) the absence of rural social welfare systems significantly affected the land transfer rate. The above conclusions are helpful in understanding the dynamic mechanism of rural transformation, enriching the academic literature in related fields, and are of practical significance for rural revitalization in developing countries.

Keywords: land use; rural development; inclusive growth; policy performance; urban-rural integration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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