How can continuous land transfers guarantee food security? A study from the perspectives of plot size

Yichao Li, Jia He, Jiaxi Zheng and Dingde Xu

Applied Economics, 2025, vol. 57, issue 30, 4426-4440

Abstract: Continuous land transfer is an important direction for future agricultural policy in developing countries. However, there is little research on the impacts of land contiguity in China. Based on 2020 national micro-survey data, this paper analyzes the different focuses of land contiguity, divides contiguous transfers into connected and patchy transfers, and explores the differential impacts of the two on food production. The paper further explores how heterogeneous plot sizes play a role in it. The results are as follows: (1) connected transfer has a greater effect than patchy transfer; (2) contiguous transfers can secure food production by contributing to an increase in plot size, with continuous transfers contributing more to the maximum plot size; (3) maximum plot size has a positive effect on promoting food production; (4) continuous transfer performed better in terms of yield increase in non-plain and main grain-producing areas; and, (5) the ‘inverted U-shape’ impacts of patchy transfers on food production are evident. Therefore, the government should fully promote continuous land transfer while focusing on connected transfer, which should expand maximum plot size as much as possible. After continuous transfer, it should also be wary of the ‘non-food’ phenomenon in the plains.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00036846.2024.2360691 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:applec:v:57:y:2025:i:30:p:4426-4440

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RAEC20

DOI: 10.1080/00036846.2024.2360691

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Economics is currently edited by Anita Phillips

More articles in Applied Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().