Does off-Farm Migration of Female Laborers Inhibit Land Transfer? Evidence from Sichuan Province, China

Abstract

With the feminization of agriculture, the role of women in the rural land transfer market is becoming increasingly important. However, at present, there is little research focusing on the relationship between the off-farm migration of female laborers and land transfer rates. Using data on 1652 agricultural land plots owned by 232 rural households in Sichuan Province in 2014, IV-Probit (The Probit model of tool variable method is added) and IV-Tobit (The Tobit model of tool variable method is added) models were constructed to explore the relationships between off-farm migration and rural household land transfer (whether the rural households have land transfer-in and the area of land transfer-in by rural households) with consideration of gender. The results show that: (1) Off-farm labor migration has a negative and significant impact on rural households’ land transfer-in rates. Under the same conditions, the off-farm migration rate increased by 10%, the probability of transfer-in land decreased by 2.6% on average, and the transfer-in area decreased by 2.7 mu on average. (2) The off-farm migration of female laborers inhibited land transfer-in rates. For every 10% increase in female labor migration, the probability of land transfer-in decreased by an average of 2.1%, and the land transfer-in area was reduced by an average of 3 mu (1 mu = 667 m2 or 0.067 ha). However, the impact of male labor migration on farmers’ land transfer-in is negative and not significant. This study provides a novel, gendered perspective to understand land transfer-in behaviors in hilly areas, which can provide further information on off-farm labor migration and the rational allocation of land resources.

Rural-Urban Migration and its Effect on Land Transfer in Rural China

“…Therefore, off-farm employment and part-time employment may be endogenous variables. Referring to the research of Huang et al [38], Xu et al [39], Deng et al [50] appropriate instrumental variables were used to model estimation. The selection of instrumental variables is based on the mean value of off-farm employment and part-time employment of other farmers in the same village except for those interviewed.…”

“…Part-time employment refers to the labor force engaged in agricultural production and non-agricultural work in a year [36,37]. However, as can be seen from the existing literatures, the impacts of part-time employment on land transfer are mostly still remaining at the theoretical level, and there are few quantitative empirical studies [38,39]. Meanwhile, even in existing quantitative studies, the effect of part-time employment on land transfer is also contradictory [40][41][42].…”

Differences in the Disaster-Preparedness Behaviors of the General Public and Professionals: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China

“…The primary task of the rural-revitalization strategy of the 19th National Congress of the People’s Republic of China (CPC) is to alleviate poverty and achieve prosperity for the poor by 2020 [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. The 2019 central government document No.…”

“…Due to geology, topography and the level of local economic development, some settlements in these areas have a relationship between geological disasters and poverty [ 15 , 16 ]. Sichuan is a world-famous major earthquake area and is China’s most serious earthquake disaster province [ 3 , 4 ]. From 2000 to 2017, 179 earthquakes of magnitude five or above occurred in China, resulting in a total of 488,437 casualties, of which 94.17% were in Sichuan Province.…”

Land Registration, Adjustment Experience, and Agricultural Machinery Adoption: Empirical Analysis from Rural China

“…It matters not just because agricultural machinery helps to improve agricultural productivity [4][5][6], but because it is correlated with agricultural economic growth [7,8]. In developing countries, urbanization is developing rapidly and a large number of rural laborers leave home to work, seeking economic benefits [9][10][11][12]. A lack of agricultural laborers and serious aging of the remaining population have led to a desolate countryside [10].…”