Labor migration and farmland abandonment in rural China: Empirical results and policy implications

Xu, Dingde; Deng, Xin; Guo, Shili

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.11.136

Cited by 267 publications

(203 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Changes in land use patterns are very important because of their effects on the environment and human livelihood [1]. One example of such a change occurs in farmland, the abandonment of which is a commonly observed phenomenon in different parts of the world [2][3][4][5]. Farmland abandonment The transboundary GRB is located in the central Himalaya region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Status of Farmland Abandonment and Its Determinants in the Transboundary Gandaki River Basin

et al. 2019

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Farmland abandonment is a common phenomenon worldwide, including in the Gandaki River Basin (GRB) in the central Himalayas. This study examined the status of farmland abandonment, along with its trends and determinants, based primarily on interviews with 639 households in different physiographic regions: Mountain, Hill, Tarai and Gangetic Plain (GP). Binary logistic regression was used to examine the contributions of various factors of farmland abandonment. The results indicate that nearly 48%, 15%, 4%, and 16% of total farmland (khet and bari) in the Mountain, Hill, Tarai and GP regions, respectively, has been abandoned. Such differences in the proportion of farmland abandonment among the regions are mainly due to variations in biophysical conditions, agricultural productivity, access to infrastructure facilities, off-farm employment opportunities, and the occurrence of natural hazards. The major determinants for farmland abandonment were also found to vary within the region. Distance from market centers to residence, reduction in the labor force as a result of migration, and household head age were found to be significant factors in farmland abandonment in the Mountain region. Similarly, in the Hill region, eight significant factors were identified: distance from market centers to residence, distance from residence to farmland, lack of irrigation facilities (p = 0.004), reduction in labor force (p = 0.000), household head occupation, lack of training for household head and size of bari land. Household head occupation and household head age were found to play significant roles for farmland abandonment in the Tarai region. In the GP region, distance to market centers and lack of irrigation facilities had positive relationships with farmland abandonment. It is suggested that specific policies addressing the differences in physiographic region, such as horticulture and agroforestry for the Mountain and Hill regions and crop diversification and the adaptation of drought tolerant species with improvement in irrigation systems for the GP region, need to be formulated and implemented in order to utilize the abandoned farmland and have environmental, economic, and sustainable benefits.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Status of Farmland Abandonment and Its Determinants in the Transboundary Gandaki River Basin

et al. 2019

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“…The issue of construction land distribution is fairly important for the future pattern of the land market and, therefore, determines the development of the regional economy [2]. Although the large trans-provincial flow of the population has long attracted the attention of the central government, especially the resettlement of agricultural transfer population groups [67], the land policies related to this issue still lag behind, which was proven in our empirical analysis. At present, the construction land quotas cannot be accurately traded and used across provinces (only limited poverty-stricken areas are allowed), which means that the distribution of the construction land may not meet the needs of the increasing floating population, thereby causing a supply-demand imbalance in land markets and the problem of excessive housing prices [68].…”

Section: Policy Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 57%

A New Trend in the Space–Time Distribution of Cultivated Land Occupation for Construction in China and the Impact of Population Urbanization

Liu

2019

Sustainability

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Rapid urbanization has brought huge development dividends to China. At the same time, its negative effects have aroused people's attention. For example, a large amount of cultivated land has been occupied for urban expansion and construction. Using exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and the spatial Durbin model (SDM), we analyzed the spatial distribution of cultivated land occupation for construction (CLOC) and its driving factors in 31 provinces in China from 2005 to 2016. The results indicated that (1) the CLOC rate presented a significant spatial clustering feature, and its distribution showed a new trend of "homogenization" after the year 2012; (2) as the core driving factor, the population urbanization rate significantly promoted the growth of the CLOC rate in the local province, while showing a negative effect on that rate in the neighboring provinces;(3) in addition, behind the new trend of the CLOC rate, there was a transformation from being "investment driven" to being "population and industry driven". Therefore, this paper suggests that the government should link each city's construction land supply to the constantly changing trend of population migrations in China. Further, promoting the tertiary industry can be a win-win strategy for easing the tension between cultivated land and construction land.Sustainability 2019, 11, 5089 2 of 23 construction, to ensure economic stability and improve domestic livelihood issues (narrowing the urban-rural gap and increasing employment in poor areas). Therefore, issues related to the game relationship between cultivated land and construction land are becoming the focus of scholarly attention, including the driving forces of urban expansion [4,7], the chain effect of cultivated land loss [8,9], and the transformation from cultivated land into construction land [10,11].Sustainability 2019, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 23 urban-rural gap and increasing employment in poor areas). Therefore, issues related to the game relationship between cultivated land and construction land are becoming the focus of scholarly attention, including the driving forces of urban expansion [4,7], the chain effect of cultivated land loss [8,9], and the transformation from cultivated land into construction land [10,11].

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“…On the basis of this possibility, the present study used type IV Tobit models to re-estimate the models. The selection of the instrumental variables was based on the methodology described by [6,8,16,17,56,57], and the average land management scale of other rural households in the same village (other than this rural household) was taken as the land management scale of this rural household to obtain the instrumental variables.…”

Section: Robustness Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, for rural households in the starting, rearing, burden, stable, and maintenance periods, the proportion of agricultural cash income in the total family cash income decreased, on average, by 6.8%, 6.7%, 9.2%, 3.5%, and 16.3%, respectively.Land 2020, 9, 11 2 of 15 of livelihood strategies [1][2][3][4]. Many of the livelihood strategies of rural households have gradually changed, from agriculturally based to non-agriculturally based [5][6][7][8][9]. However, owing to the long-term, urban-rural dual division system (especially the household registration system), labor migration and land use in China are different from those in other countries [4,10].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationships between Land Management Scale and Livelihood Strategy Selection of Rural Households in China from the Perspective of Family Life Cycle

Deng

et al. 2020

Land

Self Cite

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Rural households are micro-organizational systems that are composed of different family members. Against a background of fragmented land patterns and massive labor migration in China, it is of great significance for the sustainable development of regional economies to explore the optimal selection of livelihood strategies by rural households. Using a survey containing data from 8031 rural households from 27 provinces in China, this study analyzed the characteristics and spatial distribution trends of the land management scale, family life cycle, and livelihood strategy selection of rural households, and constructed Tobit econometric models to explore the correlations among these factors. The results show: (1) Rural households’ land management scale was primarily small-scale and, as it expanded, the proportion of the total cash income coming from agricultural activities increased. A relative majority of rural households were in the middle period of the family life cycle, and relatively few rural households were in the starting and empty nest periods. The proportion of the total cash income of rural households coming from agricultural pursuits while in the stable and the empty nest periods was relatively large, reaching 40.51% and 38.92%, respectively. In most provinces sampled, rural households’ livelihood strategies were non-agriculturally based, and the land management scale was mainly less than 0.67 ha. (2) Rural households’ land management scale positively correlated with their livelihood strategy selection. When other conditions remained unchanged, with every 1 ha increase in land management scale, the proportion of agricultural cash income in total family cash income increased, on average, by 3.7%. In comparison with rural households in the empty nest period, the proportions of agricultural cash income in the total family cash income of rural households in other family life cycles were relatively small. Specifically, for rural households in the starting, rearing, burden, stable, and maintenance periods, the proportion of agricultural cash income in the total family cash income decreased, on average, by 6.8%, 6.7%, 9.2%, 3.5%, and 16.3%, respectively.

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Labor migration and farmland abandonment in rural China: Empirical results and policy implications

Cited by 267 publications

References 43 publications

Status of Farmland Abandonment and Its Determinants in the Transboundary Gandaki River Basin

Status of Farmland Abandonment and Its Determinants in the Transboundary Gandaki River Basin

A New Trend in the Space–Time Distribution of Cultivated Land Occupation for Construction in China and the Impact of Population Urbanization

Relationships between Land Management Scale and Livelihood Strategy Selection of Rural Households in China from the Perspective of Family Life Cycle

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