Land Attachment, Intergenerational Differences and Land Transfer: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China

Abstract

It is of great significance to explore the influencing factors of land flow to promote moderate-scale agricultural operation. However, few studies have explored the quantitative influences of land attachment and intergenerational difference on land transfer. Based on the survey data of 540 rural households in Sichuan Province, this study uses factor analysis method to divide land attachment into land satisfaction, land rootedness, and land dependence, and further empirically tests the impact mechanism of land attachment and intergenerational difference on land flow by using Probit model and Tobit model. The results are as follow: (1) land attachment is significantly correlated with land flow-out, but not with land flow-in. (2) Different dimensions of land attachment have different impacts on land flow-out. Among them, land rootedness and land dependence have significant negative impacts on farmers’ land flow-out behavior and land flow-out area, while land satisfaction has a significant positive impact on farmers’ land flow-out behavior and has no significant impact on the land flow-out area. (3) Different generations of land attachment have different impacts on land flow-out. Among them, the land attachment of the new-generation farmers has no significant impact on land flow-out. Among middle-aged farmers, land dependence had a significant negative impact on land flow-out behavior and area, and land rootedness had a significant negative impact on land flow-out behavior; however, land satisfaction had a significant positive impact on land flow-out behavior and area. Among the older generation of farmers, land dependence has a significant negative impact on land flow-out behavior and area, while land satisfaction and land rootedness have no significant impact on land flow-out behavior and area. Therefore, in promoting the practice of land flow, we should pay attention to the differences of farmers’ emotional demands, improve the supporting policies of land flow by classification, reduce farmers’ dependence on “land security”, solve farmers’ concerns on land flow, and promote the rational flow of land factors.

The Influence of Land Attachment on Land Abandonment from the Perspective of Generational Difference: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China

“…Research suggests that the more connected farmers are to their land, the more likely they are to protect it [ 31 , 54 ]. Land attachment has a significant negative impact on land outflow, and land satisfaction, embeddedness and land dependence may have different impacts on land transfer [ 36 ], which is similar to the conclusion of this study. From the perspective of intergenerational differences, land attachment of the older generation did inhibit land abandonment, while land attachment of the middle-aged generation did not significantly affect land abandonment, which is consistent with hypothesis 4 that land attachment of the middle-aged generation had both promoting and inhibiting factors on land abandonment.…”

“…This positive emotional relationship is formed in a specific region over a long time, which is conducive to stimulating the emotional expression of farmers and effectively improving the willingness and behavior of community participation [ 34 , 35 ]. Land attachment can be said to be place attachment in a narrow sense [ 36 ]. It is the attitude of farmers to give land a special emotional and mysterious value, the condensation of all economic and emotional dependence of people on land, and an important window to see the evolution of the human–land relationship [ 30 ].…”

“…It is the attitude of farmers to give land a special emotional and mysterious value, the condensation of all economic and emotional dependence of people on land, and an important window to see the evolution of the human–land relationship [ 30 ]. In terms of the measurement of land attachment, this paper refers to the research of Liu [ 36 ] and Xue et al [ 37 ], and finally divides land attachment into three dimensions: satisfaction, embeddedness and land dependence. It includes three levels: farmer’s satisfaction with land use, attitude rooted in land, and economic and emotional dependence.…”

“…The core explanatory variable concerned in this paper is land attachment. Based on the ideas of Liu et al [ 36 ] and Xue et al [ 37 ], it is divided into three dimensions, with two indicators in each dimension for design. The answers to each indicator are divided into five levels: strongly disagree to strongly agree, and the variables are assigned a value of 1–5 according to the answers of farmers.…”

Peer Effects on Farmers’ Purchases of Policy-Based Planting Farming Agricultural Insurance: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China

“…Theoretically, farmers having larger land scales are more worried about the impacts of meteorological disasters, pests, and natural disasters on crop yields. Farmers having higher education levels have better awareness and acceptance of insurance, and tend to be more inclined to purchase policy-based planting agricultural insurance [ 12 , 39 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ]. Based on this, further heterogeneity analysis was carried out at the household and individual levels according to the size of the land under management and the education level of the respondents ( Table 5 ).…”