Understanding the Farmland Rights Confirmation Policy from the Perspective of Farmers: Evidence from Jiangxi, China

Abstract

Since the 1970s, although the Chinese central government has constructed farmland rights confirmation policy to stimulate the vitality of rural land elements, it is rare to discuss the effectiveness of the policy from the perspective of farmers. This paper applies the deep interview and questionnaire to present an analysis framework consisting of “policy implementation–input behavior in agricultural production–farmland transfer” and testifies the framework with the mediation model. The findings show that, in general, the farmland rights confirmation policy (FRCP) has a significant negative impact on leasing out farmland and a significant positive impact on leasing in farmland. In particular, for farmland leasing out, the mediating effects of agricultural capital input and agricultural time input account for 15.504% and 14.536% of the total effect, respectively. In addition, for leasing farmland in, these two mediating effects accordingly account for 13.798% and 12.155% of the total effect. It is worth noting that in the future, we should understand FRCP based on the consideration of farmers’ behavior in a given local context, while also focusing on policy implementation as well as policy design.

Social capital, government guidance and contract choice in agricultural land transfer

“…In a well-functioning market system, the transaction costs for negotiating, fulfilling, and resolving disputes in farmland transfer contracts are lower. Thus, transferors are inclined toward written, long-term, and high-rent contracts for farmland transfers [ 31 ].…”