Exploring the effects of rural site conditions and household livelihood capitals on agricultural land transfers in China

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Despite the increasing interest in influential factors of agricultural land transfer, there has been little analysis on the role of site conditions from the spatial characteristics of communities to which agricultural land belongs, let alone the combination with livelihood capitals. This paper suggests that rural site conditions (public resources) should be differentiated from household livelihood capitals (private capitals) as they operate under different dynamics of decision-making and management. Therefore, this paper develops a structural equation model to explore the causal pathway and quantify the magnitude of effects of rural site conditions (based on Site Assessment system) and household livelihood capitals (based on Sustainable Livelihood Framework) on agricultural land transfer. Results demonstrate that household livelihood capitals have significant impacts on agricultural land transfer (β = 0.537, P < 0.01), while rural site conditions affect not only the decision-making of agricultural land transfer (β = 0.591, P < 0.01), but also household livelihood capitals (β = 0.601, P < 0.05). Specifically, communities with a large labor force, well-developed infrastructure, in proximity to towns with high economic inputs and outputs, and households with high average education levels, high financial products and deposits, are not reliant on agriculture. In contrast, communities with good natural conditions and close social ties, and households with large household sizes, good nature and physical capital, and high value of agricultural products, tend to expand agricultural land. Therefore, to promote the transfer of agricultural land into farmers with cultivation intention and capability, the government should strengthen infrastructure construction, develop modern agriculture, guide industrial and commercial capital investment, standardize agricultural subsidies as well as taking into account regional differences of agricultural resources.