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

Xin Deng,Zhuolin Yong,Dingde Xu,Zhixing Ma,Wenfeng Zhou,Kai Huang,Yi Liu

doi:10.3390/land9010011

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Since the beginning of the economic reform and opening-up process in China, many rural laborers have moved away to work, motivated by economic interests
Because this study only focuses on the correlation among land management scale, family life cycle, and the livelihood strategy selection of rural households, we have only selected rural households sampled from rural communities
This study found that the education level of the household heads was markedly negatively related to the livelihood strategy selection; the proportion of total family cash income derived from the agricultural activity for rural households who purchased funds, stocks, and bonds was relatively smaller than that for households who had not purchased funds, stocks, or bonds

Summary

Introduction

Since the beginning of the economic reform and opening-up process in China, many rural laborers have moved away to work, motivated by economic interests. This has resulted in profound changes in the family income composition and land-use patterns of rural households, as well as the differentiation. 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]. Because of massive labor migration, many hilly rural areas lack a labor force, leading to considerable land abandonment [16,17]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion