Social capital, land tenure and the adoption of green control techniques by family farms: Evidence from Shandong and Henan Provinces of China

Abstract

In China, land tenure security refers to the stability of land management rights in the context of the Three Rights Separation Policy, according to which rural land ownership rights, land contract rights, and land management rights can be separated and land management rights can be freely transferred. We apply endogenous switching probit models to a dataset of 443 family farms in Shandong and Henan Provinces to investigate the influence of social capital and land tenure security on family farms’ adoption of green control techniques (GCTs). We develop simplified equations to verify whether social capital strengthens the positive effect of land tenure security on family farms’ GCT adoption. Specifically, we focus on the different effects of embedded and disembedded social capital. Our findings show that both social capital and land tenure security have significant positive effects on family farms’ adoption of GCTs. Furthermore, social capital strengthens the positive effect of land tenure security on GCT adoption, but the effects of embedded and disembedded social capital are different. Government policies should strengthen the stability of land management rights and cultivate the social capital of family farms, especially disembedded social capital.