Spatiotemporal Variations in Farmland Rents and Its Drivers in Rural China: Evidence from Plot-Level Transactions

Aoxi Yang,Yahui Wang

doi:10.3390/land11020229

Abstract

Reasonable rent is the key to promoting land transfer and realizing agricultural operations on a moderate scale in rural China. The purpose of this study was to reveal the spatiotemporal variations in farmland rents and their drivers by employing a multilevel model based on 3547 plot-level transactions in Sichuan Province of China. The results show that the rents of paddy field, irrigated land, dry land and other types of farmland have all maintained an upward trend since 2014, rising by 61%, 53%, 44% and 224%, respectively. The average rent per ha for these properties reached CNY 13,920, 12,285, 10,230 and 7980 in 2020 (1 USD = CNY 6.90 in 2020), respectively. Farmland rents have shown a significant spatial agglomeration phenomenon, and the regions with higher rent were mainly distributed in Chengdu and its surrounding areas, while the regions with lower rent were distributed in the east and northeast of Sichuan Province. The differences in farmland rent were influenced by multilevel factors such as plot level and regional level, and the former explained 73.4% of the farmland rent variation. The plots with a larger area, longer transfer period, clear ownership, better location and good-quality land had higher rents; otherwise, the rents were lower.

Highlights

In recent years, the continuous advancement of urbanization and industrialization has led to large-scale labor migration in rural China
The contradiction between land fragmentation caused by the household contract responsibility system (HCRS) and moderate-scale operation required by agricultural modernization is increasingly prominent [3,4]
The purpose of this study was to reveal the spatiotemporal variations in farmland rents and their drivers in rural China by employing spatial analysis techniques and a multilevel model based on 3547 plot transfer transactions released by the land transfer information platform of the Sichuan Province of China from 2014 to 2021

Summary

Introduction

The continuous advancement of urbanization and industrialization has led to large-scale labor migration in rural China. The population in rural China decreased by about 260 million, and the proportion of households only engaged in agricultural operations decreased from 26.42% to 4.78% from 1988 to 2018 [1]. The contradiction between land fragmentation caused by the household contract responsibility system (HCRS) and moderate-scale operation required by agricultural modernization is increasingly prominent [3,4]. In order to integrate land resources, the Chinese government has adopted a series of measures to promote moderate-scale operation of agriculture [5]. The transferred land area expanded from 3.87 million hectares in 2004 to 35.33 million hectares in 2018 according to the data statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. The ratio of transferred land increased from 4.6% to 37% from 2006 to 2017, with an average annual growth rate of 2.7% [7]

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Discussion

Conclusion