The Impact of Farmland Ownership Certification on Farmland Abandonment：Based on the Property Rights Incentive

Abstract

In China’s specific land conditions, farmers have acquired the right to land contractual management by virtue of the fairness of their collective membership. Due to the pattern of equal distribution of land”, it inevitably leads to the phenomenon of land fragmentation, thus further squeezing out farmers’ agricultural input and causing the problem of farmland abandonment in today’s observable non-agricultural employment opportunities. Therefore, the Chinese government hopes to be able to adopt a new round of reform of the farmland property right system, i.e. the certification of farmland ownership, in order to increase farmers’ expectations of property rights and improve the efficiency of wasteland disposal. The existing researches still have doubts about the incentive effect of property right of farmland ownership certification, and have not been able to discuss the transmission mechanism of farmland ownership certification for farmland abandonment based on the incentive effect of property right. Therefore, based on the incentive effect of property rights, this study integrates the certification of farmland ownership, agricultural investment and farmland abandonment into a complete theoretical framework. Agricultural investment consists of three aspects: capitalization investment in agricultural production, specialized investment in agricultural production and cooperative investment in agricultural production. The data of 13,750 respondents from 29 provinces of CLDS are used for empirical tests. The research conclusions are as follows: （1）Farmland ownership certification can strengthen the exclusiveness, safety and stability of farmers’ farmland property rights and reduce the phenomenon of farmland abandonment to a great extent. （2）Farmland ownership certification can reduce the risk of agricultural investment being hitchhiked” and produce the property suitable incentive effect of agricultural investment, thus enhancing farmers’ behavior of agricultural investment in abandoned land. （3）The confirmation and certification of farmland property rights can improve the enthusiasm of farmers for agricultural investment, and especially promote farmers to increase the capitalization of agricultural production investment in abandoned land, i.e. to become specialized farmers in agricultural production, thus playing a role in reducing the occurrence of farmland abandonment. This study also has the following research significance: （1）It clarifies the property true incentive effect of farmland ownership certification in the process of farmland abandonment, and affirms the role of farmland ownership certification policy of empowerment. （2）It clarifies the intermediary effect of agricultural investment in the process of farmland ownership certification on farmland abandonment, further reveals the relationship between farmland ownership certification, agricultural investment and farmland abandonment, and provides reference basis for the government to formulate supporting policies for farmland ownership certification.