中国农户兼业化对农地规模化经营决策的影响

Abstract

In China, farmers' part-time employment and farmland scale management are two major trends in rural economic development, which are influencing each other. In order to explore the impact of part-time employment on farmland scale management, especially land transfer and land trusteeship, this study discusses it through bivariate Probit model and marginal effect analysis. Among rural survey respondents, those whose non-farm income is less than 20% are classified as full-time farmers, those with the ratio of 20% to 50% are classified as ‘LP’(lower part-time) farmers, those with the ratio of 50% to 80% are classified as ‘HP’(higher part-time) farmers, and those with the ratio of more than 80% are classified as non-farming households. This empirical analysis shows that the degree of farmers' part-time employment has a significant impact on the scale management of farmland. Compared with full-time farmers, the willingness of LP farmers and HP farmers to transfer or trusteeship of land is 27.4% and 20.9% higher, respectively. The gender, age and education level of producers all have an impact on land transfer decisions. Although non-farming experience has no significant impact on land transfer, it has a positive effect on the decision of land trusteeship. In addition, men show a higher tendency in scale management of farmland, and the marginal effect of gender is most significant in HP farmers, followed by LP farmers and non-farming households. The characteristics of producer households, such as the number of workers, the proportion of pesticides and fertilizers inputs, and the number of farming machines, have no significant impact on scale management of farmland. Geographical characteristics and the distance between residence and neighboring cities significantly affect land trusteeship, while poor transportation conditions are identified as a factor promoting land transfer. The marginal effect of transportation conditions is most significant in HP farmers, followed by LP farmers, full-time farmers and non-farming households. As to the influence of relevant agricultural policies, farmers' attention to government policies has a significant impact on the decision-making of land trusteeship. The marginal effect of whether the government provides subsidies is 0.235, and HP farmers benefit the most, followed by LP farmers, full-time farmers and non-farming households.