Impact Of Rural-Urban Land Conversion On The Landless Peasants' Welfare And Land Requisition Compensation

At present, Wuhan Metropolitan as a whole is in the medium stage of industrialization accompanied with the huge demand for construction land. Especially in rural and urban fringe, the scale of rural-urban land to meet the urban development is increasing. At the same time,land requisition produces a large number of landless peasants.Taking account to the land requisition compensation standards in most regions, the prevalence of low compensation standards and the single mode of compensation generate a lot of social contradictions and conflicts that affect the long-term livelihood of the landless peasants.Therefore, research on the actual compensation loss for landless farmers, land acquisition will and the impact of land acquisition on the welfare of peasant's families, as well as how to compensate so as to make the livelihood of landless peasants sustainable, is an imperative study of practical and theoretical significance.Basing on this understanding, this paper takes the landless peasants in Wuhan Metropolitan as research subjects, under the guidance of the family feasible capacity theory extended from Amartya Sen's capability theory; use the questionnaire method to get the material of the landless farmers land acquisition, and do the next research with these data. Using the quantitative analysis tools of structural equation modeling and binary Logistic model combined with qualitative analysis, this study divides the Wuhan Metropolitan into Wuhan and other four cities which are contrastively analyzed, and finally combining with the sustainable livelihoods framework investigates how to compensate landless peasants to make them tend toward the path of sustainable livelihoods.The main conclusions are as following:1. The land requisition compensation status of landless peasantsThe differences between actual compensation and compensation standards are analyzed in two periods of time, divided by the time of issuing the new land acquisition and compensation standards in Hubei Province in2009.(1) the new Land acquisition compensation standards are not issued:When we compare the actual compensation with compensation standards, from the view of the minimum land compensation fees, the actual compensation and the compensation standards are consistent in most cases. However, if the subsidy is to be placed into account, the actual compensation is below the standard of compensation;(2) the new land acquisition compensation standards are issued: When we compare the actual compensation with the new land compensation standards, according to the investigation of the35samples occurred after the2010land acquisition, only Xishui County's rate of compensation is up to and higher than100%, while the remainder are not up to the standards of compensation. 2.The land acquisition will of the landless peasants(1)The land acquisition will of landless peasants is generally low. According to the questionnaires collected in Wuhan City, the quantity of the willing peasants'accounts for7.57%.In the other four cities, the willing peasants'accounts for14.49%willing. And most peasants are only willing to be expropriated1/4of their land, the peasants who is unwilling to be expropriated any land or willing to be expropriated all of his land are in the minority.(2)The peasants expect the expropriated land can be used for industrial and infrastructure, the willingness of other uses is weak.(3)Attachment to the state before the land acquisition, the expected or actual impact after land acquisition, land requisition compensation fairness and reasonableness have the combined effect on the land acquisition will of the landless peasants.Although the factors effecting land acquisition willingness of landless peasants in Wuhan City and the other four cities are more or less vary, but the dependence of arable land before the land acquisition, rationality of land acquisition compensation, and the impact on employment have consistent significant effect on the land acquisition willingness of landless peasantsAmong there, dependence of arable land before the land acquisition has a negative impact on land acquisition willingness; land compensation rationality and the impact on employment have a positive impact on land acquisition willingness. The three factors just correspond to the farmers'attachment to the state before the land acquisition, land acquisition and compensation fair and reasonable, and the expectation after the land acquisition which three types of core elements affecting the peasants land acquisition willingness3. The impact of land acquisition on the welfare of peasant's families(1)Peasant Family Welfare (capability) could be measured by family social security, family economics, living environment, leisure and health, quality of housing and employment opportunities. Both Wuhan's SEM and other four cities'SEM show that the family capability has a strong correlation with other; the difference is different weights of the correlation inter-dimension. Family function of Wuhan has an obvious effect on the various sub-dimensions and the difference of the family function'effect on sub-dimensions is also obvious, while in the other four cities the overall effect is relatively slightly lower and the difference of the family functions'effect on sub-dimensions is not so obvious.(2)Land acquisition causes a certain impact on family function (total welfare). The area of expropriated land and the compensation level both have a positive impact on the overall welfare; however these two factors have Different impact on family functioning. In Wuhan City, the compensation level of peasants'functional changes is greater than the impact of the land area, while in the other four cities, the opposite is true. Possible causes: In Wuhan City, more land has been expropriated; some families have been expropriated several times, so the area of expropriated land in Wuhan has more influence in the family welfare. In addition, the more area of land is expropriated; land requisition compensation and the level have more influence on farmers'welfare. That is, more land acquisition area, the greater impact on the welfare of the peasant families; more land acquisition area, the level of land requisition compensation is more important, then enhance the impact of the land area on the welfare of farm families.(3)Land acquisition'impact on the sub-welfare of the family. Wuhan City:the land area is not directly related to the leisure and health; other four cities, the negatively related. The reason is better employment opportunities for landless peasants in Wuhan City. They can also go to work in cities even before the land acquisition, so land acquisition has less effect on his labor time; therefore land acquisition has not a direct positive impact on the leisure and health. Employment opportunities in other four cities were not very good. Before land acquisition, most of the farmers engaged in agriculture-based land. so once their land is expropriated, they have to go for a work far from the, which causes less leisure time and worse health. Then look at the effect of the compensation level on family economy and housing quality.The level of compensation has a positive impact on the family economy and housing quality both in Wuhan City and the other four cities.4. Policy recommendations to make landless farmers achieve sustainable livelihoods path and obtain reasonable compensation(1)Making landless farmers achieve sustainable livelihoods path. No matter the peasants who have special attachment to land, peasants who don't matter or peasants who particularly disgust land, the single monetary compensation is not conducive to long-term livelihood of the peasants. And from the livelihoods capital of landless peasants we can be seen, most peasants livelihoods capital is weak, so land acquisition compensation has to be sufficient to mitigate and restore livelihoods capital harmed by land acquisition. From the perspective of sustainable livelihoods, the farmers of the lack of human capital could get more investment in human capital. Farmers, lack of physical capital, should get employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. Farmers, lack of financial capital, ought to enjoy a diversified rural financial system. Farmers, lack of social capital should be provided a variety of compensation, be provided the social security.(2)To make the compensation for landless peasants comprehensive, reasonable, compensation content should be enriched, the method of compensation should be optimized, compensation procedures should be above board, and the government could gradually optimize the land requisition system, so as to continuously adapt to the social developmentEnriching compensation content is to compensate the landless peasants to at least make their'living standards develop synchronously with social development. The compensation is sufficient to cover its losses, including compensation for the land itself, friction costs of the change in the status of landless peasants and the opportunity cost. Optimize the method of compensation is to change the single way of the monetary compensation to the various means to co-exist, so that the landless peasants could confidently deal with the risk after land acquisition to assure the long-term livelihood security.Opening compensation program is to eliminate the secret operations of the past in land acquisition process, to reduce the interception of interests occurring in the intermediate links. Gradually optimizing the system of land acquisition is to change the bias towards the urban occupying more social resources, moderately to take care of the rural areas, to create a good social situation of a unified urban and rural, citizens and farmers'share commonly of social development outcomes. At an appropriate time to explore reasonable options to enable farmers to get construction land-use rights altered from the agricultural land-use rights, achieving the revenue income of its land sources.