Study Of Farmers' Land Transfer Behavior And Its Performance

In recent years,the Chinese government has put great efforts on land transfer to improve agricultural production efficiency.With the fact that farmland is mainly used for grain production,effects of land transfer on the grain crop planting area and productivity are closely related to the national food security in China.Hence,it is of great importance to explore farmers' land transfer behaviors and its performance.In recent years,rural policies have changed dramatically,which greatly affected farmers' land transfer behaviors and performances.For example,land certification and grain subsidies have significant improved farmers' enthusiasm in grain production.Besides,the grain price in China has been experiencing a significant drop since 2015,reducing farmers' profits from grain production.This study would like to make a research about farmers' land transfer behaviors and its performance based on panel data of 621 households that surveyed in year 2013 and 2017.To be more specific,we try to figure out the influencing factors of land transfer and how farmers' land transfer behaviors changed with time when macro surroundings were considered.It is of great importance to explore this issue so as to promote the development of land rental markets.For land renting behaviors,first,we used a two-tier stochastic frontier model to get farmers' bargaining power during the process of land transfer,and analyzed how farmers' bargaining surplus changed with time.Second,we made a theoretical analysis of farmers' land rental decision,and ran a random logit model to test the influencing factors of farmers' land rental behaviors.Then,we have two main parts concerning the performance of land transfer.On one hand,we ran a panel model with OLS and fixed-effect to analyze the impactof land transfer on the performance of grain production,in which fertilizer input,labor input,productivity and benefits are considered.On the other hand,we ran a fixed-effect model to get the impact of land transfer on household income.At last,we gave some suggestions for the land rental policy and grain price regulation policy based on conclusions.Conclusions are shown as follows:(1)Rent-in households' bargaining powers were much weaker than rent-out households,but rent-in households' bargaining surplus significantly increased after the grian price declined.The two-tier stochastic frontier model showed that farmers' bargaining power accounted for 87.33% of the actual transaction price.On average,rent-out households lifted the transaction price 304 yuan per mu higher than the base price with their bargaining power,while rent-in households only lowered the transaction price 151 yuan per mu lower than thebase price with their bargaining power.Eventually,the transaction price is 153 yuan per mu higher than the base price determined by the difference of farmers' bargaining power.With the rapid development of land operation entities,the increasing demand for land significantly improved rent-out households' bargaining power.In the process of grain price decline,when farmland was used to plant grain crops,rent-in households' surplus increased and rent-out households' net surplus decreased.In the sample of households with market-oriented rented-in land for grain production,the decrement of rent-out households' surplus for grain production was more than that of households with non-market-oriented rented-in land for grain production.(2)There is a concentrating trend effect of land transfer.The emprical results showed that grian price,household characteristics and resouce endowment have significant effects on farmers' land renting behaviors.Regression was also performed using the change of the area of farmers' land transferred.The results showed that the change of the area of land rented-in for households with market-oriented rented-in land for grain production was significantly higher than that of other types of households,but there is no significant change for area of land used for grain production On the contrary,households with non-market-oriented rented-in land for grain production had no significant change of rented-in land but experienced a significant decrease for rented-in land for grain production.With the support of the central government,the rural land transfer has gradually improved.Small-scale,informally transferred grain farmers have gradually withdrawn from the land transfer market,and market-oriented farmers have moved to more land by transferring more land.Thus,land transfer can help to promote the process of grain production modernization in China.(3)Land transfer can improve grain yield,but the grain price decline weakened this positive effect.The empirical results show that households with market-oriented rented-in land for grain production had more fertilizer input on per unit of land,as a result,they also had higher productivity.While households with non-market-oriented rented-in land for grain production had no significant difference from others as for the fertilizer input and productivity.When farmers' benefits from grain production declined with the increase of agriucltural material price and the decline of grain price,impact of land transfer on fertilizer input for households with market-oriented rented-in land for grain production turned to decrease to keep their profitability,leading to the decreasing effect of land renting-in on productivity.For non-market-orientd rent-in households,land renting-in still had no significant effect on fertilizer use and grain productivity,meaning that macro surroundings had no affect on the performance of land renting-in since grain production only accounted for a small percentageof houshold income.(4)The transfer of agricultural land was conducive to raise household inocme,and the income increasing effect of market-oriented renting-in is higher than that of non-market-oriented renting-in.The results of fixed-effect model show that both renting-in and renting-out behaviors had significant positive effects on household income,because renting-in behavior had significant positive effect on agricultural income and renting-out behavior had significant positive effect on non-agricultural income.Among rent-in households,households with rented-in land for non-grain production had the highest household income,then came households with market-oriented rented-in land for grain production,and the last were households with non-market-oriented rented-in land for grain production.(5)Land transfer puts a threat to the national food security.In recent years,the price of agricultural materials such as the fertilizer and pesticide in China continues to rise,and the price of grain has dropped significantly.The adverse impact of agricultural land transfer on national food security cannot be ignored.On one hand,the grain price decline decreased farmers' profit in grain production,as a result farmers tended to plant non-grain crops with the decrease of the enthusiasm of grain production.On the other hand,households with market-oriented rented-in land for grain production decreased the fertilizer input to keep the profitability,leading to the decrease of positive effect of land transfer on productivity.The reduction of the area of grain plantation and the reduction of land output per unit area caused by the phenomenon of "non-grain" transfer of land,this posed a threat to national food security.To make sure the land rental market develops steadily and healthily,we give the following three suggestions aiming to improve farmers' households income and safeguard the national food security.The Chinese government should first establish the price guidance mechanism for the land rental market.Second,encourage more farmers to participate in the land rental markets by strengthening social security system,accelerating the cultivation of new business entities,and creating new modes of land transfer.Third,improve the grain price formation mechanism by revising grain subsidy policies.