Influence of farmland confirmation on farmland abandonment in China

Abstract

The general view is that land ownership affirmation provides incentives for farmers to internalize external benefits, optimizes farmers’ allocation of agricultural production factors, and then reduces farmers’ farmland wastage behavior. This study examines the influence of residual control and claim rights in farmland right confirmation on farmers’ farmland wastage behavior. Results show that residual control rights guarantee the farmers’ exclusive right to use the farmland independently, and residual claim stimulates the farmers to pursue the goal of agricultural production surplus value. However, the residual claim rights are related to the constraint conditions of agricultural production; thus, the farmland right confirmation is situational dependent on farmers’ farmland wastage behavior. The surplus value of the farming output of low-income families is low, and the willingness to realize the surplus claim through agricultural reproduction is weak. Residual control reduces the risk of land loss, accelerates the transfer of the labor force, and shows the behavior of farmland wastage. Nonpoor households with high agricultural production surplus value tend to increase the allocation of agrarian production factors to maximize the income, improve the allocation efficiency of agricultural land resources, and reduce farmland wastage behavior. Conclusion: The implementation effect of accurate farmland affirmation is progressive and internally unbalanced. The institutional basis of matching policy should be to deal with the relationship between residual control right and residual claim right.