The Role of Farmland Titling in Urban Agricultural Resilience: Evidence from Metropolitan Guangzhou, China

Abstract

Urban agriculture has been seen as an essential strategy for enhancing food security and urban resilience and is valued by many countries, but its development faces many challenges. Whether farmland system reform can improve the factor allocation of urban farmer households and then promote the resilience of urban agriculture has not received sufficient attention. Therefore, this article uses property rights theory to explain the logic that farmland titling as a formal institution affects the factor allocation of urban farmer households (UFHs). Furthermore, empirical analysis of whether farmland titling positively affects the UFHs’ willingness toward farmland, and capital allocation was performed based on household-level survey data from metropolitan Guangzhou, China. The implications of this research are as follows: emphasizing that the reform of farmland titling is vital for the farmland transaction market, strengthening talent cultivation, and increasing agricultural green input and investment, all of which are beneficial to promote the modernization and sustainability of urban agriculture, thus improving the resilience of urban regions.