Land Registration, Adjustment Experience, and Agricultural Machinery Adoption: Empirical Analysis from Rural China

Heterogeneity and threshold in the effect of agricultural machinery on farmers' relative poverty

Machinery is commonly used in the modernization of agricultural industries and is a pivotal way to eliminate poverty among farmers. However, there are still disputes regarding the effects of agricultural machinery on farmers' relative poverty. Neither the heterogeneity nor the thresholds in agricultural machinery-led poverty reduction efforts have been discussed in depth. To address those gaps, this study considers farmers' livelihood factors and resource (in)divisibility to investigate how agricultural machinery affects farmers' relative poverty as well as the heterogeneity of and thresholds in that influence. This study collected data from 1118 Chinese farming households. 2SLS-IVTobit regression results show that a 1% increase in the overall level of agricultural machinery leads to a 3.3% increase in farmers' income and a 0.523% decrease in their relative poverty. Furthermore, the three pathways of cost-saving, production efficiency, and labor allocation efficiency are identified as explaining 25.4%, 21.9%, and 21.3% of relative poverty reduction, respectively. The heterogeneity of these effects across different farming stages (i.e., plowing, sowing, and harvesting) is also examined, and the results show that plowing machinery has the largest effect. Then, a threshold analysis is conducted, which shows that farmers are influenced more when the scale of their farms surpasses the threshold of 1.12 hm2. Theoretically, this study establishes an integrated model that depicts how agricultural machinery affects farmers' relative poverty through production (in)divisibility. Practically, this study recommends additional investment in agricultural machinery (especially plowing machinery), farmland integration, and taking targeted measures to facilitate resource divisibility.

Modeling of spatial pattern and influencing factors of cultivated land quality in Henan Province based on spatial big data

The quality of cultivated land determines the production capacity of cultivated land and the level of regional development, and also directly affects the food security and ecological safety of the country. This paper starts from the perspective of spatial pattern of cultivated land quality and uses spatial autocorrelation analysis to study the spatial aggregation characteristics and differences of cultivated land quality in Henan Province at the county level scale, and also uses bivariate spatial autocorrelation to analyze the influence of neighboring influences on the quality of cultivated land in the target area. The spatial autoregressive model was used to further analyze the driving factors affecting the quality of cultivated land, and the influence of cultivated land area index was coupled in the process of rating analysis, which was finally used as a basis to propose more precise measures for the protection of cultivated land zoning. The results show that: (1) The quality of cultivated land in Henan Province has a strong spatial correlation (global Moran's I≈0.710) and shows an obvious aggregation pattern in spatial distribution; positive correlation types (high-high and low-low) are concentrated in north-central and western mountainous areas of Henan Province, respectively; negative correlation types are discrete. The negative correlation types are distributed in a discrete manner. (2) The bivariate spatial autocorrelation results show that Slope (Moran's I≈-0.505), Irrigation guarantee rate (IGR, 0.354), Urbanization rate (-0.255), Total agricultural machinery power (TAMP, 0.331) and Pesticide use (0.214) are the main influencing factors. (3) According to the absolute values of the regression coefficients, it can be seen that the magnitude of the influence of different factors on the quality of cultivated land is: Slope (0.089) >IGR (0.025) > Urbanization rate (0.002) > TAMP (0.001) > Pesticide use (1.96e-006). (4) Based on the spatial pattern presented by the spatial autocorrelation results, we proposed corresponding protection zoning measures to provide more scientific reference decisions and technical support for the implementation of refined cultivated land management in Henan Province.

Does Institutional Social Insurance Cause the Abandonment of Cultivated Land? Evidence from Rural China

At present, the world's countryside needs to be revitalized urgently, and cultivated land is the critical factor in promoting the countryside's revitalization. The reduction of uncultivated land contributes to the efficient use of rural land resources, contributing to global rural revitalization. This study uses data from 3938 Chinese peasant households conducted in 2014 and the OLS method to investigate the quantitative impact of institutional social insurance on cultivated land abandonment. The empirical results point to the following conclusions: (1) Institutional social insurance will weaken the social insurance function of land, which will lead to the generation of peasant households' cultivated land abandonment. More specifically, for every 1% increase in the level of institutional social insurance of peasant households, the area of cultivated land abandoned increased by 0.002 mu; (2) The influence of institutional social insurance on peasant households' cultivated land abandonment is heterogeneous, that is, endowment insurance can weaken the social insurance function of land more than medical insurance, and households with a higher proportion of pensioners are more likely to abandon cultivated land. This study's conclusions may help understand the relationship between institutional and non-institutional social insurance and provide a reference for the effective use of cultivated land resources in the global rural revitalization.

Do Agricultural Machinery Services Facilitate Land Transfer? Evidence from Rice Farmers in Sichuan Province, China

Agricultural machinery services play an increasingly important role in the land transfer market, especially in developing countries. Prior studies have explored the impact factors of machinery use on agricultural production and land transfer, respectively. However, little research has focused on the relationship between the adoption of agricultural machinery services and the land transfer of rice farmers. To bridge this gap, this study investigated the correlation between machinery services and land transfer, using unique survey data of 810 rice farmers collected from Sichuan province in China. Additionally, this study further explored the impact mechanism on land transfer of rural households with IV-Probit and IV-Tobit models. The empirical results show the following: (i) Agricultural machinery services have a significantly positive and robust effect on both the incidence and area of rice farmers’ land transfer-in, while the impact degree is different. Specifically, with other conditions remaining unchanged, and with a 1% increase in the proportion of machinery services, the average probability of land transfer-in of rice farmers increased by 2.4%, and the area of land transfer-in increased by 13.4 mu, on average. (ii) For control variables, head education, agricultural certificates and whether the majority of land, are in a flat area have positive impacts on land transfer-in behavior. Yet, age and off-farm labor have a negative impact on land transfer-in area. Moreover, our findings highlight the importance of agricultural machinery services in stimulating the development of rural land rental markets.

Implications of Customary Land Rights Inequalities for Food Security: A Study of Smallholder Farmers in Northwest Ghana

Inequalities in land rights exist globally, both in formal and customary settings. This is because land rights are either strong or weak, and held by various categories of people. The weaker variants of the inequalities tend to stifle tenure security, reduce land use, and threaten the food security of those dependent on the land for survival. This paper investigated the implications of customary land rights inequalities and varying tenure insecurity for food security among smallholder farmers in northwest Ghana. It identified the nature of rights inequalities, the number of rights and in whose possession. The research also assessed the kinds and nature of land rights as well as how such rights affect people’s farm sizes and subsequently farming output for ultimate food security. The data collection techniques were focus group discussions and interviews of key informants and key players in key organisations. Results revealed the existence of food insecurity among smallholder farmers (settlers/migrants) who have both fewer and weaker land rights as compared to landowners who possess numerous and stronger rights in the study area. Results also showed that weak and unequally skewed land rights lead to uncertain tenure durations and reduced farm sizes, which affects farmed area, farm output, food availability, accessibility and food security. Furthermore, farmers expressed the need to apply coping strategies to overcome the impact of unequal land rights. This research recommends further studies to design intervention strategies to better understand land rights inequalities and their implications. The outcome is expected to contribute to informing interventions to narrow these inequalities and reduce the implications that can later enhance food security.