Effects Of Homestead Withdrawal On Farmers’ Behavior And Efficiency Of Agricultural Production

Under the increasingly severe situation of cultivated land protection in China and the continuous expansion of urban construction land,the extensive use and idle waste of rural homesteads goes against the actual demand for intensive use of land resources,posing a challenge to China’s basic strategy of cultivated land protection and food security.The homestead withdrawal policy has become one of the important ways to solve it.From the perspective of policy objectives,the government-led withdrawal of homestead aims to coordinate urban and rural land resources and achieve arable land protection through the balance of arable land occupation and supplementation.Therefore,it usually integrates the rural land through overall planning and centralized housing.On this basis,the targets of the homestead withdrawal are expanded from farmers who have settled in cities to general farmers who still live in rural areas.However,from the practical experience of the pilot area,the homestead withdrawal not only optimizes the allocation of urban and rural land resources,but also brings about changes in the traditional intensive cultivation and planting mode of farmers,which is not conducive to the optimal allocation of agricultural production factors and the improvement of efficiency.The centralized resettlement nearby after homestead withdrawal makes farmers move to areas with convenient transportation,complete infrastructure and easy access to information.However,these areas are often far away from agricultural land,and the farming radius of farmers is greatly extended.And the area of the residential courtyard resettled is reduced or even has no courtyard,making it difficult for farmers to store farming tools and agricultural products,which reduces the convenience of agricultural production for farmers(especially those in mountainous areas).In addition,the resettlement area is convenient for migrant workers,and the degree of non-farming of withdrawal farmers deepen and their willingness to operate farmland decrease.At present,in some areas,the land circulation is not coordinated with homestead withdrawal,and problems such as the abandonment and extensive management of withdrawal farmers occur frequently.The homestead withdrawal areas are faced with dual pressures of farmland protection and agricultural production efficiency improvement.It can be seen that exploring the impact mechanism of homestead withdrawal on farmers’ factors input behavior and efficiency of agricultural production is of great significance for improving agricultural production efficiency in homestead withdrawal areas,improving homestead withdrawal policies,and further promoting farmland protection and food security.On the basis of systematically combing the theories of homestead property right theory,farmer behavior theory,rational choice theory,agricultural production theory,labor resource allocation theory and production efficiency theory,this study builds a theoretical logical framework for the impact of homestead withdrawal,farmers’ behavior of agricultural production on their agricultural production efficiency,focusing on the agricultural production behavior of farmers from two aspects of farmers’ decisions of farmland transfer and farmland abandonment,and agricultural production factor input behavior.Using the field survey data of Jinzhai County,Anhui Province,the pilot area of homestead reform in 2020,this paper empirically explores the impact of homestead withdrawal on farmers’ decisions of farmland transfer and farmland abandonment.On this basis,it further analyzes the impact of homestead withdrawal on farmers’ farmland management decision.From three aspects of farmland,labor force and capital,this paper explores the impact of homestead withdrawal on farmers’ input behavior of agricultural production factors,and analyzes the heterogeneity based on crop types.On the basis of measuring the agricultural production efficiency of farmers,this paper analyzes the impact of homestead withdrawal on the agricultural production efficiency of farmers,and analyzes the heterogeneity based on the crop types and farmers’ ages.On the basis of the above empirical analysis,we deeply explore the intermediary effect of the land,labor and capital input in the impact of homestead withdrawal on farmers’ agricultural production efficiency,and further analyze the impact path differences of homestead withdrawal on farmers’ production efficiency in different crop types and different age stages.Based on the above research,the main research conclusions of this paper include:(1)After homestead withdrawal,farmers’ farming radius has been lengthened and the convenience of agricultural production has been reduced,which is not conducive to intensive cultivation and field management.Compared with farmers who have not withdrawn,the agricultural production of withdrawn farmers is characterized by“small-scale,less labor and more investment”.The agricultural production income and output value of farmers have decreased after homestead withdrawal.Therefore,the evaluation of agricultural infrastructure,agricultural related markets and agricultural subsidy policy of farmers both withdrawn and non-withdrawn in the study area is low.In the context of homestead withdrawal,there are some practical problems in the agricultural production of farmers,such as the increase of farming difficulty due to the extension of farming radius and the reduction of courtyard area,the substantial increase of agricultural production costs,and the serious abandonment of farmland and extensive management of farmers,and the decline of agricultural production income and value.(2)The impact of homestead withdrawal on farmers’ farmland abandonment decision is significantly positive,but the impact on farmers’ farmland transfer out decision has not passed the significance test.It can be seen that homestead withdrawal promotes farmers’ decision to abandon farmland,but does not significantly promote the farmers’ transfer of farmland.And the results of the control variables show that farmland transfer can effectively reduce the occurrence of farmland abandonment behavior.On this basis,homestead withdrawal significantly reduces the farmland management decision-making of farmers.The empirical analysis of homestead withdrawal farmers shows that there is a certain difference between the influencing factors of homestead withdrawal farmers’ farmland management decisions and the scale of farmland management.Their farmland management decisions are prudent choices based on the consideration of many factors such as homestead withdrawal policy characteristics,individual and resource characteristics,while the key influencing factors of farmland management scale are relatively few.(3)Homestead withdrawal affects farmers’ input behavior of agricultural production factors.Specifically,homestead withdrawal has a significant negative impact on farmers’ farmland operation scale.Homestead withdrawal significantly reduces the total labor input and per mu input in agricultural production of farmers,but did not significantly contribute to the aging of the agricultural labor force of farmers.Homestead withdrawal significantly increases the total investment and per mu investment of farmers in agricultural production.The results of heterogeneity analysis show that homestead withdrawal has a significant negative effect on the grain crop and economic crop management scale of farmers.The influence of homestead withdrawal on the total labor time and average labor time per mu of farmers’ grain crop and economic crop is negative significant.Homestead withdrawal has a significant positive impact on the total capital input of economic crop of farmers,and has a significant positive impact on the average capital input per mu of grain crop and economic crop of farmers.In addition,farmland operation scale has a positive moderating effect on the impact of homestead withdrawal on farmers’ investment per mu of agricultural production.(4)Homestead withdrawal has a significant negative treatment effect on the agricultural production efficiency of farmers,and homestead withdrawal significantly reduces the agricultural production efficiency of farmers.From the perspective of different crops,homestead withdrawal has a significant negative impact on the grain crop efficiency and economic crop efficiency of farmers,and has a greater negative impact on the planting efficiency of economic crop.From the perspective of different ages,homestead withdrawal has a significant negative impact on the agricultural production efficiency of the young agricultural labor force and the elderly agricultural labor force,but it makes the agricultural production efficiency loss of the young agricultural labor force greater.For rural households withdrawing from homestead,the years of homestead withdrawal and the support policies for homestead withdrawal have a significant positive impact on the agricultural production efficiency of households withdrawing from homestead.With the increase of the years of homestead withdrawal,the grain crop efficiency and economic crop efficiency of rural households have significantly improved.The aid policy of homestead withdrawal significantly improve the economic crop efficiency of farmers,but has no significant impact on their grain crop efficiency.(5)Homestead withdrawal not only has a direct negative impact on the agricultural production efficiency of farmers,but also can have an indirect negative impact on their agricultural production efficiency through three intermediary paths,namely,promoting the reduction of farmers’ farmland scale,reducing labor input and increasing capital input.From the perspective of different crops: For grain crop,homestead withdrawal not only has a direct negative impact on its production efficiency,but also has an indirect negative impact on its efficiency by promoting the reduction of the scale of farmland and reducing labor input.For economic crop,homestead withdrawal not only has a direct negative impact on its production efficiency,but also has an indirect negative impact on its efficiency by reducing labor input and increasing capital input.From the perspective of different ages: For the elderly agricultural labor force,homestead withdrawal not only has a direct negative impact on its agricultural production efficiency,but also has an indirect negative impact on its agricultural production efficiency by increasing capital investment.For young agricultural labor,homestead withdrawal not only has a direct negative impact on their agricultural production efficiency,but also has an indirect negative impact on their agricultural production efficiency by promoting the reduction of the scale of farmland and reducing labor input.According to the above research conclusions,targeted countermeasures and suggestions are proposed in terms of promoting the linkage reform of homestead withdrawal,farmland transfer and farmland withdrawal,further improving the homestead withdrawal work and post withdrawal assistance policies,strengthening the construction of agricultural infrastructure in the homestead withdrawal areas,promoting the construction of agricultural industrial system in the homestead withdrawal areas,and continuously promoting the construction of agricultural productive service market.It is expected to provide some reference for improving the agricultural production efficiency of homestead withdrawal areas.