Research On The Influencing Factors Of Farmer’s Land Transfer Behavior In The Process Of Urbanization

In the past 30 years of reform and opening, China’s economy has developed rapidly. Agriculture has made great achievements and played an important contribution in the process. Especially the household responsibility system (HRS), the core of reforms to China’s land institutions, has broken the old management system which land owned and managed by the collective, has liberated China’s rural productive forces greatly, and has enhanced the farmer’s productive enthusiasm. In recent years, with the accelerated urbanization and industrialization, the opportunity and number of off farm employment have increased greatly, more and more rural labor force move into China’s cities and the speed and scale of land rental markets have accelerated.This article focuses on the influencing factors of farmer’s land transfer behavior in the process of urbanization, based on the farmer’s data collected field surveys in 9 countries、36 villages in provinces of Zhejiang, Henan and Sichuan. Specifically, first of all, it makes a brief description about the situation of China’s rural land rental markets and off farm employment during 2003-2012. Secondly, it conducts a statistical description of rural land rental markets in the sample areas and finds the relationship between rural land rental markets and off farm employed、personal characteristic of householder, household characteristics、natural feature of villages. Next, with the Logit Model and Probit Model, it further analyzes the factors that influence farmer’s land transfer behavior with farmer’s land transfer behavior or the Areas of transferred land as the dependent variable. Through above analysis, the paper comes to the conclusion that: (1) the speed and scale of land rental markets are developing rapidly during 2003-2012, but vary significantly across different districts:the proportion and the Areas of transferred land in economics developed districts is higher than the economics underdeveloped ones; (2) nowadays, the number of off farm employment is increasing greatly and there is a clear relationship between the transfer of rural labor force and the land rental markets; (3) there is a positive relationship between farmer’s land transfer behavior and personal characteristic of householder、household characteristics;(4) there is a negative correlation between natural feature of villages and farmer’s land transfer behavior. Finally, we give the relevant policy proposals to promote land transfer:(1) make the management service of the local government and village collective function well; (2) strengthen the rural education, increase opportunity of off farm employment and quicken the speed of rural labor force transferred; (3) establish and improve the new rural medical cooperative system and rural social endowment insurance system, make the rural social security system perfect.