IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v14y2025i5p948-d1643723.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can Land Transfer-In Improve Farmers’ Farmland Quality Protection Behavior? Empirical Evidence from Micro-Survey Data in Hubei Province, China

Author

Listed:
  • Sheng Xu

    (College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China)

  • Yu Xiao

    (College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China)

  • Lu Zhang

    (College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China)

  • Caiyan Yang

    (College of Economics and Management, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China)

  • Xichuan Liu

    (College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China)

Abstract

Enhancing farmers’ behaviors toward cultivated land quality protection is a crucial support in achieving sustainable agricultural development and the national food security strategy. This study aims to investigate the impact of land transfer-in on farmers’ behaviors regarding cultivated land quality protection, explore the underlying mechanisms, and analyze group heterogeneity. To achieve this, the study empirically estimates the impact of land transfer-in on farmers’ behaviors in protecting cultivated land quality using micro-survey data from 743 households in Hubei Province, while addressing endogeneity and conducting robustness checks. The study further explores the mechanisms and heterogeneity of the effects of land transfer-in on farmers’ cultivated land quality protection behaviors. The results reveal that (1) land transfer-in significantly increases the likelihood of farmers taking actual actions to protect cultivated land quality and enhances their awareness, thereby promoting protective behaviors; (2) land transfer-in facilitates these protective behaviors mainly through income incentives and social network interactions, while rental constraints may have a suppressive effect; (3) full-time farmers, those with higher agricultural literacy, those who access agricultural knowledge online, and those affected by natural disasters are more likely to engage in proactive land quality protection behaviors after land transfer-in.

Suggested Citation

  • Sheng Xu & Yu Xiao & Lu Zhang & Caiyan Yang & Xichuan Liu, 2025. "Can Land Transfer-In Improve Farmers’ Farmland Quality Protection Behavior? Empirical Evidence from Micro-Survey Data in Hubei Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-28, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:5:p:948-:d:1643723
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/5/948/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/5/948/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:5:p:948-:d:1643723. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.