Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Screening of agricultural land productivity and returning farmland to forest area for sensitivity to rural labor outward migration in the ecologically fragile Loess Plateau region

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The mechanism of the non-agricultural transfer of rural labor to agricultural production efficiency and their interrelationships is a problem worthy of further discussion at this stage in China. The mediating effect model is constructed, the least square method is used for regression, and the instrumental variable method is used to solve the possible endogeneity problem. Through the investigation of farmers in Loess Plateau region, this paper analyzes the effects of factor substitution and planting structure adjustment after agricultural labors work outside and its impact on agricultural land output from the theoretical and empirical aspects, as well as the impact of off-farm employment on agricultural land output under different constraints. Results showed that the negative influence of labor non-agricultural transfer on farmland land output rate is − 7.264, and farmers’ participation in returning farmland to forests can alleviate the negative impact of non-agricultural transfer on the agricultural land output. Labor substitution factor investment plays a part in the mediating effect, and part of the mediating effect is − 0.879. The adjustment of agricultural planting structure plays the whole mediating effect, that is to say, the larger the scale of labor non-agricultural transfer in Loess Plateau area, the more unfavorable for farmers to invest in labor substitution agricultural factors of production, and the more they are inclined to grow food crops. When the constraint conditions of factor substitution difficulty and planting structure adjustment space are considered, the higher the factor substitution difficulty is, the smaller the planting structure adjustment space; the negative effect of the non-agricultural transfer of labor on the agricultural land output rate is more obvious. It provides effective reference value to judge the development stage and trend of regional agriculture and puts forward relevant policy suggestions to guarantee the development of regional agriculture and farmers’ life.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Data source: “2018 migrant workers monitoring survey report”

References

  • Adams RH, Cuecuecha A (2010) Remittances, household expenditure and investment in Guatemala. World Dev 38:1626–1641

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Azam JP, Gubert F (2005) Those in Kayes. The impact of remittances on their recipients in Africa. Revue Économique 56:1331–1358

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baron RM, Kenny DA (1986) The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical consideration. J Pers Soc Psychol 51:1173–1182

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chavas JP, Petrie R, Roth M (2005) Farm household production efficiency: evidence from the Gambia, pp 160-179

  • Chiodi V, Jaimovich E, Montes-Rojas G (2012) Migration, remittances and capital accumulation: evidence from rural Mexico. J Dev Stud 48:1139–1155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damon LA (2010) Agricultural land use and asset accumulation in migrant households: the case of El Salvador. J Dev Stud 46:162–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis J, Lopez-Carr D (2014) Migration, remittances and smallholder decision-making: implications for land use and livelihood change in Central America. Land Use Policy 36:319–329

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DE BRAUW A, ROZELLE S (2008) Migration and household investment in rural China. China Econ Rev 19:320–335

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fan S (1991) Effects of technological change and institutional reform on production growth in Chinese agriculture. AM J AGR ECON 73:266–275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feng S, Heerink N, Qin L, Pan S (2010) Land rental market,off-farm employment and agricultural production in southeast China:A plot-level case study. China Econ Rev 21(4):598–606

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gartaula HN, Niehof A, Visser LE (2012) Shifting perceptions of food security and land in the context of labor out-migration in rural Nepal. Food Secur 4:181–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghebru HH, Holden ST (2013) Efficiency and productivity differential effects of land certification program in Ethiopia: quasi-experimental evidence from Tigray. Essp Working Papers

  • Goodwin BK, Mishra AK (2004) Farming efficiency and the determinants of multiple job holding by farm operators. Am J Agr EcoN

  • Heltberg R (1998) Rural market imperfections and the farm size— productivity relationship: Evidence from Pakistan. 26:1807–1826

  • Huang J, Wu Y, Rozelle S (2009) Moving off the farm and intensifying agricultural production in Shandong: a case study of rural labor market linkages in China. Agric Econ-Blackwell 40:203–218

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ji Y, Yu X, Zhong F (2012) Machinery investment decision and off-farm employment in rural China. China Econ Rev 23:71–80

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kong F, Fan B, Chen S (2016). Relationship between fragmentized collective forestland, farmers investment and forest commodity output ∓ 58; an analysis on nine provinces farmers survey data in China. (In chinese)

  • Lai H (2015) Maximum likelihood estimation of the stochastic frontier model with endogenous switching or sample selection. J Prod Anal 43:105–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lamb RL, Economics JOD, Rosenzweig MR (2003) Inverse productivity: land quality, labor markets, and measurement error. J Dev Econ 71:71–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lanjouw P, Murgai R, Stern N (2013) Nonfarm diversification, poverty, economic mobility, and income inequality: a case study in village India. Agric Econ-Blackwell 44:461–473

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li-min H, Da-lei P, Cheng-wu L (2010) Changes of the scale and structure of agricultural laborer and their impacts on food production—empirical study on YinshanPo Village, Suizhou City. Asian Agric Res 2:25–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin JY (1992) Rural reforms and agricultural growth in China. Am Econ Rev 82:34–51.

  • Lokshin M, Sajaia Z (2004) Maximum likelihood estimation of endogenous switching regression models. Stata J 4:282–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ma X, Heerink N, Ierland E, Shi X (2014) Land tenure insecurity and rural-urban migration in rural China. Pap Reg Sci 95:383–406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mathenge MK, Smale M, Schirley D (2015) Off-farm employment and input intensification among smallholder maize farmers in Kenya. J Agric Econ 66(2):519–536

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mccarthy N, Carletto C, Kilic T, Davis B (2009) Assessing the impact of massive out-migration on Albanian agriculture. Eur J Dev Res 21:448–470

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miluka J, Carletto G, Davis B, Zezza A (2010) The vanishing farms? The impact of international migration on Albanian family farming. J Dev Stud 46:140–161

  • Min M, Jiaying C (2012) A spatial econometrics analysis on regional disparities of agricultural mechanization in China. in First International Conference on Agro-geoinformatics

  • Nguyen LD, Raabe K, Grote U (2015) Rural–urban migration, household vulnerability, and welfare in Vietnam. World Dev 71:79–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qi Y, Tang C (2017) Effect of labor migration on cultivated land planting structure in rural China. Transactions of the Chinese Society of Agricultural Engineering

  • Quisumbing AR, Mcniven S (2010) Moving forward, looking back: the impact of migration and remittances on assets, consumption, and credit constraints in the rural Philippines. J Dev Stud 46:91–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Randazzo T, Piracha M (2014) Remittances and household expenditure behaviour in Senegal. Iza discussion papers 79

  • Ren, T., and Z. Peng. 2018. The Impact of Farmers' Non-agricultural Employment on Land Transfer in Underdeveloped Areas: An Empirical Analysis Based on Yunnan Province. Journal of Yunnan Agricultural University. (In chinese)

  • Rozelle S, Taylor JE, DeBrauw A (1999) Migration, remittances, and agricultural productivity in China. Am Econ Rev 89:287–291

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stark O (1991) The migration of labor. Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, Oxford, p 26

    Google Scholar 

  • Takahashi K, Otsuka K (2009) The increasing importance of nonfarm income and the changing use of labor and capital in rice farming: the case of Central Luzon, 1979–2003. Agric Econ-Blackwell 40:231–242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor JE (1992) Remittances and inequality reconsidered: direct, indirect, and intertemporal effects. J Policy Model 14:187–208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor JE, Mora J (2006) Does migration reshape expenditures in rural households? Evidence from Mexico. Policy Research Working Paper, 1-43(43)

  • Wang C, Rada N, Qin L, Pan S (2014) Impacts of migration on household production choices: evidence from China. J Dev Stud 50:413–425

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wen ZL, Ye BJ (2014) Analyses of mediating effects: the development of methods and models. Adv Psychol Sci 22:731–745

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wouterse F, Taylor JE (2008) Migration and income diversification: evidence from Burkina Faso. World Dev 36:625–640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu HX, Meng X (1996) Do Chinese farmers reinvest in grain production? China Econ Rev 7(2):123–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu J, Fang S, Li G, Xu G (2017) The spillover effect of agricultural mechanization on grain output in China: from the perspective of cross-regional mechanization service. Chin Rural Econ

  • Xuan-Liang GE, Chun-Rong Q , Yang YU et al (2017) Analysis of Yield Characteristics and Production Benefit of Maize Under Different Fertilization Patterns in South Central of Songnen Plain[J]. Heilongjiang Agricultural sciences. (In chinese)

  • Yang J, Wang H, Jin S, Chen K, Riedinger J, Peng C (2016) Migration, local off-farm employment, and agricultural production efficiency: evidence from China. J Prod Anal 45:247–259.

  • Yu W, Jensen HG (2010) China’s agricultural policy transition: impacts of recent reforms and future scenarios. J Agric Econ 61:343–368.

  • Yu Z, Wu Z, Wang M, Yang D, Fang C (2009) Do migrants really save more? Understanding the impact of remittances on Savings in Rural China. J Dev Stud 48:654–672

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhao K (2011) Land sragmentation and its quantitative measurement method. China Land Science.

Download references

Funding

This survey is funded by the National Key Research and Development Program (2016YFC0501707).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Linfei Li, Sufyan Ullah Khan, Xianli Xia, Huili Zhang & Chenhao Guo

  2. Institute of Soil and Water Conservation, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, Shaanxi, China

    Sufyan Ullah Khan

Authors
  1. Linfei Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sufyan Ullah Khan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Xianli Xia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Huili Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Chenhao Guo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xianli Xia.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, L., Khan, S.U., Xia, X. et al. Screening of agricultural land productivity and returning farmland to forest area for sensitivity to rural labor outward migration in the ecologically fragile Loess Plateau region. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 26442–26462 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09022-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09022-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation