Abstract
Based on the survey data on famers in plain and hilly areas, this paper applies the descriptive statistics and logistic regression model to conduct a comparative study on the difference between both regions in terms of the influence of labor transfer on the sustainable development of farmland use. The study shows that the surplus agricultural labor force in plain and hilly areas is different from the perspective of regional supply and demand, with the convergent ratio of rural labor transfer and the ratio of land abandonment. The influences of labor force type, age, gender and number on the farmland sustainable development of hilly areas are at the confidence levels of 1, 1, 5 and 10% with negative significance; and the influence of labor force culture on the farmland sustainable development of plain is at the confidence level of 5% with positive significance. Consequently, the labor force transfer accelerate the farmland transfer in plain, increase the area of contracted-farmland by families and upgrade the production efficiency of farmland; besides, the reduction of labor force number and quality in the hilly areas lead to the severe phenomenon of land abandonment, decreased farmland use in large scale and the apparent trend of transforming the rice from two harvests to one harvest a year. Therefore, the ecological environmental renovation of farmland shall be speeded up to embark on the road of eco-agriculture and featured agriculture.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bell, S., Alves, S., de Oliveira, E.S., Zuin, A: Migration and land use change in Europe: a review. Living Rev. Landsc Res. 4 (2010)
Bolganschi, D.: Rural Out Migration and Land Use in Moldova. Center for Policy Studies, Central European University, Budapest (2011)
Chen, Y., Li, X., Zhu, H., et al.: Agriculture land use responses to increasing labor opportunity cost in Suixian County of Henan Province. Prog. Geogr. 29, 1067–1074 (2010) (in Chinese)
Chunyue, Y., Qi, L., Lishuang, X.: Rural–urban migration, rural household income and local geographical contexts—a case of Northwestern Guangxi, China. Chin. Geogr. Sci. 18, 17–23 (2008)
Damon, A.L.: Agricultural land use and asset accumulation in migrant households: the case of El Salvador. J. Dev. Stud. 46, 162–189 (2010)
Davis, J., Lopez-Carr, D.: Migration, remittances and smallholder decision-making: implications for land use and livelihood change in Central America. Land Use Policy 36, 319–329 (2014)
De Haas, H.: Migration, remittances and regional development in Southern Morocco. Geoforum 37, 565–580 (2006)
Gellrich, M., Zimmermann, N.E.: Investigating the regional-scale pattern of agricultural land abandonment in the Swiss mountains: a spatial statistical modelling approach. Landsc Urban Plan. 79, 65–76 (2007)
Gray, C.L.: Rural out-migration and smallholder agriculture in the southern Ecuadorian Andes. Popul. Environ. 30, 193–217 (2009)
Gray, C.L., Bilsborrow, R.E.: Consequences of out-migration for land use in rural Ecuador. Land Use Policy 36, 182–191 (2014)
Hostettler, S.: Land use changes and transnational migration: the impact of remittances in Western Mexico. Doctoral dissertation (2007)
Jokisch, B.D.: Migration and agricultural change: the case of smallholder agriculture in highland Ecuador. Hum. Ecol. 30, 523–550 (2002)
Jones, R.C.: Migration permanence and village decline in Zacatecas: When you can’t go home again. Prof. Geogr. 61, 382–399 (2009)
Jupiter, D.C.: Logistic models—an odd(s) kind of regression. J. Foot Ankle Surg. 52, 279–280 (2013)
Li, L., Tonts, M.: The impacts of temporary labour migration on farming systems of the loess plateau, gansu province, china. Popul. Space Place 20(4), 109–117 (2014)
Liu, G., Wang, H., Cheng, Y., Zheng, B., Lu, Z.: The impact of rural out-migration on arable land use intensity: evidence from mountain areas in guangdong, China. Land Use Policy 59, 569–579 (2016)
Lòpeza, E., Bocco, G., Mendoza, M., Velàzquez, A., Aguirre-Rivera, J.R.: Peasant emigration and land-use change at the watershed level: a GIS-based approach in Central Mexico. Agric. Syst. 90, 62–78 (2006)
Massey D., Axinn W., Ghimire D.: Environmental change and out-migration: Evidence from Nepal. Report 07-715. Population Studies Center University of Michigan Research Report, 07-615 (2007)
McCarthy, N., Carletto, G., Davis, B., Maltsoglu, I.: Assessing the Impact of Massive Out-migration on Agriculture. Agricultural and Development Economics Division (ESA) Working Paper Series. 06-14 (2006)
McKay, D.: Reading remittance landscapes: female migration and agricultural transition in the Philippines. Geograf. Tidsskr. Dan. J. Geogr. 105, 89–99 (2005)
Mendola, M.: Migration and technological change in rural households: complements or substitutes? J. Dev. Econ. 85, 150–175 (2008)
Miluka, J., Carletto, G., Davis, B., Zezza, A.: The vanishing farms? the impact of international migration on albanian family farming. J. Dev. Stud. 46(1), 140–161 (2010)
Min, Z.: An interval fuzzy chance-constrained programming model for sustainable urban land-use planning and land use policy analysis. Land Use Policy 42, 479–491 (2015)
Min, Z., Shukui, T., Lizao, T., Xiangbo, Z., Ghulam A.: An interval fuzzy land-use allocation model (IFLAM) for Beijing in association with environmental and ecological consideration under uncertainty. Qual Quant, DOI 10.1007/s11135-014-0108-6. (2014)
Qin, H.: Rural-to-urban labor migration, household livelihoods, and the rural environment in Chongqing municipality, Southwest China. Hum. Ecol. 38, 675–690 (2010)
Qin, H., Liao, T.F.: Labor out-migration and agricultural change in rural china: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J. Rural Stud. 47, 533–541 (2016)
Ruishan, C., Chao, Y., Yunlong, C., Xiaoshi, X., Qiong, C.: The impact of rural out-migration on land use transition in China: past, present and trend. Land Use Policy 40, 101–110 (2014)
Sando, R.A.: Doing the work of two generations: the impact of out-migration on the elderly in rural Taiwan. J. Cross-Cult. Geront. 1, 163–175 (1986)
Shao, J., Zhang, S., Li, X.: Effectiveness of farmland transfer in alleviating farmland abandonment in mountain regions. J. Geogr. Sci. 26(2), 203–218 (2016)
Sikor, T., Müller, D., Stahl, J.: Land fragmentation and cropland abandonment in albania: implications for the roles of state and community in post-socialist land consolidation. World Dev. 37, 1141–1423 (2009)
Taiyang, Z., Xiuying, Z., Xianjin, H.: Impact of labor transfer on agricultural land use conversion at rural household level based on logit model. Chin. Geogra. Sci. 18, 300–307 (2008)
Taylor, J.E., Rozelle, S., De Brauw, A.: Migration and incomes in source communities: a new economics of migration perspective from China. Economic Econ. Dev. Cul. Change 52, 75–101 (2003)
Taylor, M.J., Aguilarstøen, M., Castellanos, E., Morantaylor, M.J., Gerkin, K.: International migration, land use change and the environment in ixcán, guatemala. Land Use Policy 54, 290–301 (2016)
VanWey, L.K., Guedes, G.R., D’Antona, Ă.O.: Out-migration and land-use change in agricultural frontiers: insights from Altamira settlement project. Popul. Environ. 34, 44–68 (2012)
Wouterse, F., Taylor, J.E.: Migration and income diversification: evidence from Burkina Faso. World Dev. 36, 625–640 (2008)
Acknowledgements
This work is financially supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (Grant No. 14BGL156) and the National Natural Science Fund of China (Grant No. 41071069). Authors are thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Any remaining errors are the authors’ own responsibility.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, L., Tan, S., Liu, C. et al. Influence of labor transfer on farmland sustainable development: a regional comparison of plain and hilly areas. Qual Quant 52, 431–443 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-017-0476-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-017-0476-9