Farmland Transfers in China: From Theoretic Framework to Practice

Abstract

Land transformation in agriculture is a crucial global issue for food safety and regional sustainable development. In the context of Chinese rural revitalization strategy, farmland transfer has become an increasingly engaging area of focus for those in a broad range of fields. In this paper, we make a comprehensive review of land transformation in agriculture through literature analysis. Farmland transfers in China were characterized as five dimensions: public policy, market mechanisms, influencing factors, optimization of spatial distribution, and practical results. Meanwhile, we shed light on limitations of the theories and methodologies for farmland transfers in previous studies, and propose the highlights of farmland transfers in China in the future: (1) refining the theoretical systems of farmland transfer under the background of transformations, (2) optimizing land use configuration for farmland transfers within the context of national strategic decisions, (3) developing the land use model supported by big data for understanding farmland transformation; (4) enhancing the comprehensive analysis and interdisciplinary application perspective for farmland transfer issues.

Keywords: land use management; review; rural revitalization strategy; sustainable development.

Figure 1

3D chart of farmland transfer literature.

Figure 2

Typical Model Summarizing Farmland Transfer in Practice. (a) the “one household manages multiple lands” model, (b) the “one farm managed by several households” model, (c) the “agricultural cooperative” model and (d) the “company + base + farmer” model.