Labor migration and farmland abandonment in rural China: Empirical results and policy implications

Global soybean trade intensifies the impacts of dietary transition on human mobility

Soybeans have experienced massive growth in trade due to diet transitions. Large imports reduce expected returns for soybean growers in importer countries, influencing occupational choices and potentially facilitating population mobility, though the distant correlation's impact remains unclear. We develop a framework integrating diet dynamics, trade indexes, and human mobility. We found: (1) dietary transition promotes human mobility through global soybean trade; (2) rural areas contribute far less than urban areas, illustrating decoupling between rural regions and international trade; (3) enhancing rural-trade coupling could improve dietary and crop flow in rural regions; (4) the study provides a new perspective on how dietary transition promotes human mobility. These findings help policymakers identify soybean trade strategies for socioeconomic development and formulate interventions to optimize population distribution. By addressing rural decoupling, we emphasize aligning rural areas with global trade to mitigate mobility pressures and socioeconomic disparities, without altering original terms.

Tracking and analyzing the spatio-temporal changes of rice planting structure in Poyang Lake using multi-model fusion method with sentinel-2 multi temporal data

Accurate and efficient extraction of rice planting structures, coupled with comprehensive analysis of their spatiotemporal dynamics and driving factors, is crucial for rice yield estimation and optimized water resource management in the Poyang Lake region. However, traditional approaches face significant limitations: single machine learning models often yield insufficient classification accuracy, while existing fusion models typically involve complex processing workflows and exhibit low computational efficiency. To address these challenges, this study developed an efficient and simplified fusion model based on a scoring strategy to determine rice planting structures from 2018 to 2023, followed by an in-depth analysis of their spatiotemporal patterns and underlying drivers. The evaluation results demonstrated that four individual classification models of K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Random Forest (RF), Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT) achieved Overall Accuracy of 85.29%-90.07%, Kappa coefficients of 0.786-0.855, User Accuracy of 80.51%-93.02%, and Mapping Accuracy of 80.87%-92.63%. The proposed scoring-based fusion model significantly enhanced these metrics, improving Overall Accuracy by 3.36%-9.16%, Kappa coefficient by 5.15%-14.38%, User Accuracy by 0.37%-11.13%, and Mapping Accuracy by 0.48%-10.71%. Spatiotemporal analysis revealed distinct trends in rice cultivation patterns: single-cropping rice and regenerated rice showed consistent expansion, both in planting area and proportion, with a spatial tendency towards flat regions. Conversely, double-cropping rice exhibited a gradual decline, with its cultivation areas contracting towards the central lake region. These shifts were primarily driven by socioeconomic factors, particularly rural labor migration and rising fertilizer prices, which have incentivized farmers to adopt less labor-intensive and lower-input cultivation systems, such as single-cropping and regenerated rice. The findings offer a novel methodological framework for precise extraction of crop planting structures, and a scientific foundation for local governments to develop targeted water resource management strategies.

Forging new pathways: How farmland abandonment affects decision-making of non-grain production - Insight from China's mountainous areas

The shift in crop growth in rural households towards non-grain crops is a focus of concern in China's grain security. Land allocation decisions by rural households to abandon farmland can affect crop growth decisions. Prior studies on the relationship between farmland abandonment and rural households' crop growing decisions have been insufficient. This study presents a theoretical framework that encompasses land, labor force, and capital. Using unique survey data from 2448 rural households in China's mountainous areas, we employ an endogenous switching regression model for empirical estimation. The findings demonstrate that farmland abandonment significantly promoted rural households to grow grain crops on their remaining farmland. If rural households had not abandoned their farmland, the crop acreage used for growing non-grain crops would have increased by 16.4%. The effects of abandonment on non-grain production decision-making vary based on per capita farmland area, farmland transfer, and agricultural social services. Furthermore, farmland abandonment by rural households affects decision-making regarding non-grain production by adjusting the agricultural labor force supply. Thus, under policies such as farmland protection and food security, it is necessary to balance the goals of replanting abandoned farmland and preventing non-grain crop growth in mountainous areas, with a focus on enhancing the level of mechanization.

Exploring provincial farmland use and demand through coupling production efficiency under domestic trade across China

Exploring farmland production efficiency and demand is helpful to realize the efficient, economical and intensive use of farmland. This study improved the farmland production efficiency evaluation system by incorporating both natural and anthropogenic indices, calculated the farmland use embodied in domestic trade, identified the realistic farmland demand under the assumption of no domestic trade and explored the potentiality of farmland demand reduction by considering the efficiency difference. The results showed that the farmland production efficiencies were high in the eastern coastal, mid-western and northern regions, while the efficiencies of some major grain-producing areas (MGPAs) were low. Embodied in domestic trade, compared with other areas, MGPAs undertook higher direct and indirect farmland use with lower production efficiencies. However, the realistic farmland demand of high-efficiency regions was lower than their initial farmland use area. By coupling production efficiency, the land-use pattern that high-efficiency regions provide farmland externally could create 7.49 × 104 km2 of farmland demand reduction potentiality for the whole country under the current domestic trade system. Some suggestions have been made to reduce the current farmland demand, such as improving the overall production efficiency by strengthening the management of natural elements input, narrowing the efficiency gap between regions by promoting agricultural technology progress, optimizing planting and industrial structure, and adjusting the policy of major grain-producing areas by rationally planning agricultural development and accelerating land transfer.

Rural human settlement environment, non-agricultural transfer of labour and arable land abandonment in China

The arable land abandonment caused by the large-scale non-agricultural transfer of labour has attracted substantial attention from all walks of life in China. Promoting improvement in human settlement environment can accelerate the construction of infrastructure, ameliorate grassroots organization and enhance management capacities while simultaneously decelerating agricultural production costs. High level of human settlement environment can also attract the labour force to return, stimulate the vitality of rural elements and endogenous powers. Then, can improving rural human settlement environment alleviate the phenomenon of arable land abandonment caused by non-agricultural labour transfer? In order to answer this question, based on the micro-survey data of 1325 households in 5 provinces of China, this paper uses the Tobit model to empirically test the effects of rural human settlement environment and non-agricultural transfer of labour on arable land abandoned. The results revealed that rural human settlement can alleviate the arable land abandonment caused by non-agricultural transfer of labour to a certain extent. In particular, the improvement of rural human settlement environment that mainly based on the infrastructure construction and organizational management level, has significantly alleviated the arable land abandonment caused by the non-agricultural transfer of labour. Heterogeneity analysis disclosed that, compared with mountainous and hilly areas, the improvement of rural human settlement environment had a more obvious mitigation effect on arable land abandonment in plain areas. Promoting infrastructure construction and strengthening organizational management ability were effective ways to alleviate arable land abandonment in plain areas. Farmer households with high place attachment level were more likely to be attracted by the improvement of rural human settlement environment to return to their hometown, so as to make use of arable land resources. Improving infrastructure, strengthening organizational management level, and promoting cultural and community development were the main measures for farmer households with high place attachment level to reduce arable land abandonment. In addition, there were significant differences in arable land abandonment and its driving factors in different regions. In the central and eastern regions or major grain-producing areas, improving human settlement environment had a significant mitigation effect on arable land abandonment. Therefore, improving the rural human settlement environment according to local conditions, promoting the supportive policy will be inclined to mountainous and hilly areas, enhancing the attractiveness of rural areas, encouraging farmers with high place attachment level to return to their hometowns for employment and entrepreneurship, and accelerating the cultivation of new types of agricultural operators, which will help alleviate the arable land abandonment caused by non-agricultural transfer of labour.

Evaluation of the efficiency and drivers of complemented cropland in Southwest China over the past 30 years from the perspective of cropland abandonment

Complemented croplands are a crucial component of cropland resources and play a significant role in ensuring national food security. In recent decades, to counter the loss of prime farmland caused by urban construction, the Chinese government introduced a requisition-compensation balance policy, leading to the substantial expansion of new croplands. Therefore, there is an urgent need to determine whether these complemented croplands can be effectively used. Taking Southwest China as a case study, we used high-precision long-term land-use data from 1990 to 2020 to reveal the dynamics of complemented cropland utilization, evaluate the efficiency of complemented cropland utilization from the perspective of abandoned farmland, and identify the factors driving complemented cropland use efficiency based on more than 13 million land parcels. The results showed that: (1) From 1990 to 2020, complemented cropland amounted to approximately 1170.07 × 104 hm2, accounting for 32.67% of the total arable land area in 1990. The potential grain production capacity of these complemented croplands was significantly lower than that of base croplands. (2) The abandonment of complemented croplands was more serious than that of base croplands, and 47.03% of the complemented croplands experienced abandonment at least once during the study period, and the average efficiency of the complemented croplands was 75.61%. (3) The labor population ratio, elevation, and land parcel size played pivotal roles in influencing the complemented cropland utilization efficiency; however, there was substantial variation among the different provinces. Labor replacement, overcoming farming difficulties brought by mountainous terrain, and improving farmers' income are the keys to alleviating cropland abandonment in mountainous areas and improving cropland utilization efficiency. This study provides novel insights into the efficiency assessment and exploration of the mechanisms driving complemented croplands and can provide references for cropland management.

Heterogeneity and threshold in the effect of agricultural machinery on farmers' relative poverty

Machinery is commonly used in the modernization of agricultural industries and is a pivotal way to eliminate poverty among farmers. However, there are still disputes regarding the effects of agricultural machinery on farmers' relative poverty. Neither the heterogeneity nor the thresholds in agricultural machinery-led poverty reduction efforts have been discussed in depth. To address those gaps, this study considers farmers' livelihood factors and resource (in)divisibility to investigate how agricultural machinery affects farmers' relative poverty as well as the heterogeneity of and thresholds in that influence. This study collected data from 1118 Chinese farming households. 2SLS-IVTobit regression results show that a 1% increase in the overall level of agricultural machinery leads to a 3.3% increase in farmers' income and a 0.523% decrease in their relative poverty. Furthermore, the three pathways of cost-saving, production efficiency, and labor allocation efficiency are identified as explaining 25.4%, 21.9%, and 21.3% of relative poverty reduction, respectively. The heterogeneity of these effects across different farming stages (i.e., plowing, sowing, and harvesting) is also examined, and the results show that plowing machinery has the largest effect. Then, a threshold analysis is conducted, which shows that farmers are influenced more when the scale of their farms surpasses the threshold of 1.12 hm2. Theoretically, this study establishes an integrated model that depicts how agricultural machinery affects farmers' relative poverty through production (in)divisibility. Practically, this study recommends additional investment in agricultural machinery (especially plowing machinery), farmland integration, and taking targeted measures to facilitate resource divisibility.

The role of harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) products to reveal multiple trajectories and determinants of cropland abandonment in subtropical mountainous areas

Cropland abandonment is a widespread land-change process globally, which can stem from the accelerated outmigration of the population from rural to urban areas, socio-economic and political changes, catastrophes, and other trigger events. Clouds limit the utility of optical satellite data to monitor cropland abandonment in highly fragmented mountain agricultural landscapes of tropical and subtropical regions, including the south of China. Taking Nanjing County of China as an example, we developed a novel approach by utilizing multisource satellite (Landsat and Sentinel-2) imagery to map multiple trajectories of cropland abandonment (transitioning from cropland to grassland, shrubs and forest) in subtropical mountainous landscapes. Then, we employed a redundancy analysis (RDA) to identify the spatial association of cropland abandonment considering agricultural productivity, physiography, locational characteristics and economic factors. Results indicate the great suitability of harmonized Landsat 8 and Sentinel-2 images to distinguish multiple trajectories of cropland abandonment in subtropical mountainous areas. Our framework of mapping cropland abandonment resulted in good producer's (78.2%) and user's (81.3%) accuracies. The statistical analysis showed 31.85% of croplands cultivated in 2000 were abandoned by 2018, and more than a quarter of townships experienced cropland abandonment with high abandoned rates (>38%). Cropland abandonment mainly occurred in relatively unfavorable areas for agricultural production, for instance with a slope above 6°. Slope and the proximity to the nearest settlement explained 65.4% and 8.1% of the variation of cropland abandonment at the township level, respectively. The developed approaches on both mapping cropland abandonment and modeling determinants can be highly relevant to monitor multiple trajectories of cropland abandonment and ascribe their determinants not only in mountainous China but also elsewhere and thus promote the formulation of land-use policies that aim to steer cropland abandonment.

Study on the spatio-temporal evolution and influencing factors of farmland abandonment on a county scale

The protection of farmland resources is related to world food security, as well as the smooth realization of the goals of UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and China's Rural Revitalization Plan. As the most active region in the global economic development and one of the main grain producing areas, the problem of farmland abandonment in the Yangtze River Delta gradually appears with the rapid development of urbanization. Therefore, based on the interpretation data of remote sensing images and field survey data of three periods in 2000, 2010, and 2018, this study used Moran's I and geographical barycenter model to reveal the spatiotemporal evolution law of farmland abandonment in Pingyang County of the Yangtze River Delta. And then, this study selected 10 indicators covering four categories: geography, proximity, distance, and policy, and used random forest model to reveal the main influencing factors of farmland abandonment in the study area. The results showed that the abandoned farmland increased from 441.58 hm² in 2000 to 5797.40 hm² in 2018. The hot spot and barycenter of land abandonment gradually shifted from the western mountainous areas to the eastern plain areas. Altitude and slope were the main factors affecting the farmland abandonment. The high the altitude and the great the slope, the farmland abandonment in mountainous areas were serious. The proximity factors had a greater impact on the expansion of farmland abandonment from 2000 to 2010, and then the impact weakened. In view of the above analysis, the countermeasures and suggestions for maintaining food security were finally put forward.

Does labor transfer affect rural household cooking fuel choice? Examining the role of income

It's the direction of all humankind's joint efforts to develop clean cooking fuels and reduce carbon emissions vigorously. While most studies found that householder and family characteristics influence household cooking fuel choice, few studies focus on the relationship between labor transfer and the choice of clean cooking fuels. Based on the three-phase survey data of the China Labor-Force Dynamic Survey in 2012, 2014, and 2016, this paper analyzes the influence of labor transfer on rural households' cooking fuel choice. It focuses on the mediating role of income and the heterogeneity of labor transfer on household cooking fuel choice under different educational levels and location conditions. The results show that (1) from 2012 to 2016, there are regional differences in the development of clean cooking fuels; (2) labor transfer can promote households to choose clean cooking fuels, and this result remains robust after controlling for endogeneity; (3) labor transfer indirectly influences household cooking fuel choice through affecting family income; and (4) the impact of labor transfer on household cooking fuel choice varies with different education levels and location conditions. Therefore, analyzing the optimization of rural cooking energy structure from the perspective of labor transfer plays an important role in ensuring the sustainable development of clean cooking fuels in rural areas.

Exploring the impact of rural labor transfer on the production and ecological sustainability of crop planting structure in China

With the improvement of industrialization, numerous rural laborers migrate to urban areas in search of off-farm jobs. Farmers change agricultural production decisions to adapt to the change of labor force, which will inevitably affect the crop planting structure. However, few studies have explored the sustainability of crop planting structure. Based on the calculation of the multiple cropping index (MCI), grain crops planting rate (GCR), economic crops planting rate (ECR), and ecological sustainability index (ESI) of crop planting structure, this study analyzes the impact of labor transfer rate (LTR) and labor cost (LC) on the sustainability of crop planting structure using a geographically and temporally weighted regression (GTWR) model. The results show that the scale of rural labor transfer and labor cost in China remains on the rise, but the growth rate has slowed down. The total carbon absorption of crops in China shows a U-shape trend, and the rice and maize have the largest carbon absorption. The impact of LTR on MCI is mainly positive, especially in the North China Plain in the early stage and some provinces in the Southwest China in the later stage. The impact of LTR on ECR and ESI is negative in most provinces. And the negative influence of LC on MCI is increasing, showing the spatial distribution characteristics of large influence in the southeast and small influence in the northwest. The impact of LC on ESI shows a negative effect in most provinces in the early stage, and the negative effect is more concentrated in some provinces in the southwest in the later stage.

Reveal the severe spatial and temporal patterns of abandoned cropland in China over the past 30 years

The abandonment phenomenon is familiar in China. It threatens food security and seriously affects the sustainable development of society, the economy, and the natural environment. However, monitoring and mapping abandoned cropland on a large scale remains a challenge because of its complex land-use change process. According to the World Food and Agriculture Organization, cropland not used for agricultural production for more than 5 years is defined as abandoned cropland. This study uses the Landsat high-precision long-time series product to detect cropland nationwide from 1990 to 2019 by using the sliding window method on Google Earth Engine to profile the spatial distribution, intensity, trend, frequency, and recultivation of abandoned cropland. Between 1992 and 2015, the results illustrate that the total area of abandoned cropland in China was 559,170.26 km², 18.59 % of the cropland area. Excluding the recultivated cropland area, China's abandoned cropland area amounted to 392,156.24 km², 13.03 % of the total cropland. Cropland abandonment is mainly distributed in the second terrain gradient in midwestern and southwestern regions such as Inner Mongolia and Gansu. It rarely happens in western and eastern coastal areas. A high abandonment rate area usually has high elevation and slope. The light index is negatively correlated with the abandonment rate in suburban areas. This study is the first to map the spatiotemporal distribution of abandoned cropland in China with high precision at 30 m resolution. It provides an important basis for policies regarding the recultivation of abandoned cropland.

Energy Consumption Structure and Influencing Factors of Farmers in China from the Perspective of Labor Transfer

Under the background of carbon peak and carbon neutralization, the transformation and upgrading of energy consumption structure is crucial to achieve sustainable environmental development. Based on the questionnaire data of 1080 farmers in Sichuan province in 2021, the IV-Probit model was used to explore the impact of labor from off-farm employment on farmers' energy consumption structure and its specific mechanism. The results show the following: (1) the overall proportion of off-farm employment is not high, only 23%; in cooking energy, the most farmers use high-quality energy, accounting for up to 94%; (2) in addition to high-quality energy, off-farm employment of labor force is positively and significantly correlated with the remaining six types of energy consumption structure. The results of a heterogeneity analysis show that the proportion of off-farm employment of farmers with a high education level and above has the greatest positive effect on the use of high-quality energy; (3) the results of the mediating effect show that the off-farm employment can affect the energy consumption structure of farmers through the two paths of annual cash income and population structure.

Integrating water science, economics, and policy for future climate adaptation

Water science, water economics, and water policy issues continue to rise in importance internationally as elevated population, income growth, and climate change magnify scarcity, shortages, and injustices in water access. Based on the unique physical, institutional, and economic characteristics of water, this work's first contribution is to characterize a road forward for research innovations that enable better integration of water science, water economics, and water policy. Meeting water's sustainable development and justice goals calls for several research innovations that humanity awaits. The advances called for in this work include deep uncertainty management, red team reviews, innovative water rights design, accelerating SDG achievement, valuing water infrastructure, valuing natural water retention, incentivizing water conservation, improving financial performance of rural water systems, water network modularization, non-price scarcity signals, optimization model calibration, remote sensing, transboundary benefit sharing, optimal growth, and water valuation. The work's second contribution is to present a prototype scalable basin scale hydroeconomic analysis (HEA) as a framework for integrating these above innovations when they occur. Results of the HEA show that losses from a 50% shortage in the basin's surface water supply can continue to protect 93% of total economic benefits across economic sectors if an efficient water trading system is established to move water from lower to higher valued uses when shortages occur. The work concludes by noting that great advances remain needed for better and longer lives.

Non-linear effects of heterogeneous environmental regulations on industrial relocation: Do compliance costs work?

Reasonably designing environmental regulations for compliance-driven industrial relocation can avoid new pollution havens. The Cournot duopoly model simulates that the necessary condition for industrial relocation is differentiated market costs. Then, based on the province-industrial data of six Chinese pollution-intensive industries during 2005-2019, this study applies spatial Durbin model to explore the non-linear effects of heterogeneous environmental regulations on industrial relocation. Results shown that command-and-control environmental regulation manifests a U-shaped curve with local industrial relocation, with inverted U-shaped spillover effect radiating a road distance of 650 km, and both internal and external costs play the mediating roles; Market incentive environmental regulation has inverted U-shaped curves with industrial relocation in local and neighboring regions, it creates dual costs and works well in both short and long terms, which is the most potential regulatory tool to avoid pollution relocation accompanying industrial relocation; Voluntary environmental regulation exhibits inverted U-shaped relationships with industrial relocation in direct and spillover effects, and works through increased external cost rather than internal cost. Its spatial spillover radiates the longest 1250 km due to rapid spread of public opinions, but this effect takes more than 3 years to be effective.

Internet use and land transfer in: empirical evidence from China's rural panel data

In the context of the Internet power strategy, "Internet + agriculture" has gradually become a key force in realizing agricultural modernization. Based on the data of the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey 2012, 2014, and 2016, this paper uses conditional mixed process (CMP) to solve the endogeneity problem and tests the impact and mechanism of Internet use on farmers' land transfer in. The results showed that (1) from 2012 to 2016, the proportion of farmers using the Internet increased in turn, while the proportion of farmers transferring in land decreased in turn. (2) Farmers' Internet use is significantly negatively correlated with land transfer in. In 2012, 2014, and 2016, each unit increase in the proportion of farmers' Internet use reduces the probability of land transfer in by 2.6%, 10.7%, and 20.8%, respectively. (3) The analysis of mediating effects shows that the Internet can promote land transfer in by expanding social networks and inhibit land transfer in by improving the stability of non-agricultural employment, and both are partial mediating effects. From the micro-perspective of farmers' Internet use, this study can strengthen our understanding of Internet use and land transfer behavior decision-making and then provide a reference for rural digitalization construction and land transfer-related policy making.

Status, Trend, and Prospect of Global Farmland Abandonment Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

Farmland abandonment is one of the most important land use changes in the world today and crucial to the sustainable development of the global environment. The authors carried out extensive research on farmland abandonment from many perspectives, but, due to the variety of the research contents, rich research perspectives, and complex research objects, the current research in this field lacks comprehensiveness, objectivity, and systematization. In this study, the bibliometric R software packages bibliometrix and biblioshiny (K-Synth Srl, Naples, Italy) were used to analyze the development history and current situation of 896 articles on farmland abandonment in the Web of Science core collection database from 1980 to 2021, revealing their research hotspots and predicting the future development trends. Over the past 40 years, the number of published papers on abandoned farmland has continuously increased. Research mainly focused on the ecological environment, with natural succession, biodiversity, and vegetation restoration being high-frequency keywords in this field. Research on the social aspects of farmland abandonment has developed rapidly in the past 6 years. Based on these findings, this paper put forward four future research directions: the data source for the extraction of abandoned farmland should transform to high spatial-temporal resolution and hyperspectral remote sensing images; the method should pay more attention to the time series change detection and the application of the model; future research should focus on the economic costs of the reclamation of abandoned farmland and the ecological consequences of such reclamation; and the global ecological impact of vegetation succession after the abandonment of farmland should be further discussed from a broader perspective.

Assessing the sustainability index of part-time and full-time hazelnut farms in Giresun and Ordu Province, Turkey

The study's primary purposes were to assess the sustainability of hazelnut farms and explore the effects of part-time and full-time farming types on sustainability in hazelnut production in the Giresun and Ordu Province of Turkey. One hundred fifty-two hazelnut farms were selected using the stratified sampling method, and data were collected by using face-to-face questionnaires. Several steps were taken, including using factor analysis after standardizing the variables to determine their weights to calculate the composite hazelnut farms' sustainability index. The research findings showed that overall hazelnut sustainability scores of farms varied from 0.28 to 0.59, and the average score was 0.44 at sampled farms. The composite hazelnut sustainability index was at an unsatisfactory level. The social and economic sustainability index values of farms were equal, and they were higher than the environmental index value. The values were 0.50 and 0.30, respectively. The economic sustainability index score of full-time farms was higher than that of part-time farms, and part-time farms had higher environmental sustainability index scores than that of full-time farms. Social sustainability scores were not different in terms of farm type. It was recommended that when designing and regulating support policies, policy-makers should differentiate part-time and full-time farming. Training and extension programs must be planned to increase the level of knowledge of every willing farmer. To increase sustainability, specific policies are developed according to the farming type.

Epidemiological characteristics and spatiotemporal patterns of scrub typhus in Fujian province during 2012–2020

Background

Scrub typhus has become a serious public health concern in the Asia-Pacific region including China. There were new natural foci continuously recognized and dramatically increased reported cases in mainland China. However, the epidemiological characteristics and spatiotemporal patterns of scrub typhus in Fujian province have yet to be investigated.

Objective

This study proposes to explore demographic characteristics and spatiotemporal dynamics of scrub typhus cases in Fujian province, and to detect high-risk regions between January 2012 and December 2020 at county/district scale and thereby help in devising public health strategies to improve scrub typhus prevention and control measures.

Method

Monthly cases of scrub typhus reported at the county level in Fujian province during 2012–2020 were collected from the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System. Time-series analyses, spatial autocorrelation analyses and space-time scan statistics were applied to identify and visualize the spatiotemporal patterns of scrub typhus cases in Fujian province. The demographic differences of scrub typhus cases from high-risk and low-risk counties in Fujian province were also compared.

Results

A total of 11,859 scrub typhus cases reported in 87 counties from Fujian province were analyzed and the incidence showed an increasing trend from 2012 (2.31 per 100,000) to 2020 (3.20 per 100,000) with a peak in 2018 (4.59 per 100,000). There existed two seasonal peaks in June-July and September-October every year in Fujian province. A significant positive spatial autocorrelation of scrub typhus incidence in Fujian province was observed with Moran’s I values ranging from 0.258 to 0.471 (P<0.001). Several distinct spatiotemporal clusters mainly concentrated in north and southern parts of Fujian province. Compared to low-risk regions, a greater proportion of cases were female, farmer, and older residents in high-risk counties.

Conclusions

These results demonstrate a clear spatiotemporal heterogeneity of scrub typhus cases in Fujian province, and provide the evidence in directing future researches on risk factors and effectively assist local health authorities in the refinement of public health interventions against scrub typhus transmission in the high risk regions.

Scrub typhus is a vector-borne zoonotic disease caused by Orientia tsutsugamushi and is popular in the Asia-Pacific area. Nowadays scrub typhus has been recognized as a considerable burden on public health in Fujian province. We explored the epidemiological characteristics, spatiotemporal patterns and diffusion characteristics of scrub typhus, and detected high-risk regions at the county level in Fujian province between January 2012 and December 2020. Our results indicated that the majority of cases were reported in June-July and September-October and that that middle aged and elderly people were more prone to infection every year in Fujian province. The spatial autocorrelation analysis revealed clustering in geographic distribution of cases and several distinct spatiotemporal clusters were identified in north and southern parts of Fujian province. Compared with cases from low-risk areas, a higher proportion of cases were female, farmer, and older residents in high-risk counties.

The Influence of Land Attachment on Land Abandonment from the Perspective of Generational Difference: Evidence from Sichuan Province, China

The deepening of rural population aging and the lack of labor transfer cause the phenomenon of land abandonment to become more serious, which threatens regional and even national food security. Based on the survey data of 540 farmers in Sichuan Province, the theoretical analysis framework of land attachment, intergenerational difference and land abandonment was constructed, and Probit and Tobit models were constructed to empirically analyze the influence of land attachment and intergenerational difference on land abandonment. Research results show that: (1) 10.9% of the farmers abandoned their arable land, with an average area of 0.17 mu; the interviewed farmers are mainly of the middle-aged generation; the scores of the three dimensions of farmers' land attachment were all at the above average level. (2) Land dependence has no significant effect on land abandonment, while satisfaction and embeddedness have significant negative effects on land abandonment. (3) There are generational differences in the influence of land attachment on land abandonment. Among them, the land attachment of the middle-aged generation had no significant effect on land abandonment; the satisfaction and embeddedness of the older generation of farmers have negative effects on land abandonment; the satisfaction of the new-generation farmers has a significant negative effect on farmland abandonment. Based on this research, countermeasures and suggestions are put forward: (1) Pay attention to the emotional appeals of farmers and improve their well-being. (2) Cultivate new types of agricultural business entities and stimulate the potential of new human resources.

Heterogeneous Effects of Skill Training on Rural Livelihoods around Four Biosphere Reserves in China

The growing contradiction between protection and livelihood is a common challenge for most protected areas in developing countries. Skill training is an important way to increase household income and alleviate the dilemma between conservation and development. However, its effects on household income around protected areas have rarely been explored. This paper aims to evaluate the effect of skill training on the income of households around four Biosphere Reserves in China and explore its mechanism. Based on the information collected from 381 households through face-to-face interviews, this study adopted descriptive analysis and multiple regression to yield consistent results. The results showed that agricultural and off-farm skill training had no impact on the total household income. The results from the mechanism analysis found that participation in off-farm skill training had a significant and positive effect on the total income of the households outside protected areas and participation in agricultural training had a positive effect on agricultural income. The findings indicate that the local government and protected area administration should increase the publicity for skill training, enrich the types training, appropriately supply livelihood support projects that reconcile conservation and development, and strengthen the infrastructure development around protected areas to promote off-farm employment and the circulation and sale of agricultural products. However, the impacts of any associated intensification should be carefully monitored.

From Fragmentation to Intensification: Land Reform in China's "New Era"

Combining the current national conditions of China and the status quo of rural land, realizing the transformation of land from fragmentation to intensification is the only way for China to move towards agricultural modernization. We selected Feicheng City, Shandong Province, as the research area, conducted regression analysis on the data by means of questionnaires and key interviews, and identified the influencing factors that can affect and change farmers' willingness to transfer (WTT) their land and willingness to the duration (WTD) of land transfer. The study found that 82.54% of farmers are willing to transfer land, and the WTD is 9.34 years. Among them, five factors, including job stability, purchased houses in urban area, cultivated land roads, degree of policy understanding, and emotion for the land, can significantly affect the farmers' WTT. Six factors, namely, age, job stability, number of family members, purchased houses in urban area, non-agricultural income, emotion for the land, can significantly affect the farmers' WTD. Based on this, we propose the "MPEU theory" of farmers' land transfer. That is, by allowing farmers to change their minds, understand policies, increase the non-agricultural employment rate, and improve the level of urbanization, the farmers' WTT/WTD can be improved, and the level of land intensification can be improved. Finally, agricultural modernization, peasant citizenization, and rural urbanization will be realized.

The impact of migration characteristics on rural migrant households’ farmland use arrangements in China

This paper investigates the impacts of migration characteristics on rural migrant households’ farmland use arrangements in China. The results reveal that trailing migration, duration of migration and the proportion of co-migrants have a significant effect on the probability of rural migrant households’ farmland abandonment. Commercial employment migration has a negative impact on the abandonment of farmland by migrant families. Migrant households are most likely to choose farmland abandonment in the western and middle regions of China and in small farmland areas. In the eastern region, and first tier and second tier Chinese cities, migrant households are more inclined to choose farmland transfer. Household earnings increase, which induces households to gradually give up the cultivation of farmland or to transfer farmland, constituting a mechanism in Chinese households’ farmland use arrangements. Notably, the consolidation of arable land should be the focus in areas of low economic development. Furthermore, an effective mechanism for the transfer of farmland should be established.

Does Regular Physical Activity Improve Personal Income? Empirical Evidence from China

A lack of adequate exercise threatens human health, weakening human capital accumulation. The relationship between exercise and income has become the focus of attention in health economics. In terms of reducing body weight and improving physical fitness, diet and physical exercise are intertwined and become effective ways to shape a healthy state. Based on individual-level survey data from China, this study quantified the economic returns of habitual exercise behavior by using an endogenous switching regression model (ESRM) to eliminate selection bias. The study shows that (1) participants in the group with regular exercise behavior increased their income by 3.79% compared with those not exercising regularly; (2) for the group with no regular exercise behavior, regular exercise increased their income by 13.36% compared with those not exercising regularly. Additionally, empirical evidence shows that both drinking and smoking can significantly increase individual income, despite unhealthy habits. These results suggest that the habit of regular physical activity plays a vital role in increasing individual income and improving overall national health, and the effect of individual behavior on income is affected by national culture. The outcomes are empirical evidence for the Chinese government to promote Healthy China Action and support developing countries worldwide to enable habitual exercise, stimulating a policy of exercise behavior.

The Heterogeneous Effects of Multilevel Location on Farmland Abandonment: A Village-Level Case Study in Tai’an City, China

As a global phenomenon, farmland abandonment continues to challenge the sustainability of the agri-food supply and rural development. Investigating the heterogeneous effects of multilevel location on farmland abandonment is of great importance to understand the spatial disparity and the mechanism of farmland abandonment, which has significant policy implications for food security and rural revitalization. Taking Tai’an City as a case, this study aims to explore the impact of multilevel location on farmland abandonment at the village level and its spatial heterogeneity. The results show that (1) high accessibility to regional centers and roads, rather than remoteness, leads to a high rate of farmland abandonment; (2) the effect of location varies depending on the level of location. High-level regional centers (city centers and county centers) and roads (national and provincial highways) exert a stronger impact on farmland abandonment than low-level town centers and county highways; (3) the effect of location is topographically heterogeneous due to the influence of terrain on the marginalization of farmland. In the plains, except for county highways, the distance to different levels of regional centers and roads is significantly negatively correlated with farmland abandonment. However, in mountainous areas, only high-level regional centers have significant negative impacts.

Peer effects on the adoption of biogas in rural households of Sichuan Province, China

Encouraging rural residents to adopt biogas is of great practical significance in tackling environmental degradation in China. Based on the survey data of 540 rural households in Sichuan Province, China, this paper studies the peer effects of biogas adoption in rural households, focusing on the influence of relatives and friends on the biogas adoption behavior of rural households. According to whether there is a Chinese New Year visit, the relatives and friends of rural households are divided into strong ties and weak ties. The peer effects are further discussed from the perspective of strong and weak ties, and the probability score matching (PSM) method is used to correct the estimation errors that may be caused by selection bias. In addition, the study further revealed the internal mechanism of peer effects through heterogeneity analysis. The results found that (1) the adoption of biogas by relatives and friends significantly promotes the adoption of biogas in rural households. (2) Compared with relatives and friends who did not visit during the Chinese New Year (weak ties), relatives and friends who visited (strong ties) had a more significant impact on the biogas adoption behavior of rural families. (3) Farmer groups with lower education levels and farther from the market are more affected by the peer effects and are more likely to adopt biogas. The driving effect of biogas behavior choice of relatives and friends on biogas behavior decision of rural households can provide a reference for decision-makers to make relevant measures.

Does Tibetan Household Livelihood Capital Enhance Tourism Participation Sustainability? Evidence from China’s Jiaju Tibetan Village

Identifying effective transformations to reduce poverty and approach rural sustainability is at the core of the first sustainable development goal of the United Nations. This article offers scientific support for continued efforts in sustaining rural development and livelihood resilience. Many studies have examined drivers of livelihood transition from farming to non-farm activities, especially participation in tourism against the backdrop of rural tourism development. However, few studies have identified ways to measure the level of tourism participation or have discussed how household-level capital influences decisions regarding tourism participation made by Tibetan ethnic households. This article assesses the role of livelihood capital in the adoption of tourism activities at the household level in Jiaju Tibetan Village, an ethnic region that is experiencing struggling agricultural business and developing tourism sector. Using household survey data, this study presents an ordinal logistic regression model to identify the determinants of the household tourism participation level. The results showed that households’ tourism participation was influenced by physical capital (e.g., proximity to major roads, odds ratio = 2.83 at p = 0.024; fixed capitals, odds ratio = 101.19 at p = 0.039), human capital (e.g., availability of family labor, odds ratio = 0.25 at p = 0.004; availability of skilled member, odds ratio = 2.91 at p = 0.002), and social capital (e.g., relatives in governmental sectors, odds ratio = 5.22 at p = 0.044; government payments, odds ratio = 8.78 at p = 0.04), while the influence of financial capital was not significant. The proximity to major roads, availability of skilled members, fixed assets, and direct and indirect support from the government to households were significantly and positively associated with tourism participation level. The effects of household labor availability and annual family income remain unclear. Overall, household livelihood capital plays a critical role in the enhancement of tourism participation in Jiaju Tibetan Village. Our findings have implications for understanding the shift of on-farm occupation to off-farm activities in tourism and for the pursuit of policies contributing to poverty reduction and rural revitalization in China as well as to the Sustainable Development Goals.

Driving Mechanisms of Cropland Abandonment from the Perspectives of Household and Topography in the Poyang Lake Region, China

Cropland abandonment is driven by various mechanisms and is best viewed from multiple perspectives to suggest targeted policy changes which may change the status quo of abandonment. Here, we systematically analyze the characteristics of abandonment and its driving mechanisms by different farming households (pure, part-time, and non-farm) in three topographic regions of the Poyang Lake region using a binary logistic regression model. Results show that: (1) The overall abandonment probability in the Poyang Lake region is largest for non-farm households, followed by part-time households and pure households. In the mountainous region, abandonment is largest for non-farm households, followed by pure households and part-time households. Both the hilly and plain regions show the largest abandonment probability for pure households, followed by part-time households, and non-farm households. (2) The low agricultural economic benefits and the uneconomical investments of time in plots are the main abandonment determinants for pure households. Economic efficiency, both the time invested in plots and economic efficiency, are key abandonment determinants for pure households in the mountainous and plain regions, respectively. (3) Labor shortage and plots which are time-consuming and unfavorable to cultivation are the main abandonment determinants for part-time households, with different factors in different topographic regions. (4) For non-farm households, many factors can influence the occurrence of abandonment. Non-farm households in the mountainous and hilly regions are more influenced by non-farm work and the number of farming workers, respectively; in addition, the inconvenience of using agricultural machinery has a significant influence.

Land Use Change under Population Migration and Its Implications for Human–Land Relationship

With the rural-to-urban population migration under the new era of rapid urbanization, China has experienced dramatic rural land change, especially the change in cultivated land and rural residential land, resulting in the serious uncoordinated human–land relationships in rural areas. The efficient use of these two kinds of land resources becomes one of the paramount challenges for governments to achieve sustainable and balanced rural development. This challenge highlights the need for quantifying the formation mechanism of the relationship between cultivated land and rural residential land (RCR) and exploring the corresponding relation between human–land relationships with RCR to guide the high-efficiency rural land use structure and coordinated development of human–land relationships. This study aims to quantitatively characterize the matching modes of RCR and the underlying formation mechanism via a grid-based, integrated decoupling model and multiclass explainable boosting machine analysis method. The findings are as follows: (1) The variation in cultivated land and rural residential land is characterized by quantity match and spatial mismatch. The six matching modes of RCR are strong decoupling (SD) (33.36%), weak decoupling (9.86%), recessive decoupling (4.15%), expansive negative decoupling (15.05%), weak negative decoupling (4.92%), and strong negative decoupling (SND) (18.65%). (2) Average grain product per cultivated land and population variation have the highest relative importance and play the greatest role in determining the type of matching modes. A concomitant phenomenon is noted in the matching modes; that is, SD occurs with recessive decoupling and weak negative decoupling, and the weak decoupling and expansive negative decoupling occur with SND in the same conditions. (3) A significant corresponding relationship exists between the matching modes and human–land relationship, indicating that the six matching modes correspond to four different stages of the human–land relationship. The study could provide some decision-making guidance for sustainable rural development, so as to improve the differentiated land management and regional response strategies.

Dynamic response relationship between cultivated land marginalisation and rural labour out-migration in mountainous areas in China: evidence from a vector autoregressive model

Understanding the dynamic interaction between cultivated land marginalisation (CLM) and rural labour out-migration (RLM) is vital for the sustainable utilisation of cultivated land, particularly in mountainous areas. Most previous research focused on unilateral CLM or RLM in mountainous areas, with limited research on the dynamic response between these two factors. To address this gap, we identified the characteristics of CLM and analysed the changing trends in RLM in 19 counties of western Hubei Province, China, from 2000 to 2018. The dynamic response relationship between the two phenomena was identified using a vector autoregressive model. CLM showed a volatile trend throughout the study area, with fluctuations most evident during 2004-2007 and 2009-2015. The rural labour population showed an inverted U-shaped trend with an increase during 2003-2015 and a decrease afterward, which is consistent with the trends in socioeconomic development. The dynamic response between the two factors showed large fluctuations in the short term but a stable relationship in the long term. These findings have important implications for differentiated land management, comprehensive land improvement, and rural land use policies and indicate that the added value of agricultural products from mountainous areas should be strengthened.

Exploration of Informal Farmland Leasing Mode: A Case Study of Huang Village in China

How to effectively promote the large-scale and market-oriented farmland leasing process in China is one of the most important practical issues concerning the current academic circle and decision makers. However, restricted by the current situation of rural social development, farmers’ spontaneous and informal farmland leasing is still widespread. Exploring the long-term evolution characteristics of informal farmland leasing at the village scale is of great significance for optimizing the process of farmland leasing, perfecting the farmland leasing market, and promoting moderate-scale farmland management. Therefore, based on field survey data from the whole village and social network analysis methods, this research conducted a detailed empirical study on the characteristics, development process, and consequences of informal farmland leasing behavior in a traditional rural society in central China. The results show that with the development of time, the scope of informal farmland leasing in Huang village has been expanding, of which more than 70% of the farmland in 2020 was leased among acquaintances. Farmland leasing among acquaintances is becoming a trend toward informal farmland leasing in some villages. At present, 13 large-scale households lease 73.9% of the total area of farmland leasing in Huang village. The informal farmland leasing in the village has basically formed a centralized circulation pattern with the villager group as the core, which can promote moderate-scale farming to a certain extent. However, there are also problems, such as the ability of a simple internal leasing mode to resist external risks is limited. The findings may be helpful in rethinking China’s farmland leasing policy and provide useful insights into the multifaceted rural sustainability of other similar traditional villages.

The Pattern and Local Push Factors of Rural Depopulation in Less-Developed Areas: A Case Study in the Mountains of North Hebei Province, China

Rural depopulation is the most significant geographical phenomenon in rural areas during the process of urbanization. Although many studies have investigated the driving force of rural depopulation based on rural-urban migration at the macro level, the local factors, and their impact on rural depopulation from the rural areas have been not fully revealed. This paper selected the northern mountains of China's Hebei province as a study area to explore the pattern and local push factors of rural depopulation at the rural-township levels based on GeoDetector. The main findings are summarized as follows. (1) Rural depopulation varies substantially, demonstrates spatial correlation, and is distributed in clusters. From a dynamic perspective, compare that in years 2000-2010, the population growth areas during 2010-2017 have been significantly expanded, while the sharp depopulation areas and severe depopulation areas experienced shrinkage in our study area. (2) The pattern of rural depopulation is in accordance with terrain. Rural depopulation tends to be stronger in plateaus and mountains, while relatively milder in intermontane basins, hills, and piedmont plains. (3) The agricultural suitability of natural environmental and rural economic opportunities together with climate changes were the most important driving forces of rural depopulation at local levels. Location, sparse population, and inadequate public services also contributed to rural depopulation. However, the dominant driving factors are different in the different periods. Rural depopulation was mainly driven by arable land per capita and natural environmental variables in the years 2000-2010, while the population density, location, and off-farm economic opportunities played a decisive role in the years 2010-2017. (4) Rural depopulation is a complex, multi-dimensional process driven by a combination of multiple factors including different environmental factors, economic opportunities, and location. This paper reveals the push factors of rural depopulation in underdeveloped mountainous areas by a quantitative empirical approach, inspiring increased attention to the impacts of local factors and spatial correlations on rural depopulation, and has many implications for the policy design of China's rural revitalization.

Exploring the Role of Contiguous Farmland Cultivation and Adoption of No-Tillage Technology in Improving Transferees’ Income Structure: Evidence from China

Seasonal alternations of extreme weather such as continuous drought and rare rainstorms significantly influence farmers’ adoption of agricultural technologies. Compared with traditional tillage, no-tillage technology has more advantages to cope with extreme weather. It is hypothesized that the cultivation of contiguous farmland is still minimal in spite of the transference of farmland on a large scale in China, which ultimately halts the adoption of no-tillage technology and influences the income of households. The current study used 793 farmland transferees’ data from Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia provinces of China to explore this phenomenon empirically. By employing the endogenous switching regression model, the study revealed that contiguous farmland significantly promotes the adoption of no-tillage technology and positively influences households’ agricultural and non-agricultural income. Meanwhile, the moderating effect of the stability of farmland rental contracts is explored. Further, it was also found that education level, organizational participation, relationship networks, and information acquisition channels influence the income of transferees who opt for no-tillage technology. The study further revealed that if a transferee who opts for no-tillage technology switches to traditional technology, their agricultural and non-agricultural income will decrease by 0.2893 and 1.6979 ten thousand yuan (RMB), respectively. In contrast, if a transferee who opts for traditional technology then switches to adopt no-tillage technology, their agricultural and non-agricultural income will increase by 0.1919 and 1.3044 ten thousand yuan (RMB), respectively. Conclusively, the current study’s empirical findings offer policymakers possible guidelines to devise strategies and encourage transferees to opt for no-tillage applications to increase their families’ income.

Distance-Dependent Migration Intention of Villagers: Comparative Study of Peri-Urban and Remote Villages in Indonesia

Rural-to-urban migration disturbs essential factors of rural development, including labor forces, land ownership, and food production. To avoid late responses to emigration, scholars have begun investigating earlier stages of rural emigration. However, prior studies have focused on a single spatial entity only while also leaning toward trends in developed countries. Therefore, this study fills gaps by focusing on the differences in migration intention between villages in less developed settings. In observing the differences, this research takes peri-urban and remote villages as cases located at different distances from their nearest urban destination. This study treats migration intention as the dependent variable while using single-indicator place attachment and multi-indicator information sources as the independent variables. This work applies the Mann–Whitney U, ANOVA, and Brown–Forsythe tests on three hypotheses. This research also uses SEM-PLS to investigate the correlation model of the observed variables for each case. The results show that information sources negatively affect migration intentions in peri-urban settings. Remote rural areas also show similar results for the information sources variable; however, place attachment in remote settings significantly contributes to migration intention. These results show that place attachment and information sources contribute differently, depending on the distance to the urban area. We argue that access to public services and infrastructure contributes to the results. The findings suggest that an increased availability of information sources impedes the formation of migration intentions. Thus, this study suggests the necessity of improving rural infrastructure and public services to improve information literacy. It helps the government control rural emigration while fulfilling its obligation for rural development. It also offers better rural livelihoods during the development progress, providing economic incentives for villagers to stay in villages.

Do Social Pension and Family Support Affect Farmers’ Land Transfer? Evidence from China

The issues of farmers’ old-age security and land use have long been the focus of Chinese scholars’ and governmental attention. Land transfer plays a vital role in promoting agricultural scale operations, adjusting agricultural structures, and improving land utilization, while the old-age security function of land is one of the important factors affecting land transfer. Based on the data of the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this study uses the probit and structural equation models to explore social pension and family support mechanisms and pathways with regard to farmers’ land transfer. The results show that: (1) Social pension has a significant negative effect on farmers’ rent-out land, but a significant positive effect on rent-in land. Compared to farmers who do not participate in the New Rural Pension System (NRPS), the probability of rent-out land for farmers who participated in NRPS decreased by 2.44%, and rent-in land increased by 2.26%. (2) Family support has a significant positive effect on farmers’ rent-out land, but a negative effect on rent-in land. (3) Agricultural labor time plays a mediating role in the effect of social pension and family support on both farmers’ rent-out land and rent-in land.

Optimizing the Compensation Standard of Cultivated Land Protection Based on Ecosystem Services in the Hangzhou Bay Area, China

The significant positive externality of cultivated land ecosystem services leads to the low comparative benefit of cultivated land utilization and then causes practical problems such as the abandonment and non-agriculturalization of the cultivated land, which poses a threat to China’s food security. The existing protection system only focuses on the quantity requirement and food production service of cultivated land and ignores the multi-function of cultivated land as an ecosystem, resulting in insufficient incentives and poor effect. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the protection’s economic compensation standard by adding the cultivated land’s ecosystem service value in order to comprehensively assess cultivated land resources and correct for externalities. Taking the area around Hangzhou Bay, where the contradiction between cultivated land protection and economic development is prominent, as an example, the values of six typical cultivated land ecosystem services in 2016 was constructed and calculated, including food production, carbon sequestration and oxygen production, water conservation, soil conservation, biodiversity maintenance, and cultural leisure. Combined with ecosystem services’ values and the quality index, we finally determined the new county-level compensation standard of cultivated land protection in the Hangzhou Bay area. The results show that the value of cultivated land ecosystem services present obvious regional disparities, meaning that there exist significant differences in the sustainable use capacity of cultivated land and the necessity of establishing grading compensation standards in the region. Finally, we analyze the rationality and innovation of the new compensation standard model as well as its role in the protection of cultivated land and look forward to promoting the sustainable use of cultivated land through these new incentives.

Rural Population Decline, Cultivated Land Expansion, and the Role of Land Transfers in the Farming-Pastoral Ecotone: A Case Study of Taibus, China

The decline and aging of the rural population in China has been an increasingly conspicuous problem in the past few decades and has been one of the fundamental drivers of cultivated land abandonment and loss. However, although they have endured similar rural demographic changes, some regions have experienced cultivated land expansion and the farming-pastoral ecotone is a typical one. Using Taibus as a case, this study aims to reveal the phenomenon of cultivated land expansion in the context of rural population decline and explore its underlying mechanism by addressing the role of cultivated land protection and land transfer policies. This study will also reveal the possible negative impacts and risks of cultivated land expansion. We found that 64.3% of the rural population in Taibus have migrated to other regions in 2020; however, cultivated land has increased by more than 10% in the past five years. Land transfer policies have helped to solve the agricultural labor shortage problem and increase household income, which encouraged the reclamation activities by rural households. However, under China’s land protection system, the central and the local governments have not enough incentives to prevent these reclamation activities. Cultivated land expansion in the farming-pastoral ecotone may lead to a series of negative impacts or risks, especially the overuse of groundwater resources and land desertification. Thus, we suggest that governments pay more attention to the phenomenon of cultivated land expansion and re-assess the cultivated land use policies in the farming-pastoral ecotone and other regions with similar contexts.

Does Institutional Social Insurance Cause the Abandonment of Cultivated Land? Evidence from Rural China

At present, the world's countryside needs to be revitalized urgently, and cultivated land is the critical factor in promoting the countryside's revitalization. The reduction of uncultivated land contributes to the efficient use of rural land resources, contributing to global rural revitalization. This study uses data from 3938 Chinese peasant households conducted in 2014 and the OLS method to investigate the quantitative impact of institutional social insurance on cultivated land abandonment. The empirical results point to the following conclusions: (1) Institutional social insurance will weaken the social insurance function of land, which will lead to the generation of peasant households' cultivated land abandonment. More specifically, for every 1% increase in the level of institutional social insurance of peasant households, the area of cultivated land abandoned increased by 0.002 mu; (2) The influence of institutional social insurance on peasant households' cultivated land abandonment is heterogeneous, that is, endowment insurance can weaken the social insurance function of land more than medical insurance, and households with a higher proportion of pensioners are more likely to abandon cultivated land. This study's conclusions may help understand the relationship between institutional and non-institutional social insurance and provide a reference for the effective use of cultivated land resources in the global rural revitalization.

An Algorithm for Delimiting Rural Areas According to Soil Classes

For many years and all over the world, agricultural production has been observed to slow down on low-quality soils in territories featuring difficult topography and poor spatial structure (land fragmentation, excessive elongation of plots, plots without direct access to public roads, and land scattering). This paper proposes a new, self-designed algorithm for delimiting rural areas that allows the clustering of villages featuring low soil productivity, based on three factors used for determining the overall value of the area of land (Wcag), i.e., the overall area of the village (ha), share of specific type of land in the overall area of the village (%), and mean score for specific soil type (pts.), which allows the villages to be grouped according to classes of land occurring in the examined district. The results of the surveys provide a basis for further detailed studies into efficient management of areas featuring low soil classes during land consolidation works. Further surveys will involve a detailed analysis of the identified clusters of villages to ensure that their potential is used to the optimum extent. As a consequence, these areas will potentially become more competitive and operations conducted there will be beneficial to the local inhabitants and contribute to improving their living standard.

Study on the impact of environmental pollution on farmland abandonment

Farmland abandonment, as a manifestation of the low efficiency of the rural economy, has a profound impact on the process of agricultural and rural modernization. This study uses the 2016 China Labor Force Dynamic Survey data based on 8116 samples from 104 cities, constructs the Tobit model and IV Tobit model to analyze the land abandonment quantitatively from the perspective of environmental pollution. The results show that (1) environmental pollution can significantly increase the probability and area of land abandonment, (2) there is significant regional heterogeneity in the impact of environmental pollution on land abandonment, (3) the impact of environmental pollution on land abandonment varies significantly with different family sizes and land management scales, but the land management scale is relatively more sensitive. This study provides a deeper understanding of the relationship between environmental pollution and land abandonment in China and provides a basis for formulating relevant policies to strengthen the treatment of environmental pollution to solve the dilemma of land abandonment, which is of great practical significance to sustainable development of rural economy and the guarantee of food security in China.

Degree of Abandoned Cropland and Socioeconomic Impact Factors in China: Multi-Level Analysis Model Based on the Farmer and District/County Levels

At present, abandoned cropland has become a common phenomenon spreading to countries around the world. China has seen widespread abandoned cropland in recent years. However, there are extremely few empirical studies of cropland abandonment and influencing factors nationwide. In this study, survey data from 8071 farmer households in 14 Chinese provinces were used to analyze the degree of cropland abandonment in China and its spatial distribution. A multi-level model was constructed to quantitatively explore the socioeconomic factors affecting the degree of cropland abandonment, at both the farmer and district/county levels. The results show that: (1) the proportion of farmers and the spatial distribution of abandoned cropland are consistent. (2) Chongqing City, Guangdong Province, and Shanxi Province are high-value areas of abandoned cropland, while Shandong, Liaoning, Henan and Jiangsu provinces are low-value areas. (3) Among the differences in cropland abandonment, 68.5% and 31.5% can be explained at the farmer and district/county level, respectively. (4) At the farmer level, all labor and cropland transfer indicators, including land labor quantity per unit area, male agricultural labor ratio, farmers mainly of middle-aged labor, cropland transfer area and cropland subcontract amount, have significant negative effects on the degree of abandoned cropland. There is a significant negative correlation between the value of agricultural operating fixed assets in the agricultural input indicators and the degree of abandoned cropland, but participation in professional, cooperative, economic, agricultural organizations has no significant impact on the degree of abandoned cropland. The per capita disposable income, which represents the quality of life indicator, has a significant positive impact on the degree of abandoned cropland. (5) At the district/county level, the proportion of the total co-working labor force and the transfer rate of cropland are negatively related to the degree of cropland abandonment, and the proportion of the co-working labor force outside the district/county is positively related to the degree of cropland abandonment. In addition, we briefly analyzed the mechanism and process of cropland abandonment from the perspective of farmers’ decision-making. Finally, the policy suggestions to alleviate the abandonment of cropland were put forward from the district/county and farmer level, respectively.

Estimating the Impact of Ecological Migrants on the South-to-North Water Diversion in China

The South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) provides significant benefits in facilitating water security and improving ecology in northern China. However, few studies have estimated the water value of the SNWD and the corresponding subsequent subsidies of the ecological migrants in Xichuan County displaced by the project. Based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE), this study analyzed the water ecosystem changes in Xichuan County in 2000–2020 and valued the water transfer of the SNWD. We calculated the water cost, the water value of the trunk line project, and the four provinces (Hebei, Henan, Beijing, and Tianjin) of CNY 4.04, 39.64, and 120.93 billion, respectively, and the proportion of the three was 1:10:30 during 2014–2020. The water ecosystem area showed a rapid increase when the SNWD became operational since the end of 2014. The subsequent annual subsidy gap of ecological migrants was CNY 0.84 billion, which only accounted for 4.31% of the gross profit of SNWD. Our results imply that relevant water sectors have sufficient profits to support corresponding subsequent subsidies for ecological migrants. Ecological migrants are a major challenge for water transfer projects. Overall, this study fills a gap of interactions between subsequent policies and ecological migrants and provides a typical case for managing the migration problem caused by sustainable water management worldwide.

Influence of farmland marginalization in mountainous and hilly areas on land use changes at the county level

Agricultural works alter earth's surface at the largest scale among human-driven activities. Previous studies have focused more on the reclamation of natural land, however, farmland marginalization (FM), emerging as an important mean of land use changes in mountainous and hilly areas (MHAs) has always been overlooked in the background of production efficiency improvement along with urbanization and population migration. This paper examined the characteristics of the spatial-temporal distribution and conversion of marginalized farmland in the MHAs of China at county level (excluding Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) from 1990 to 2020, regarding farmland in MHAs converted into non-built-up land as FM. The results showed that: (1) The total area of marginalized farmland in the MHAs was 1.03 × 10⁶ km². The counties with larger area of marginalized farmland were concentrated around the Hu Line, and those with higher ratio were distributed in southern mountainous areas. (2) The area of marginalized farmland in each stage exhibited a fluctuating trend from 1990 to 2020. Forests and grasslands were prioritized as the desirable types in land conversion, and had prominent spatial agglomeration. (3) The influence of FM in MHAs on land use changes at county level demonstrated significant spatial-temporal heterogeneity, with wide range and low intensity from 1990 to 2000 and 2015 to 2020, and narrow range and high intensity from 2000 to 2015, and the counties with high intensity were distributed in the Loess Plateau and Sichuan-Chongqing hilly region. (4) The slope of marginalized farmland exhibited a prominent rule of spatial distribution, but an insignificant temporal trend under the influence of governmental policies. The larger the slope was, the higher the degree of marginalization was, but not necessarily earlier it occurred. The results can provide a reference for the formulation and implementation of farmland protection policies.

How does air pollution affect urban settlement of the floating population in China? New evidence from a push-pull migration analysis

Background

Severe air pollution in China threatens human health, and its negative impact decreases the urban settlement intentions of migrants in destination cities. We establish a comprehensive framework based on the push-pull migration model to investigate this phenomenon.

Methods

We employ a logistic model to analyze air pollution’s impact on the settlement intentions of the floating population based on the CMDS 2017 in China, combining the city-level socioeconomic variables with the individual-level variables.

Results

Our results show that the annual average concentration of PM2.5 increases by 1 unit and that the probability of migrants’ settlement intentions will decrease by 8.7%. Using a heterogeneity analysis, we find that the following migrant groups are more sensitive to air pollution: males, people over 30 years old, less educated people, and migrants with nonagricultural hukou. With every 1 unit increase in PM2.5, each group’s settlement intentions decrease by 13.2, 16.7, 16.9, and 12.6%, respectively.

Conclusions

Our results are consistent with existing studies. This study discovers that both external environment and internal factors influence migrants’ settlement intentions. Specifically, the differences in population sizes, economic development levels, public services, infrastructure conditions, and environmental regulations between cities play a significant role in migration decisions. We also confirm heterogeneous sensitivities to air pollution of different migrant subgroups in terms of individual characteristics, family factors, migration features, social and economic attributes.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-11711-x.

Land Use Transitions: Progress, Challenges and Prospects

The study of land use transition has generally become an important breakthrough point to deeply understand the human-land interaction and reveal major socio-economic development issues and related environmental effects. Attempting to provide scientific support for sustainable land use and environmental management, this review systematically analyzes the overall picture, development trends, key fields and hot topics of land use transition research in the past two decades from a comprehensive perspective, which incorporates two complementary parts including the systematic quantitative literature review (based on CiteSpace) and the traditional literature review. The results reveal that: a. current research presents three characteristics, i.e., focusing on complex social issues, driven by realistic demand, and research branches becoming clearer and more systematic; b. there are four key fields and hot topics in land use transition research, i.e., i. theories and hypothesis of land use transition; ii. measuring land use transition; iii. the impacts of land use transition on “social-economic-ecological” system; iv. drivers and regulation of land use transition. However, challenges remain, current land use transition research is still to some extent fragmented, and it should be enriched by integrating with land system science. The dominant morphology biased should be redressed by underlining the recessive morphology transition process. Meanwhile, new techniques and methods are necessary to observe, track, monitor and model the recessive attributes. Finally, distant drivers of land use transition should not be ignored in this rapidly globalizing world.

Future scenarios impact on land use change and habitat quality in Lithuania

Anticipating future land use and land cover (LULC) changes can improve our knowledge of the complexity of human-environment interactions that lead to transformations in the landscape. Therefore, it is key to understand these LULC changes under different scenarios and how they affect habitat quality (HQ) a key indicator for ecosystem services (ES) supply quality. This work aims to study the impacts of LULC changes under different scenarios: business as usual (A0), urbanisation (A1), land abandonment and afforestation (A2) and agriculture intensification (A3) in 2050. To simulate future LULC changes we applied the Cellular Automata (CA) method, and to assess HQ, the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model was used. Spatial autocorrelation was assessed with a Moran's I index and the Getis Ord* hotspot analysis. The result showed that the LULC model calibration and validation were accurate (80%). Between 1990 and 2018 there was an increase in urban areas and forest and woodlands, which was reflected in the A0 scenario in 2050. Under the A1 scenario there was an increase in the urban area (4628 ha) compared to 2018, and in the most important cities (e.g., Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda) in the scenario A2 there was an increase of 375,820 ha of woodland and forest. Finally, under the scenario A3, a large growth in cropland area (884,030 ha) was identified. HQ model had a better validation using three cover density data (r² = 0.67), than with imperviousness (r² = 0.26). A2 scenario showed the highest HQ and A3 scenario have the lowest HQ. The land uses of 1990, 2018, and A3 scenario had a clustered distribution while A0, A1 and A2 showed a random pattern. The results can support policy-makers by assessing the impact of future LULC changes in Lithuania.

Agricultural Land Abandonment in the Hill Agro-ecological Region of Nepal: Analysis of Extent, Drivers and Impact of Change

Despite widely reported trends of agricultural land abandonment across many parts of the globe, this land use change phenomenon is relatively new in the context of Nepal. In recent years, rural farming communities in the hill region are gradually reducing the intensity of farming, leading to underutilisation and abandonment of agricultural lands. Adopting a mixed methods research approach, this study investigated the extent of agricultural land abandonment, its underlying causal drivers and perceived impacts in the hill agro-ecological region of Nepal. A structured survey of 374 households and six focus group discussions were carried out in three districts. The study revealed that around 40% of agricultural lands in the hill agro-ecological region have been abandoned and 60% of farmers have left at least one parcel of agricultural land abandoned. It was found that biophysical drivers (distance from homestead to parcel, slope of the parcel, land fragmentation, land quality and irrigation availability) and socio-demographic drivers (family size, higher education of the household members, domestic migration and out-migration) were responsible for agricultural land abandonment. Negative impacts of land abandonment were observed on the rural landscape, human-made farm structures, socio-economic systems, local food production and food security. In line with global studies, this research suggest that marginal land quality, demographic changes and rising alternative economic opportunities elsewhere contribute to farmland abandonment. This study also discusses land management approaches and policy implications to address the issue of agricultural land abandonment.

Role of bioengineering and laborers in integration of farmland resources toward to improve dimension of sustainable agriculture in China

Farmland transfer is one of the essential approaches for achieving large-scale farming and its management affects productive efficiency, environment pollution and food sustainable security supply. Present study was carried out investigation based representative agricultural development area Guanzhong Plain of Shaanxi, aimed at explore the role of biotechnology and laborers in integration of farmland toward to improve sustainable agriculture in rural China by employed the profit and Tobit models evaluation. The conclusion demonstrated that labor’s and agricultural management model as main stay, intensive farming has positive effect-based economic and environmental benefits than fragmentation management, female laborers have weaker effect on farmland renting-out behavior among smallholders while male laborers were superior promoters in increasing the area of rented-in farmland and farm scale. Finally, bioengineering development and agricultural intensification management as a rational choice that has great potential value for large-scale cultivation that contributing a promising future for achieving cleaner production, environment and human health further providing huge economic and social and environmental benefits in sustainability agriculture. Additionally, government policies require intensive intervention to accelerate large-scale management and biotechnology implementation.

Abbreviation: Aaflf: Average age of female labor force; Incom(log): Log of annual household income; Noflf: Number of women in the labor force; Nooaf: Number of old adults in family; NTFs: non-transfer families; OLS: ordinary least square; Palff: Proportion of agricultural laborers in the female labor force; Palmf: Proportion of agricultural laborers in the male labor force; RIFs: rented-in families; ROFs: rented-out families; Whhf: Whether the household head is female

Livelihood Capital and Land Transfer of Different Types of Farmers: Evidence from Panel Data in Sichuan Province, China

Farmers’ livelihood and land have been the focus of academic and political attention for a long time. In the process of rapid urbanization in China, as farmers change their livelihood strategies and livelihood capital allocation driven by economic interests, farmland abandonment increases, which is not conducive to the guarantee of food security. This study aims to explore the characteristics of livelihood capital and land transfer of farmers under different livelihood strategies and the effect of livelihood capital on land transfer. Based on the data obtained from Sichuan Province in 2012, 2016 and 2019 by the China Rural Development Survey Group, this paper divides farmers into pure farmers, part-time farmers and non-farmers according to the proportion of non-agricultural income in total income, and constructed the panel binary Logit model and panel Tobit model. The analysis points to the following results: (1) pure farmers tend to shift other capitals toward natural capital, so their livelihood capital total index value decreased. The part-time farmers have different shift characteristics but their livelihood capital total index value both increased first and then decreased. Non-farmers tend to shift natural capital towards other livelihood capitals, so their livelihood capital total index value increased. (2) The higher the natural capital and human capital, the higher the probability of land transfers in. The higher the natural capital, the larger the area of land transfers in. The higher the financial capital, the higher the probability of land transfers out. The higher the financial capital and social capital, the larger the area of land transfers out. It is expected to provide suggestions for the policy of farmers’ land transfer under different livelihood capital endowments.