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Based on the brief historical review, the purpose of this paper is to expound the target and bottom line for the farmland institutional reform of in China, analyze the “Chinese scenes” and historical heritage of farmland institutional arrangement, evaluate the policies and their effects over the last four decades and outline the keynotes and possible direction of the future reform.

The paper builds the analytical clue of “institutional target – institutional heritage – policy effort – realistic dilemma – future direction” and review and forecast the Chinese farmland institutional reform.

The farmland institution is an important issue with Chinese characteristics. Over the last four decades, the farmland institutional reform in China has focused on “stabilizing the land property rights” and “promote the farmland transfer.” As the study indicates, the promotion of farmland transfer has not effectively improved the scale economy of agriculture and stabilizing land property rights by titling may restrain the development of farmland transfer market because farmland transfer is of special market logic.

It depends on the revitalization of farmland management rights to resolve the transaction constraint of personal property and its endowment effect in farmland transfer. And, classifying the land management property to involve farmers into the economy of division can be reference for the reform of traditional agriculture worldwide.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the links between basic farmland preservation and land transfers in rural China.

The Chinese provincial panel data from 2006 to 2016 were analyzed with the use of Arellano–Bond linear dynamic panel data estimations.

The basic farmland preservation policy negatively affects the land transfer rate. In addition, this policy is most likely to limit land transfers between local acquaintances in the major grain-producing areas. Further evidence indicates that the basic farmland preservation policy has a negative impact on land rentals in general. Considering that land transfers such as exchanges and take-overs are excluded from rental transactions between acquaintances, the policy’s constraints on land use are likely to hinder land rentals between acquaintances, which are market-oriented.

Overall, this study’s analysis suggests that the farmland preservation policy’s constraints on land use rights are likely to result in a major diminishment of the rural rental markets. Under this policy, land that is designated as basic farmland cannot be converted to another use. However, it remains possible to improve the productivity of agriculture through other means. These possible avenues for improvement include enhancing the efficiency of production through expanding the scale of farming operations and developing the social services aspect of agriculture (i.e. the basic farmland preservation policy is likely to realize more social revenue than can be gained from land transfers). Thus, the arrangement of the basic farmland preservation policy in China can be managed in a way that is both economical and reasonable.

To ensure food security, China has enacted several laws and regulations to preserve basic farmland, and it has promoted land transfers to improve farm productivity. Therefore, it is important to understand whether the basic farmland preservation policy restricts land use rights and hinders land transfers that could improve productivity. This study provides empirical evidence showing that the basic farmland preservation policy is actually not conducive to promoting land transfers and that it even discourages the market orientation of land rentals between acquaintances. In dealing with this issue, the Chinese Government should seek to balance the relationship between preserving basic farmland and promoting land transfers.

This research examines farmers’ cognitions to the policy and how such cognitions influence their intentions and behaviors of land transfer, with the implementation of the Three Rights Separation (TRS) policy.

Using data collected from the Beijing area, this research tests the relationship between farmers’ policy cognition and their intention/behavior through the mediation of their psychological constructs. Both Causal step test and Bootstrap test are adopted.

Farmers’ intention of land transfer is influenced by their cognition of the TRS policy. In this process, farmers’ psychological constructs play a mediating role between their policy cognition and their intentions of land transfer, thereby eventually influencing their behaviors. This research confirms that institutions are not exogenous and the policy is not wishful thinking from the government. Instead, any policies, even enacted by governmental authority, have to be internalized within target groups’ cognition to be implemented.

Land transfer deserves close attention since it is the direct aim of the TRS reform. In this regard, this paper, based on an institutional perspective, aims to extend our understanding on the incentives of land transfer. This research proposes a revised model of planned behavior and argues that farmers’ intention of land transfer is influenced by their cognition of the TRS policy. On one hand, this study is the first to examine farmers’ cognition formed through the implementation of the TRS policy. On the other hand, it reveals the path of how policy can finally influence farmers’ intentions and behaviors through shaping their cognitions and changing subjective perceptions, which enriches our understanding of the mechanism of how policy has a concrete impact on society.

The authors are committed to providing the Chinese government with a foundation for making decisions that will protect black land and ensure long-term agricultural development.

Using the grounded theory approach, this study investigates the influencing factors affecting the quality of black land in Northeast China and proposes a hypothetical model for the mechanism of the influencing factors on the quality of black land in Northeast China.

The factors influencing the quality of black land include not only soil quality, ecological quality and environmental quality, but also economic quality and management quality, and can be classified into five categories. There are complex influence relationships between various factors and black land quality, with soil quality, ecological quality, environmental quality and management quality having a positive influence on economic quality. Soil quality, ecological quality and environmental quality are all improved as a result of good management. Black land quality is influenced positively by environmental quality, economic quality and management quality.

The quality of black land is a major concern in terms of food production and long-term agricultural development. The black land in Northeast China was chosen as the subject of this study, and the research findings have some limitations. The next step will be to expand from studying the black land in Northeast China to the black land worldwide.

In Northeast China, the quality of the five dimensions of black land must be improved in a coordinated and consistent manner.

This study investigates the effect of renting in land on farm productivity, and the impacts of rented-in land size and transaction partner type on farm productivity.

Data from the 2015 China Household Finance Survey are analyzed using an extended regression model and the two-stage least squares method.

Farm households that rent in land are likely to achieve higher farm productivity, and ignoring endogeneity underestimates the positive effect of land renting-in. Further evidence indicates that rented-in land size has an insignificant impact on farm productivity, and that there is no difference in farm productivity between lessees renting-in land from acquaintances and those renting-in land from non-acquaintances. These results may be caused by the higher degree of marketization of land rentals between acquaintances in China. With increasing competition in agricultural factor markets, in theory, rented-in land size should not affect farm productivity.

Overall, the analysis suggests that renting in land improves farm productivity, which supports the land transfer policies that have been rolled out in recent decades in China. However, our finding that rented land size does not affect farm productivity, consistent with the results in the literature, implies that the Chinese government should no longer subsidize or prefer large farms with low productivity. More attention should be paid to small lessees and market-oriented land rentals between acquaintances. Promoting the marketization of land transfers inside acquaintance networks could realize the potential of the land market, especially if land transfers decrease.

This study identifies the effects of renting in land, rented-in land size and type of rental transaction partner on farm productivity using nationally representative data. The findings imply that the government should pay more attention to the marketization of land rentals between acquaintances. Although existing studies regard land rental between acquaintances as informal and of low efficiency, the recent evidence shows that China's land markets are changing, and policy makers should adjust their policies accordingly.

Bottlenecked by rural underdevelopment, China’s overall development is bound to be inadequate and unbalanced. Through a brief retrospect of the reform directed against the “equalitarianism (egalitarianism)” in China’s rural areas, as well as the Chinese Government’s conceptual transformation and systemic construction and improvement thereof, the purpose of this paper is to clarify the panoramic significance of rural reform; the necessity, priority, and long-term nature of the current rural development; and the important role of public policy in doing so. It also looks ahead to consider the prospects for future rural reform.

This paper first reviews the rural reforms that were carried out in 1978. Second, it introduces the government’s conceptual change regarding rural reform and the establishment and improvement of the system that underlies it. Finally, the future of rural reform is envisaged.

The initial rural reforms brought extensive and profound changes to China’s rural areas. The experience of rural reform has been referred to and escalated by other fields of study. Hence, rural reforms have become something of global significance. Moreover, since the government can undertake reforms well beyond the reach of farmers, its views must be modified in a timely manner, and only then may it reasonably construct and improve the system pertaining to the “three rural issues (agriculture, rural areas, and farmers).”

This paper reviews the rural reforms carried out in 1978. It introduces the government’s change of concept with respect to rural reforms and the establishment and improvement of the system based on the “three rural issues,” thus looking forward to the future of rural reforms. The findings of this paper are of significance to the formulation of future agricultural policies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of mechanization services on farm productivity in Northern China from an empirical perspective, with the aim to identify the underlying market and institutional barriers.

The authors apply the regression method with the control of village fixed effects to examining the relationship between capital–labor ratio, mechanization service ratio and farm productivity, using the panel data collected in 2013 and 2015 by CCAP.

Mechanization services improve farm productivity through substituting labor, but it may generate a less positive impact on farms who do not have self-owned capital equipment.

It is the first study to investigate how mechanization services affect farm productivity for grain producers in Northern China.

This chapter deals with family/household relevance as a stakeholder institution in rural (farm) communities. The data collection approach is qualitative. Families in Japan and the Philippines’ rice-cultivating communities were the subjects of the study. Results revealed that households in the two sites were experiencing a unique ontological crisis vis-á-vis farming communities. The crisis pointed to the problem of farm families’ relegation as secondary stakeholders in the farming sector. Despite the struggle for survival in the farm sector, farm families were differently adaptive and enduring in dealing with the modern development – that is, selective technology adoption, farmland redefinition, struggle and resistance against farm policies, and community group accommodation, to name a few. This endurance contributes to farm family persistence as a relevant institution in Japan and the Philippines.

Farmland plays a critical role in the financial health of the agricultural sector. As a result, a number of institutions closely monitor farm real estate markets and publicly report estimated farmland values. This study aims to compare the information content of reported farmland values from three institutions.

A state space model is formulated to link observed price estimates to the unobservable value of farmland. The model considers reported values over the period 1965‐2010 for Iowa from three surveys: Iowa State Extension Service, the Federal Reserve, and the USDA.

The values reported by Iowa State receive the greatest weight in estimating the unobservable market value, yet the appreciation rates implied by the USDA estimates most closely track those of the unobservable value.

This study is the first to estimate the unobservable value of farm real estate based on observed estimates. The empirical procedure offers a number of unique advantages. It combines information from data reported at both annual and quarterly intervals and addresses potential problems related to cointegration, nonstationarity, and nonlinearity.