IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v14y2025i2p393-d1590468.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Aging on Farmland Abandonment: Evidence from Rural China

Author

Listed:
  • Ziqi Zhang

    (College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China)

  • Jingyi Ding

    (College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China)

  • Kuan Zhang

    (College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China)

  • Xin Deng

    (College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China)

Abstract

Reducing farmland abandonment is important to address food security issues. China is accelerating its transition into an aging society, and this change in the labor force structure may have an impact on farmland abandonment. This study is based on the China Labor Force Survey conducted in 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 and collects data from 29,704 valid farmer samples in 29 provinces and cities across the nation. We investigate how farmer aging affects farmland abandonment from the viewpoints of information, mutual aid, and factor substitution using the Tobit and mediation effect models. The core conclusions are as follows: (1) There is a significant positive correlation between aging and abandoned farmland, that is, the higher the degree of aging in rural households, the more likely it is that farmland will be abandoned and the larger the area of abandoned farmland. (2) Aging has a multi-level impact on abandoned farmland, that is, aging will aggravate the abandonment of farmland from the perspectives of household head characteristics, family characteristics, and village characteristics. (3) Using the mediation effect model, aging will increase the abandonment of farmland due to less use of the Internet, agricultural cooperatives, and mechanization. This conclusion provides a basis for policy intervention, indicating that improving agricultural digitalization and modernization and increasing policy subsidies may be an effective way to slow down land abandonment.

Suggested Citation

  • Ziqi Zhang & Jingyi Ding & Kuan Zhang & Xin Deng, 2025. "Impact of Aging on Farmland Abandonment: Evidence from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-27, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:2:p:393-:d:1590468
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/2/393/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/14/2/393/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Şinasi Akdemir & Elpidio Kougnigan & Fersin Keskin & Handan Vuruş Akçaöz & İsmet Boz & İlkay Kutlar & Yann Emmanuel Sonagnon Miassi & Güsel Küsek & Metin Türker, 2021. "Aging population and agricultural sustainability issues: case of Turkey," Post-Print hal-03776653, HAL.
    2. Alfred M. Stiglbauer & Christoph R. Weiss, 2000. "Family and Non-Family Succession in the Upper-Austrian Farm Sector," Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 54, pages 5-26.
    3. Jin, Songqing & Deininger, Klaus, 2009. "Land rental markets in the process of rural structural transformation: Productivity and equity impacts from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 629-646, December.
    4. Gensch, Dennis H., 1983. "Iowa Cooperative Fertilizer Retail Outlets: Farmers' Attitudes and Perceptions," Research Reports 52018, United States Department of Agriculture, Rural Development.
    5. Wanglin Ma & Alan Renwick & Quentin Grafton, 2018. "Farm machinery use, off†farm employment and farm performance in China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 62(2), pages 279-298, April.
    6. Hui Zhang & Jing Li & Tianshu Quan, 2023. "Strengthening or Weakening: The Impact of an Aging Rural Workforce on Agricultural Economic Resilience in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, July.
    7. Prishchepov, Alexander V. & Schierhorn, Florian & Löw, Fabian, 2021. "Unraveling the diversity of trajectories and drivers of global agricultural land abandonment," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 10(2).
    8. Ji, Yueqing & Hu, Xuezhi & Zhu, Jing & Zhong, Funing, 2017. "Demographic change and its impact on farmers' field production decisions," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 64-71.
    9. Ben-Dror, Giora & Sofer, Michael, 2010. "Aspects of Weakening Cooperation in the Israeli Moshav," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 38(2), pages 1-17.
    10. Yuan Qi & Xin Chen & Jiaqing Zhang & Yaoyao Li & Daolin Zhu, 2022. "How Do Rising Farmland Costs Affect Fertilizer Use Efficiency? Evidence from Gansu and Jiangsu, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-18, October.
    11. Ping Xue & Xinru Han & Yongchun Wang & Xiudong Wang, 2022. "Can Agricultural Machinery Harvesting Services Reduce Cropland Abandonment? Evidence from Rural China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-15, June.
    12. Stark, Oded & Bloom, David E, 1985. "The New Economics of Labor Migration," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 173-178, May.
    13. repec:wbk:wbpubs:6007 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Ma, Wanglin & Renwick, Alan & Grafton, Quentin, 2018. "Farm machinery use, off-farm employment and farm performance in China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 62(2), April.
    15. Chenchen Ren & Xinyue Zhou & Chen Wang & Yaolin Guo & Yu Diao & Sisi Shen & Stefan Reis & Wanyue Li & Jianming Xu & Baojing Gu, 2023. "Ageing threatens sustainability of smallholder farming in China," Nature, Nature, vol. 616(7955), pages 96-103, April.
    16. Wanglin Ma & Zhongkun Zhu & Xiaoshi Zhou, 2022. "Agricultural mechanization and cropland abandonment in rural China," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(6), pages 526-533, March.
    17. Hakelius, Karin, 1999. "Farmer Cooperatives in the 21st Century: Young and Old Farmers in Sweden," Journal of Rural Cooperation, Hebrew University, Center for Agricultural Economic Research, vol. 27(01), pages 1-27.
    18. Lijing Zhang & Mingyong Hong & Xiaolin Guo & Wenrong Qian, 2022. "How Does Land Rental Affect Agricultural Labor Productivity? An Empirical Study in Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-19, April.
    19. Guancheng Guo & Qiyu Wen & Jingjuan Zhu, 2015. "The Impact of Aging Agricultural Labor Population on Farmland Output: From the Perspective of Farmer Preferences," Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Hindawi, vol. 2015, pages 1-7, October.
    20. Merril Silverstein & Zhen Cong & Shuzhuo Li, 2006. "Intergenerational Transfers and Living Arrangements of Older People in Rural China: Consequences for Psychological Well-Being," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(5), pages 256-266.
    21. Megan Horst & Amy Marion, 2019. "Racial, ethnic and gender inequities in farmland ownership and farming in the U.S," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 36(1), pages 1-16, March.
    22. Zachary Zimmer & Julia Kwong, 2003. "Family size and support of older adults in urban and rural China: Current effects and future implications," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 40(1), pages 23-44, February.
    23. Zheng, Linyi, 2024. "Big hands holding small hands: The role of new agricultural operating entities in farmland abandonment," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    24. Xin Deng & Dingde Xu & Yanbin Qi & Miao Zeng, 2018. "Labor Off-Farm Employment and Cropland Abandonment in Rural China: Spatial Distribution and Empirical Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-15, August.
    25. Achilleas Kontogeorgos & Panagiota Sergaki & Fotios Chatzitheodoridis, 2017. "An Assessment Of New Farmers’ Perceptions About Agricultural Cooperatives," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(01), pages 1-13, March.
    26. Qin Fan & Vania B. Salas Garcia, 2018. "Information Access and Smallholder Farmers’ Market Participation in Peru," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(2), pages 476-494, June.
    27. Daniel H. Cooper & Christopher L. Foote & María Jose Luengo-Prado & Giovanni P. Olivei, 2021. "Population Aging and the US Labor Force Participation Rate," Current Policy Perspectives 93533, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    28. Ayal Kimhi & Ramon Lopez, 1999. "A Note on Farmers' Retirement and Succession Considerations: Evidence from a Household Survey," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 154-162, January.
    29. Hudson, Heather E. & Leclair, Mark & Pelletier, Bernard & Sullivan, Bartholomew, 2017. "Using radio and interactive ICTs to improve food security among smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(7), pages 670-684.
    30. Lin, Faqin & Li, Xuecao & Jia, Ningyuan & Feng, Fan & Huang, Hai & Huang, Jianxi & Fan, Shenggen & Ciais, Philippe & Song, Xiao Peng, 2023. "The impact of Russia-Ukraine conflict on global food security," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117700, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    31. Fang Cai & John Giles & Philip O'Keefe & Dewen Wang, 2012. "The Elderly and Old Age Support in Rural China : Challenges and Prospects," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2249.
    32. Wang, Xiaobing & Huang, Jikun & Zhang, Linxiu & Rozelle, Scott, 2011. "The rise of migration and the fall of self employment in rural China's labor market," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 573-584.
    33. Wanglin Ma & Zhongkun Zhu, 2020. "A Note: Reducing Cropland Abandonment in China – Do Agricultural Cooperatives Play a Role?," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(3), pages 929-935, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Deng, Xin & Xu, Dingde & Zeng, Miao & Qi, Yanbin, 2019. "Does Internet use help reduce rural cropland abandonment? Evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    2. Hui Zhang & Jing Li & Tianshu Quan, 2023. "Strengthening or Weakening: The Impact of an Aging Rural Workforce on Agricultural Economic Resilience in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, July.
    3. Berna Türkekul & Canan Fisun Abay, 2024. "Understanding Why Farmers Leave: Validating Key Indicators for Farm Exit in İzmir, Türkiye," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-20, July.
    4. Xin Deng & Miao Zeng & Dingde Xu & Yanbin Qi, 2022. "Why do landslides impact farmland abandonment? Evidence from hilly and mountainous areas of rural China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 113(1), pages 699-718, August.
    5. Qian, Long & Lu, Hua & Gao, Qiang & Lu, Hualiang, 2022. "Household-owned farm machinery vs. outsourced machinery services: The impact of agricultural mechanization on the land leasing behavior of relatively large-scale farmers in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    6. Siyu Yang & Wei Li, 2022. "The Impact of Socialized Agricultural Machinery Services on Land Productivity: Evidence from China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-18, December.
    7. Achilleas Kontogeorgos & Panagiota Sergaki & Fotios Chatzitheodoridis, 2017. "An Assessment Of New Farmers’ Perceptions About Agricultural Cooperatives," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 22(01), pages 1-13, March.
    8. Zhongkun Zhu & Wanglin Ma & Chenxin Leng, 2022. "ICT Adoption, Individual Income and Psychological Health of Rural Farmers in China," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 71-91, February.
    9. Lili Chen & Jiquan Peng & Yibei Zhang, 2022. "Research on the Impact of Rural Land Transfer on Non-Farm Employment of Farm Households: Evidence from Hubei Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-19, November.
    10. Dongyan Ruan & Jinqi Tang & Juan Wang & Jing Zhou & Xiaoyong Zeng & Hanjie Liu, 2025. "A New Path to Aggregate Area Expansion by Agricultural Mechanization: The Seedling Field Saving Effect of Machinery Rice Transplanting and the Case of China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, January.
    11. Mullan, Katrina & Grosjean, Pauline & Kontoleon, Andreas, 2011. "Land Tenure Arrangements and Rural-Urban Migration in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 123-133, January.
    12. Madior Fall & Muriel Roger, 2008. "L’impact de la réforme de 1990 sur les décisions de départ à la retraite des exploitants agricoles français," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 89(4), pages 29-53.
    13. Zou, Baoling & Mishra, Ashok K. & Luo, Biliang, 2018. "Aging population, farm succession, and farmland usage: Evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 437-445.
    14. Su, Baozhong & Li, Yuheng & Li, Lequn & Wang, Yue, 2018. "How does nonfarm employment stability influence farmers' farmland transfer decisions? Implications for China’s land use policy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 66-72.
    15. Mitra, Sophie & Gao, Qin & Chen, Wei & Zhang, Yalu, 2020. "Health, work, and income among middle-aged and older adults: A panel analysis for China," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    16. Chang, Huayi & Zhang, Junbiao, 2024. "Income growth versus labor loss: The joint impacts of rural-urban migration and off-farm employment on household energy use in rural China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    17. Wang, Shuhong & Li, Shengxiao (Alex) & Hu, Wanyang, 2022. "Grandparenting and subjective well-being in China: The moderating effects of residential location, gender, age, and income," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    18. Xiuhao Quan & Reiner Doluschitz, 2021. "Factors Influencing the Adoption of Agricultural Machinery by Chinese Maize Farmers," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-11, November.
    19. Xiang Li & Xiaoqin Guo, 2023. "Can Policy Promote Agricultural Service Outsourcing? Quasi-Natural Experimental Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-18, January.
    20. Gorgan, Maxim & Bavorova, Miroslava & Ullah, Ayat & Prishchepov, Alexander V., 2024. "The role of land market in shaping farmland abandonment in post-Soviet Armenia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:14:y:2025:i:2:p:393-:d:1590468. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.