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Characterizing the Land Shareholding Cooperative: A Case Study of Shanglin Village in Jiangsu, China

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  • Yi Ren

    (School of Foreign Languages, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China)

  • Yang Bian

    (School of Banking and Finance, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing 100029, China)

  • Tao He

    (College of Civil Engineering, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China)

Abstract

The land tenure reform is the key to sustainable development in rural China. Without challenging the collective ownership of land, the land shareholding cooperative (LSC) system came into being and is being strongly endorsed by the authority: It re-collectivizes the contracted land from peasants and enables better regional planning and large-scale modern agricultural production. This paper studies a specific LSC (Shanglin LSC in the Sunan region of the Yangtze River Delta) based on our fieldwork. We found that the LSC system is a bottom-up institutional innovation towards sustainable land use in China. Both village cadres and ordinary peasants’ decision making contributes to its successful establishment and development. This shareholding system increases peasants’ income through dividends and employment opportunities. The concentrated land enables ecological farming. Acting as a quasi-government agency, the LSC also provides public service and social security to the village community. On the other hand, the LSCs’ success depends on certain prior conditions and the LSCs’ multiple missions may contradict each other from time to time, and lead to loss of efficiency. We argue that this approach to land tenure reform may not be universally applied to any regions in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Yi Ren & Yang Bian & Tao He, 2017. "Characterizing the Land Shareholding Cooperative: A Case Study of Shanglin Village in Jiangsu, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-16, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:7:p:1175-:d:103761
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Jiangsheng Chen & Gideon Bolt & Yiwen Wang & Xiaoli Feng & Xuke Li, 2021. "An Empirical Diagnosis of the School-to-Work Process for Rural and Agricultural Development in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-15, January.
    2. Keming Huang & Fangzhou Xia, 2023. "Classification of Rural Relative Poverty Groups and Measurement of the Influence of Land Elements: A Questionnaire-Based Analysis of 23 Poor Counties in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-23, April.
    3. Jiao, Man & Xu, Hengzhou, 2022. "How do Collective Operating Construction Land (COCL) Transactions affect rural residents’ property income? Evidence from rural Deqing County, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    4. Hualin Xie, 2017. "Towards Sustainable Land Use in China: A Collection of Empirical Studies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-9, November.
    5. 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.
    6. Zou, Baoling & Mishra, Ashok K. & Luo, Biliang, 2020. "Grain subsidy, off-farm labor supply and farmland leasing: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    7. Yang Zou & Qingbin Wang, 2022. "Impacts of farmer cooperative membership on household income and inequality: Evidence from a household survey in China," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-17, December.
    8. Gian Nicola Francesconi & Fleur Wouterse, 2022. "The potential of land shareholding cooperatives for inclusive agribusiness development in Africa," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(1), pages 161-176, March.

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