AUTHOR=Liu Yu , Wang Shangao , Zhu Honggen , Wang Yue 

TITLE=Crop diversification, land price spillovers, and land governance: evidence from China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2023

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2023.1334476

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2023.1334476

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=Crop diversification from grain to non-grain production is often considered as a threat to food security in many populous countries of limited arable land. Yet its potential spillover effect has not been fully studied. This study explores a unique plot-level dataset to particularly quantify the spillover effect of non-grain production on land rental price of grain production from the perspective of factor opportunity cost, and proposes corresponding land management strategies. Our main finding indicates that converting land use from grain production to non-grain production significantly increases the land rental rate of surrounding plots for grain production by 222.02 yuan/mu, accounting for 28.75% of the total land rent (772.25 yuan/mu). This spillover effect exhibits a stronger trend as contracted land scale expands. However, the kin relationship among contract parties can weaken this effect, indicating that social ties can work as a mediator in offsetting the negative shock of rental rate increase due to non-grain production. In order to make the land rent under control, rural land use is actively harnessed by local governments with guided price. Hence, the study recommends a comprehensive land use planning and regionally regulated land transfer market in order to achieve a balance between food security and diversified agricultural structure.