Off-farm employment, land renting and concentration of farmland in the process of urbanization

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of off-farm employment on the concentration of farmland via households’ land rental activities in rural China. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses Probit and Tobit models to estimate the effect of off-farm employment on land rental activities. Furthermore, the paper compares the degree of land concentration between pre-renting and post-renting in terms of Gini coefficients of farmland ownership at village level. Findings The authors find that off-farm employment has a positive effect on the renting out farmland, and insignificant effect on renting in farmland. Moreover, off-farm employment intensifies the concentration of farmland from small farms toward big farms by renting activities. Originality/value The authors believe that the results will contribute positively to the assessment of the effect of off-farm employment on land concentration in the context of the urbanization process in China.