Reducing land fragmentation to curb cropland abandonment: Evidence from rural China

Reducing land fragmentation can theoretically curb cropland abandonment, thus ensuring food security. However, few studies have quantified this relationship using large-scale survey data at the household level. This study adopts a two-way fixed-effects (TWFE) model to examine the effect of land fragmentation on cropland abandonment using nationally representative panel data from the China Rural Household Panel Survey (CRHPS). The panel data set contains 15,138 households across 29 provinces in 2017 and 2019. We find that land fragmentation has a significant and positive relationship with cropland abandonment. The mechanism analysis reveals that this relationship is due to high labor costs and difficulties in renting out the fragmented land. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that farmers with poor human capital and those living in non-plain areas are at a higher risk of abandoning their cropland due to land fragmentation. Furthermore, the association between land fragmentation and cropland abandonment tends to vary across different land rent-in scenarios. For instance, an increase in the number of plots in the case of land rent-in is not necessarily associated with cropland abandonment. These findings are conducive to correcting the underestimation of the role of land fragmentation in cropland abandonment, and their implications may be extended to various countries.