Does off-farm work induce farmland abandonment? Evidence from China

Purpose This study investigates whether, how and under what circumstances off-farm work induces farmland abandonment, which is of great importance for developing countries to cope with food security. Design/methodology/approach Exploiting large-scale panel data from the newly released Chinese Family Database, this study employs a two-way fixed effects model to empirically estimate the causal relationship between off-farm work and farmland abandonment. Findings In the context of large-scale labor migration in rural China, current off-farm work leads to an increase in the probability and area of farmland abandoned due to insufficient agricultural labor. However, off-farm work does not harm farm households in plain areas, or villages with land rental markets, abundant agricultural labor, and agricultural machinery, while it harms others. Moreover, farmers who work off-farm in the local area are less likely to abandon their farmland than those in other areas. Additionally, when the number of off-farm workers in a household exceeds two, the probability and area of farmland abandonment will miraculously decline, as the household will no longer live entirely on agriculture. Originality/value This study may fill the gap in clarifying the relationship between off-farm work and farmland abandonment, and identify scenarios where off-farm work may not cause farmland abandonment through multiple dimensions, providing insights into the governance of farmland abandonment during rural-urban transformation in developing countries.