The impact of high-standard farmland construction on farmland abandonment by farm households: evidence from rural China

Currently, farmland abandonment has become a significant issue, resulting in reduced food production and land degradation in rural regions. In China’s agricultural sector, developing high-standard farmland has been a crucial undertaking in recent years. It has contributed significantly to improving production conditions and increasing farmers’ incomes. However, most existing studies focus on the macro level, such as provincial or municipal scales, overlooking the impact of high-standard farmland construction on the behaviour of farm households at the micro level. This paper addresses this gap by studying farm households at the micro level. A theoretical and analytical framework is developed to examine how high-standard farmland influences farm households’ decisions to abandon farming. Using rural survey data from Sichuan Province, China, covering 391 farm households, this paper empirically investigates the mechanisms and heterogeneity of this influence. The results show that high-standard farmland construction significantly inhibits farmland abandonment in five ways: by facilitating the transfer of interconnected and high-standard farmland, promoting the use of agricultural machinery, encouraging the adoption of production services, and improving household income.