Summary:
According to China's 14th Five-Year Plan, it is necessary to consolidate and improve the basic rural management system to ensure the separation of rural contracted land ownership, contracting rights, and management rights. Land-renting is an important component of both the deactivation of management rights and the optimal allocation of rural land resources. The three-rights separation reform of agricultural land not only promotes the exchange of land management rights but also releases the value of the land and enables its full potential to be realized. The financing problems faced by farmers are crucial in the land-renting process. Issues such as the scale of land-renting, the choice of transfer method, and the speed of transfer largely depend on the resolution of financing issues. Research on the issue of land-renting by rural households focuses on the factors affecting land transfer and its performance. The studies on credit provided to farmers mostly focus on credit behavior and the importance of credit to farming households. To address a gap in the research, this paper focuses on the relationship between land-renting and the credit behavior of farmers. Using large-scale micro survey data from the nationwide China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2015 and 2017, this paper conducts an in-depth study of the credit needs, credit constraints, and credit satisfaction of rural households from the perspective of land-renting. The findings are as follows: (1) Compared with farmers who have not transferred land, those who have transferred land express a stronger demand for agricultural credit, which is not accompanied by a significant increase in demand for non-agricultural credit. (2) Both the proportion of agricultural credit awarded to farmers who have transferred land and the proportion of farmers facing credit constraints have increased significantly. Further research on farmers who have obtained agricultural credit reveals that those who rent land have low credit satisfaction and identifies a relatively large gap in credit constraints. By analyzing the scale of farmers' land transfers, this paper finds that this phenomenon is more obvious in farmers who undertake larger-scale land transfers. The results suggest that during the process of land-renting, farmers face greater agricultural credit constraints; therefore, financial support for land transfer should be increased. This paper makes the following academic contributions: (1) It enriches the literature on land transfer and farmers' credit behavior. The literature on credit among farmers mainly focuses on their credit behavior and the importance of credit to farming households. Research on land-renting also mainly focuses on the influencing factors and performance of land transfer. This paper studies the credit behavior of farming households during the process of land-renting and thus provides a powerful supplement to the literature. (2) The studies on the credit behavior of farmers mostly focus on their credit constraints and credit needs. This paper is the first to explore the credit satisfaction of farmers and thus extends the scope of research. (3) This paper uses nationwide sample survey data to study the credit behavior of farmers. Therefore, its conclusions are more representative of the general population. This paper has two significant policy implications. First, the conclusions provide direction for the new-era government to promote reforms in agriculture and rural areas, increase the flow of more factors to the countryside, and enhance the vitality of agricultural and rural development. The construction of a land circulation system would not only be conducive to the deregulation of management rights but would also promote the optimal allocation of rural land resources. Although the state has recently introduced many rural financial policies, such as the microfinance policy for farmers, the findings in this paper show that credit remains a major problem for farmers who have transferred land. The conclusions in this paper can help the government and relevant departments understand the credit constraints faced by farmers during the process of land-renting and thus promote healthy development of the land transfer market. Second, the conclusions can also help consolidate and expand the association between poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. Overall, our country has achieved victory in the decisive battle against poverty. Consolidating and upgrading the results of poverty alleviation is a primary task set forth in the 14th Five-Year Plan. The role of finance in this process cannot be ignored. This study finds that farmers face more serious credit constraints during the process of transferring land. The government should continue to increase the credit support provided to farmers who are transferring land to alleviate their credit constraints. It should also establish a stable system to help farmers invigorate rural development. Finally, it should consolidate and expand the long-term mechanism of poverty alleviation to further revitalize rural areas.
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