Has farmers’ livelihood improved?

Compulsory land acquisition is an inevitable phenomenon in the process of urbanization in developing countries. To respond to the establishment of Economic Development Zone and the rapid expanding of urban area, lots of land has been acquisitioned in the recent decades in China, as a result of which, large amount of farmers lost their land for agricultural production and living, and have to seek for jobs in non-agricultural sectors. In order to understand the impacts of compulsory land acquisition on farmers’ livelihood in China, the study, based on the cases at two places in China, could represent the general situation herein. One case is from Xiema Town which is located in Chongqing Municipality, the other is the fieldwork in Dongfanghong Town which is situated in Changsha City. The studies apply both the quantitative and qualitative methods together to explore the situation of affected farmers’ livelihoods before and after the compulsory land acquisition. The influences of compulsory land acquisition on farmers’ livelihood are multi-dimensional. Though the affected farmers’ in the two cases demonstrated largely different attitudes to compulsory land acquisition and the degree of satisfaction about livelihood after compulsory land acquisition, there are common impacts on their livelihood, such as unsuccessful employment, low social welfare, lack of supporting social network due to the compulsory land acquisition. Meanwhile, the results revealed that the compensation plays a vital role in their livelihood temporarily after compulsory land acquisition, however, their sustainable livelihood is still worth due consideration