Farmer's response regarding ownership and land tenure in post-Mao China : evidence from eight counties

It is often presumed in the literature on Chinese land tenure that the vagueness of land ownership rights causes farmers to use land resources inefficiently, especially neglecting long-term soil fertility. To rectify the problem, land-tenure was lengthened for another 30 years after the current contract. The new policy differs from the old one in that it freezes land adjustments in the next period, irrespective of population growth, in order to stabilize tenure relations and encourage farm investments. It also encourages farmers who no longer wish to farm to transfer their land rights to others, to avoid under-use of land resources. The authors surveyed farmers in eight counties and found that 62% of their respondents preferred the existing rule that periodically reassigns land among farm families in response to changes in the composition of their family members