Low land transfer restricts the scale and modernization of agriculture. Based on a sample of 312 households and 1527 plots of 12 typical administrative villages in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces in 2017, this study used the ordinary least squares (OLS) and Probit models to explore the impact of cultivated land quality on land transfer behaviors at the scale of plots. The results indicate that: (1) Cultivated land quality has a significant impact on whether a plot is rent out or rent in. Plots with large area, flat slopes, and well-irrigated condition have a higher probability of being rent in, while plots that are small in size and far away from homes have a relatively lower probability of being rent out. (2) Non-agricultural income has a positive effect on rent out behavior of farmer. (3) The older the head of the household, the higher the probability that the farmer will participate in the land transfer. The farmers with lower education have a higher probability of renting in plots. The greater the number of agricultural fixed assets, the more reluctant the farmers are to rent out plots. There is less possibility of renting in plots for the family who has the larger contracted farmland. Some policy implications can be drawn from the results. The direction of related policy is to attract new agricultural management organizations to rent in farmland, and thus to promote land transfer market and to improve land quality. Simultaneously, improving the level of agricultural mechanization and agricultural production efficiency with higher land transfer levels need to be further valued.

Keywords: cultivated land quality; plot scale; land transfer; large-scale operation; Heilongjiang Province; Jilin Province

Corresponding authors: Yali Zhang, zhangyali@igsnrr.ac.cn, Liangjie Xin, xinlj@igsnrr.ac.cn