Influence of labor transfer on farmland sustainable development: a regional comparison of plain and hilly areas

Based on the survey data on famers in plain and hilly areas, this paper applies the descriptive statistics and logistic regression model to conduct a comparative study on the difference between both regions in terms of the influence of labor transfer on the sustainable development of farmland use. The study shows that the surplus agricultural labor force in plain and hilly areas is different from the perspective of regional supply and demand, with the convergent ratio of rural labor transfer and the ratio of land abandonment. The influences of labor force type, age, gender and number on the farmland sustainable development of hilly areas are at the confidence levels of 1, 1, 5 and 10% with negative significance; and the influence of labor force culture on the farmland sustainable development of plain is at the confidence level of 5% with positive significance. Consequently, the labor force transfer accelerate the farmland transfer in plain, increase the area of contracted-farmland by families and upgrade the production efficiency of farmland; besides, the reduction of labor force number and quality in the hilly areas lead to the severe phenomenon of land abandonment, decreased farmland use in large scale and the apparent trend of transforming the rice from two harvests to one harvest a year. Therefore, the ecological environmental renovation of farmland shall be speeded up to embark on the road of eco-agriculture and featured agriculture.