Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1480636
This article is part of the Research Topic Global Land Use Intensity Change and Its Impact on Food Security View all 5 articles

China's Agricultural Land Transfer: Carbon Emissions Driver or Opportunity? The Pivotal Role of Rural Human Capital Revealed

Provisionally accepted
Tianshu Quan Tianshu Quan 1Hui Zhang Hui Zhang 1*tianli quan tianli quan 2Yi Yu Yi Yu 3*
  • 1 Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
  • 2 Jiangsu Normal University, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 3 Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Research has found that the transfer of agricultural land in China has to some extent led to agricultural carbon emissions. Therefore, it is urgent to systematically analyze the reasons for carbon emissions caused by agricultural land transfer, find ways to mitigate the increase in agricultural carbon emissions, and achieve low-carbon and sustainable development of agriculture. Based on the theory of property rights incentives and scale operations, this article analyzes the relationship between agricultural land transfer, rural human capital, and agricultural carbon emissions in 30 sample provinces in China. The results indicate that the transfer of agricultural land has, to some extent, intensified agricultural carbon emissions, with an increase of 0.003 units per unit of agricultural land transfer intensity. Rural human capital has mitigated the carbon emissions resulting from agricultural land transfer and played a corrective role. Under varying levels of rural human capital, there exists a dual threshold effect on the impact of agricultural land transfer on carbon emission intensity, exhibiting a pattern of 'ineffectiveness-promotion-inhibition'. The analysis of regional heterogeneity reveals significant differences in the relationship between agricultural land transfer and carbon emissions between major grain-producing areas and non-grain-producing areas. It is worth noting that in the northern region, the transfer of agricultural land exacerbates carbon emissions, whereas in the southern region, higher levels of rural human capital effectively curb the growth of carbon emissions. Furthermore, the impact of agricultural land transfer on carbon emissions is not confined to specific regions, indicating that its environmental consequences transcend administrative boundaries and spread geographically, displaying distinct time-dependent characteristics.

    Keywords: agricultural land transfer1, agricultural carbon emissions2, rural human capital3, regulatory effect4, threshold effect5, spatial effect6

    Received: 14 Aug 2024; Accepted: 13 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Quan, Zhang, quan and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Hui Zhang, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China
    Yi Yu, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, Jiangsu Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.