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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1582143
This article is part of the Research TopicData-Driven Urban Dynamics: Sustainable Urbanization and Mobility in Peripheral AreasView all 4 articles
Factors Influencing Farmer Entrepreneurs' Decision to Return Home for Sustainable Rural Development: Evidence from China
Provisionally accepted- 1Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
- 2Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China
- 3Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
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Farmer entrepreneurs, who are hybrid actors bridging urban capital and rural identity, play a crucial role in advancing sustainable rural development by addressing rural hollowing and urban-rural disparities. Therefore, it is important to study the influencing factors of farmer entrepreneurs returning to their hometowns. This study examines how multidimensional factors shape their return migration intentions, drawing on survey data from 1,573 farmer entrepreneurs in Jintang County, China, analyzed via ordered logistic regression. The main findings are (1) Economic Agency. Income level shows marginal significance (β=0.0035, p=0.078), with entrepreneurs earning ¥100,000+ annually 1.8 times more likely to return (OR=1.84), aligning with H11. (2) Family Constraints. Childcare responsibilities significantly deter returns (β=-0.3167, p=0.021, OR=0.728), whereas eldercare responsibilities are not significantly associated with return intentions (β = 0.0796, p = 0.594, OR = 1.083), which may reflect dependence on urban eldercare infrastructure. (3) Cultural Anchors. Frequent home visits (β=0.0314, p=0.001, OR=1.032) and strong hometown identity (β=0.1578, p=0.011, OR=1.171) synergistically enhance resettlement intentions—monthly returnees exhibit 3.2× higher commitment than annual visitors. (4) Selective Policy Impact. General policy awareness lacks impact (β=-0.0099, p=0.863, OR=0.990), yet specific expectations for economic development (β=0.3914, p=0.001, OR=1.479) and education progress (β=0.3704, p=0.033, OR=1.448) significantly drive returns, highlighting demand for targeted incentives. Robustness checks with ordered probit models confirm consistency (AIC=780, BIC=845). We propose three policy pathways: Cultivating cultural governance platforms to strengthen place-based identity, establishing rural childcare cooperatives to mitigate familial constraints and designing entrepreneur-tailored communication channels to enhance policy responsiveness. The study offers actionable solutions for SDG-aligned development in post-migration societies.
Keywords: farmer entrepreneurs, Return migration, Sustainable rural development, cultural embeddedness, China
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 14 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Feng, Chenziao, Wang and Zhang. 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: Yiqiang Feng, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
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