Exploring land system reform for demographic transition in rural China

Abstract

Rural population in China has undergone dramatic changes driven by large-scale industrialization and urbanization. However, under the current land system, it is difficult to adjust rural land resource allocation according to population changes, resulting in an imbalance in the human-land relationship of rural China and restricting the sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas. Therefore, there is an urgent need to further promote land system reform to cope with rural demographic transition and the challenges it brings to rural human-land relationship and provide institutional support for rural revitalization in the new era. The results show that population contraction, population aging, and below-replacement fertility are the main features of China's rural population transition in 1990–2020, which brings about problems such as the aging and weaking of social actors and non-grain farming. Meanwhile, the disconnect between land-use transition and demographic transition determines that inefficient land use, mainly characterized by cropland abandonment and homestead idle, is prevalent in rural China. Focusing on the trend of demographic transition in rural China, deepening the reform of contracted land, steadily advancing the reform of homesteads, and strengthening the provision of supporting policies are needed. These measures aim to promote the capitalization and assetization of land resources through the introduction of market mechanisms and empowerment, thus enhancing land resource allocation efficiency and optimizing rural human-land relationship.