The Impact of Farmland Transfer on Rural Households’ Income Structure in the Context of Household Differentiation: A Case Study of Heilongjiang Province, China
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
No comments
Author Response
Thanks for the reviewer's recognition.
Reviewer 2 Report
It is my great honor to have the opportunity to review this article. With the development of urbanization, a large number of rural labor forces go out for work in the trend of economic interests, reshaping the proportion of rural labor force engaged in agricultural production and the state of land use. Based on the survey data of peasant households in Heilongjiang Province, the author deeply analyzed the impact of land transfer on the income of peasant households with different structure. Overall, the research design is reasonable, the writing is clear and fluent, and the conclusions are basically in line with common sense. Suggest minor revisions for publication. However, there are a few small amendments for your reference before publication. Specific comments are as follows:
(1) The introduction suggests standing in the international context to talk about the problem. Land is an international journal, the author's introduction is all stand in China's point of view to talk about the problem, and suggest further upgrade. After all, urbanization and land transfer are global phenomena.
(2) Data sources are recommended in more detail. For example, how to ensure that the samples can better represent the population? how to conduct the survey? How about the sample recovery rate? Moreover, what does the author do with samples that are both transfer in and transfer out land?
(3) The discussion section suggests going further. For example, why does land transfer have different impacts on the income of different household structures in different studies? This may also be related to the characteristics of household samples themselves. For example, the data used by the author is the data of farmers in Heilongjiang Province, which is a typical plain area where the land can be mechanized and planted on a large scale. However, China is a mountainous country, with 70% of its land area being hilly. These areas are not well mechanized and cultivated on a large scale. Therefore, I suggest the author make this point as one of the content of the discussion, carry on the in-depth analysis.
Author Response
It is my great honor to have the opportunity to review this article. With the development of urbanization, a large number of rural labor forces go out for work in the trend of economic interests, reshaping the proportion of rural labor force engaged in agricultural production and the state of land use. Based on the survey data of peasant households in Heilongjiang Province, the author deeply analyzed the impact of land transfer on the income of peasant households with different structure. Overall, the research design is reasonable, the writing is clear and fluent, and the conclusions are basically in line with common sense. Suggest minor revisions for publication. However, there are a few small amendments for your reference before publication. Specific comments are as follows:
- The introduction suggests standing in the international context to talk about the problem. Land is an international journal, the author's introduction is all stand in China's point of view to talk about the problem, and suggest further upgrade. After all, urbanization and land transfer are global phenomena.
Response: We thank you for these valuable comments and suggestions. We have tried our efforts to added research trends and dynamics related to farmland transfer in the international context, and hope it can improve the manuscript.
- Data sources are recommended in more detail. For example, how to ensure that the samples can better represent the population? how to conduct the survey? How about the sample recovery rate? Moreover, what does the author do with samples that are both transfer in and transfer out land?
Response: We thank you for these valuable comments and suggestions. Firstly, we have revised and added more details about the data in the manuscript. The Rural Fixed Observation Point was established in 1984, guided by the policy research office of the central committee of the communist party of China and the ministry of agriculture and rural affairs of the People’s Republic of China, which was established by the state to conduct a long-term monitoring survey on rural households and rural development issues. All survey samples include more than 360 villages and more than 24,000 rural households, covering 346 counties (cities, districts) in 31 provinces (regions, cities) across the whole country. The annual regular survey indicators include nearly 2000 items, involving many aspects of rural economy and society, and it is very representative to reflect the micro problems of households. These rural households are selected by stratified and classified sampling according to different types of rural households, but the detailed basis for selecting specific rural sites and the sample recovery rate has not been announced by the governments of China (http://www.moa.gov.cn/nybgb/2015/shiyiqi/201712/t20171219_6103892.htm). Secondly, in our study, the amount of transferred-in farmland and transferred-out farmland is calculated by subtracting the area of contracted farmland from the area of operated farmland by the household, and if the area of operated farmland is larger than the area of contracted farmland, it means that the household has transferred in farmland, otherwise, it is transferred out of farmland. That is, if the samples have both transferred-in and transferred-out farmland, our study is to determine whether a household belongs to farmland transfer-in or transfer-out based on the absolute value of the area of farmland transfer-in and farmland transfer-out.
- The discussion section suggests going further. For example, why does land transfer have different impacts on the income of different household structures in different studies? This may also be related to the characteristics of household samples themselves. For example, the data used by the author is the data of farmers in Heilongjiang Province, which is a typical plain area where the land can be mechanized and planted on a large scale. However, China is a mountainous country, with 70% of its land area being hilly. These areas are not well mechanized and cultivated on a large scale. Therefore, I suggest the author make this point as one of the content of the discussion, carry on the in-depth analysis.
Response: We thank you for these thoughtful suggestions. We have carried on in-depth analysis and revised the part of “5. Discussion” carefully according to the characteristics of Heilongjiang Province's topography, cultivated land resources, etc.
Additions and revisions are shown in red text in the revised manuscript and thank you very much for your work concerning our paper.
Wish you all the best!
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
1. Introduction
In the introduction section, I recommend you to clarify the concept of farmland transfer briefly that supported in the scientific literature.
The introduction is concise and well structured; however, I would recommend you stating the research problem, gap, and contribution (especially scientific contribution) more explicitly. I suggest in the last paragraph of Introduction section the authors to describe the paper structure.
2. Literature review
In my opinion the first paragraph and the Figure 1 of the section 2 (Theoretical analysis and research hypotheses) could be transfer in the section 3 (Materials and Methods) possibly in subsection 3.2. (where there are exists many repetitions regarding the contain of this paragraph). If authors transfer the first paragraph and as the hypotheses are a big part of the section 2, the theoretical part that remains is currently very limited for a such issue that is a worldwide problem. I believe, should be extended and I recommend adding a clear section of the literature review dealing with this issue.
3. Methodology
The study appears to have followed a sound methodology that is described in detail. But I have some methodological concerns. The most importants are the sample and the year that took place the survey. The 2014 seems to be enough far from today, have passed six years and I think many things have changed from then. But it is something that it is difficult to change now. About the survey sample, it is enough from the side of the size? it is representative? the results from a such sample size could be generalized? Which is the total population of farm household in Heilongjiang province? The 1000 households from the 11 villages what percentage of the total population representative? How the authors selected the 792 households (from the 1000) for their research?
4. Results
Generally, the results are relevant and fulfill the objective at hand and are well interpreted in terms of the methodology.
5. Discussion
In my opinion, the Discussion it is necessary to separate from Conclusions. In this case should be included in the new section, parts from the results and from Discussion - Conclusions sections. Ath the same time the authors need to clarify their discussion with the theory. It is important also authors to compare their results with similar studies international oriented.
6. Conclusions and policy implications
In my opinion also the Conclusions could be merged with the policy implications section. The Figure 3 (The paths to increase rural households’ income) it is better to be transferred in a point above. I also think the future research and the research limitations should be more thoroughly reflected upon.
Summarizing, the paper needs some reforms to be more attractive for non-local researchers and practitioners.
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper has good quality and can bring a good contribution to journal. Authors should include 3-5 literature from 5 last years. Too much literatue come from Chaina and some literature from Europe (especially according to methodology approach) should be included.
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper at hand attempts to reply to enthralling research questions within the land policy literature. For this scope, the case study or rural farmlands in Northeastern China is analysed making use of PSM. The research is commendable but has substantial issues to be amended. I recommend the authors to carefully address the issues below before reconsidering the paper for publication.
- The abstract may be condensed.
- The authors shall add their definition of farmland transfer at the beginning of the introduction.
- The paper needs substantial improvements in terms of literature to be reviewed.
- Following, the paper's contribution will need to be put within the existing scholarship.
- The research question can be better exposed.
- Please, add the paper's structure at the end of section 1.
- Please, avoid footnotes - when possible, put the text within the body, instead. When footnotes are necessary, please put them AFTER the comma or full stop.
- As long as rural and sustainable development and food and agricultural policy are concerned within the analyses, a more thorough investigation shall be put forward. The latter represents some of the aspects to be further examined. Similarly, the authors correctly attribute a crucial role to land regulation, policy and law and agriculture efficiency for fostering these aspects, which need additional attention.
- Please, try to improve the quality of the figures.
- Please correct some typos, formatting and language mistakes appearing throughout the manuscript. Standardise the text to either British or American English spelling.
