Effect of the family life cycle on the family farm scale in Southern China

Abstract

Th is study empirically analyses the impact of family life cycles on the family farm scale of rural households in Southern China. Th e ordered Probit modelling is applied to examine the survey data that comprise 2040 valid questionnaires distributed in 88 villages of the Fujian province in China. Th e family life cycle has a remarkable infl uence on the family farm scale as a whole. Th e numbers of children and farming people in a family have a positive signifi cant eff ects on the family farm scale. In addition, the individual characteristics of female householders have signifi cant eff ects on the family farm scale. Meanwhile, the family characteristics diff er at fi ve defi ned stages of the family life cycle. Th e study covers the gap in the literature on the eff ects of family structure on the rural household economic behaviour, in particular, on the impact of the family life cycles on the family farm scale.

Estimating the Optimal Land Management Scale of Big Grain Production Households and Comprehensive Family Farms Based on the Decision Graph

“…The extant literatures are mostly field survey and empirical analysis. The main methods used are the Heckman two-stage model, interpretation structure model [3], convergence analysis [4], DEA-bootstrapped truncated regression [5], and ordered Probit model [6]. The results found that the factors affecting farmland management scale include the following: (i) superficial factors, such as rural household borrowing power, in which informal lending systems and formal financial institution loans have a significant positive influence on land size [5], (ii) middle-level factors, such as family resource endowment, in which capital and the number of labourers have a significant negative influence [7], and (iii) deep factors, such as other farmers' management decisions, and the family's attitude and policy incentives [8].…”

Relationships between Land Management Scale and Livelihood Strategy Selection of Rural Households in China from the Perspective of Family Life Cycle

“…With the continuous evolution of family life cycles of rural households, the main decision makers, population quantity, quality of labor force, ability to resist risks, production, and living demands will all change. The above factors may have an influence on the livelihood strategy optimization of rural households from different aspects [10]. The influence of the family life cycle and scale of land management on livelihood strategy selection in China is a key issue of the present study.…”

“…Many of the livelihood strategies of rural households have gradually changed, from agriculturally based to non-agriculturally based [5][6][7][8][9]. However, owing to the long-term, urban-rural dual division system (especially the household registration system), labor migration and land use in China are different from those in other countries [4,10]. Due to the household registration system, there are differences in pension, medical care, and children's education between urban and rural residents, and numerous rural laborers cannot "take root" in the city; therefore, labor migration exhibits the "pendulum" flow characteristic of moving away to work at the beginning of the year and returning home at the end of the year [11][12][13].…”

“…Many empirical studies have shown that their livelihood capital allocation can significantly affect their livelihood strategy selection [26][27][28]. For instance, cultivated land resources are the most important natural capital of rural households: if the cultivated land management scale is larger, rural households will invest more funds, technology, and laborers in agricultural production, and thus the livelihood strategies of rural households will be more agriculturally based [10]. At the same time, a lack of natural capital can make rural households look for other ways of making a living to realize the diversification of livelihoods [28,29].…”

“…At the same time, a lack of natural capital can make rural households look for other ways of making a living to realize the diversification of livelihoods [28,29]. Some studies have found that the family life cycle can affect livelihood strategy selection of rural households by affecting family labor resource allocation, which can lead to the adjustment of the structure of agricultural production [10,30]. With the continuous evolution of family life cycles of rural households, the main decision makers, population quantity, quality of labor force, ability to resist risks, production, and living demands will all change.…”