Does land tenure fragmentation aggravate farmland abandonment? Evidence from big survey data in rural China

Farmland fragmentation is an important factor of farmland abandonment in China, including landscape fragmentation in biophysical conditions and tenure fragmentation in property conditions. Both farmland fragmentation has different effects and different management strategies. However, it is still unclear whether the farmland tenure fragmentation (FTF) aggravates farmland abandonment and its extent when the farmland landscape fragmentation (FLF) remains unchanged. Therefore, we combined the large-scale sample survey (5479 samples) and geographical analysis to distinguish FTF and FLF, and use logistic regression and Tobit regression model to analyze the impact of FTF on farmland abandonment. In addition, we take farmland transfer as a moderation variable to explore whether the farmland transfer significantly alleviates the abandonment of farmland. Here we show that the farmland abandonment rate decreased by 16.8% when the average plot area increased by 1 mu (1 mu = 666.67 m2) in China, and in the place where the extent of FLF is lower, the impact of FTF on farmland abandonment is greater. And farmland transfer plays a significant regulatory role between the FTF and the abandoned rate of farmland. This study helps to distinguish our understanding of the impact of FTF and FLF on farmland abandonment and provides a scientific basis for decision-makers to reduce the abandonment of farmland, ensure national food security, and promote rural revitalization.