Influences of Farmland Transfer Transaction Costs on Contract Choices
from the Perspective of Differential Order Governance
Abstract
The data of this study come from the survey of farmers in Suiyang
District and Yucheng County in Shangqiu City, Yanjin County in Xinxiang
City, and Ruyang County in Luoyang City, Henan Province, organized by
the research team in July and August 2019. This household survey
involved a total of more than 850 farm households in 5 towns and 28
administrative villages, of which 814 were effective farmers. This
survey focuses on the theme of farmland transfer, transfer contracts,
and agricultural scale management. To ensure the quality of the survey,
the main steps of the survey included the following: (1) According to
the regional representation and the differences in local farmers’ income
level, soil and water conditions, geographical location, etc., the four
counties and districts under the jurisdiction of the three cities in
Henan Province were selected as the research sites, mainly because the
economic development level and topography of these four counties and
districts were similar. There are obvious differences, which are
representative. Suiyang District and Yucheng County of Shangqiu City are
located in eastern Henan and are mainly plains. They are the core areas
of national high-standard basic farmland construction and the national
commodity grain base. Yanjin County, Xinxiang City is located in the
Yellow River Basin in the north of Henan Province, and the whole
territory is on a plain. It belongs to the national high-quality wheat
production base and the main production base of grain and cotton in
China. Ruyang County, Luoyang City is located in western Henan, with a
mountainous area of more than 900 km2, accounting for 70.2% of the
total area. (2) To ensure the randomness of sample selection, the
research group randomly selected 1-2 townships (towns) in each of the
above four counties and districts, and each township (town) selected 3-4
administrative villages. Each village randomly selected approximately 30
households for the household survey. Farmers who participated in this
research were also selected randomly within each village. They were
members of the family who played a direct role in the decision-making of
farmland transfer, and all of them reached the age of 18. After the
farmers confirmed the purpose of the survey and signed their consent,
the survey was carried out. The investigation was conducted with the
purpose of the investigation was informed and consent was obtained.
After the survey, respondents were informed about how the data collected
might be used and each respondent received a gift valued at 25 Chinese
Yuan. The survey was anonymous, and the data was only used for
scientific research. The detailed information and privacy of the
respondents were protected. (3) To ensure the quality of the survey
data, the participants who carried out this survey were all graduate
students and senior undergraduates of our school. Before the formal
survey, each person was systematically trained, including the content of
the questionnaire and the exact meaning of each question. After
processing the unsuitable samples, the final selected sample included
258 transfer-out households from 28 administrative villages.