Agricultural Land Use Responses To The Rising Labor Opportunity Cost In Sui County, China

Rising labor opportunity cost is one of the most important characteristics of farmers' economic environment in present China, and brings great agricultural land use changes correspondingly. Based on the stratified random sample of rural households in Sui County, this paper estimates the opportunity cost of farm labors, and then analyzes its effect on farmers' agricultural land use decisions. The findings show that the households with higher labor opportunity cost are more likely to reduce labor intensity and increase labor-saving input in their land use decisions. From the descriptive analysis, we also find these households always prefer grain crop planting, reduce yield-raising input or even rent out their cultivated land. As labor and yield-raising input are two essential positive factors for grain production, continuous declining of labor input and yield-raising input caused by rising labor opportunity cost may influence the grain yield per unit area in the future.