Global understanding of farmland abandonment: A review and prospects

doi:10.1007/s11442-017-1426-0

Abstract

Abstract:

Since the 1950s, noteworthy farmland abandonment has been occurring in many developed countries and some developing countries. This global land use phenomenon has fundamentally altered extensive rural landscapes. A review of global farmland abandonment under the headings of “land use change - driving mechanisms - impacts and consequences - policy responses” found the following: (1) Farmland abandonment has occurred primarily in developed countries in Europe and North America, but the extent of abandonment has varied significantly. (2) Changing socio-economic factors were the primary driving forces for the farmland abandonment. And land marginalization was the fundamental cause, which was due to the drastic increase of farming opportunity cost, while the direct factor for abandonment was the shrink of agricultural labor forces. (3) Whether to abandon, to what extent and its spatial distributions were finally dependent on integrated effect from the physical conditions, laborer attributes, farming and regional socio-economic conditions at the village, household and parcel scales. With the exception of Eastern Europe, farmland abandonment was more likely to occur in mountainous and hilly areas, due to their unfavorable farming conditions. (4) A study of farmland abandonment should focus on its ecological and environmental effects, while which is more positive or more negative are still in dispute. (5) Increasing agricultural subsidies will be conductive to slowing the rate of farmland abandonment, but this is not the only measure that needs to be implemented.

Due to China’s rapid urbanization, there is a high probability that the rate of abandonment will increase in the near future. However, very little research has focused on this rapid land-use trend in China, and, as a result, there is an inadequate understanding of the dynamic mechanisms and consequences of this phenomenon. This paper concludes by suggesting some future directions for further research in China. These directions include monitoring regional and national abandonment dynamics, analyzing trends, assessing the risks and socio-economic effects of farmland abandonment, and informing policy making.

Key words: farmland abandonment, farmland marginalization, Land-Use and Cover-Change (LUCC), research progress and prospects

Shengfa LI, Xiubin LI. Global understanding of farmland abandonment: A review and prospects[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2017, 27(9): 1123-1150.

Figures/Tables 4

Figure 1

Table 1

Typical drivers of farmland abandonment in main research areas"

Study region	Terrain	Drivers and causes	Study period		References
Northeastern Spain	Mountain	Depopulation, livelihood changed	1984-2007		Melendez-Pastor et al., 2014
Southeast of Portugal	Hilly	Implementation of EU common agricultural policy, rural exodus, marginalization of farmland	1985-2000		Doorn et al., 1996
The Pyrenees	Mountain	Changes in demand, marginalization of farmland	1950-2000		Mottet et al., 2006
Central and southern France	Mountain	Depopulation	1975-1998		Andre, 1998
Mountain Swiss	Mountain	Rural depopulation, increase of part-time households	1980s-1990		Gellrich et al., 2007a
Western Russia	Plain	Social and economic reform, subsidies stopped	1984-2010		Prishchepov et al., 2013
East of Albania	Mountain	Massive imports of low-cost agricultural products led to a decline in incomes for local agricultural production, which made many farmers move out and seek employment in a non-farm sector	1988-2003		Sikor et al., 2009
Southern Russia	Plain	Collapse of the Soviet Union, the central government stopped providing agricultural subsidies	1989-1998		H?lzel et al., 2002
Carpathians	Mountain	Social and economic reform, land system reform	1986-2000		Kuemmerle et al., 2008
Central Latvia	Hilly	Lack of agricultural laborers, privatization of land ownership	Since 1990		Nikodemus et al., 2005
Slovakia	Mountain	Market economy; an increase of imports led to a decline in both the demand for and price of local agricultural products, which led to marginalization of farmland; other causes included the lack of young laborers, an aging labor force, and a diversity of livelihoods	1990-2010		Lieskovsky et al., 2015
Western Ukraine	Mountain	Collapse of the political system, an incomplete land system reform, and more opportunities for non-farm jobs	1989-2008		Baumann et al., 2011; Alix-Garcia et al., 2012
Southern Poland	Mountain	The mobility of the local population and increases in off-farm employment	1823-2001		Kozak, 2003
South Appalachian	Mountain & Hilly	Marginalization of farmland: low productive farmland that needed more input of fertilizers, and entailed higher farm costs	1935-1975		Rudel et al., 1996
Northern Thailand	Mountain	Land degradation, new forestry policy, economic reform, liberalization of the rice market	Since 1990s		Lambin et al., 2010; Tachibana et al., 2001
Latin America	Mountain	Rapid development of secondary and tertiary industries, rural-urban migration, shrinking numbers of agricultural laborers, large-scale commercial production in agriculture in plain areas, foreign trade development	Since 1980s		Aide et al., 2004
Puerto Rico	Mountain	Industrialization in the coastal region and aviation industrial development led large numbers of agricultural laborers to migrate to non-agricultural sectors in coastal areas and North America	1950-1990		Rudel et al., 2000
Acud Island in Chile	Hilly	Urbanization and industrialization		1985-2007		Díaz et al., 2011
Western Japan	Mountain	Out-migration of young labor forces, depopulation		1950s-1990s		Kamada et al., 1997
Southern Palawan, the Philippines	Mountain	Irrigation technology development increased the multiple cropping index in the coastal plain area, which provided higher incomes, and led to an increase in the cost of agricultural opportunities for mountain farmers		1990s		Shively et al., 2001
South of the Himalayas, Nepal	Mountain	Improved transportation; more off-farm job opportunities promoted the out-migration of the rural population and resulted in a shortage of agricultural laborers; an increase in the proportion of off-farm income reduced farmers’ dependence on land Low incomes from marginal land, the decline of soil fertility, and land reform		1970s-2000		Khanal et al., 2006
Dadu River, Sichuan, China	Mountain	Land system reform, more farmers seeking employment in urban areas, marginalization of farmland		1967-2000		Yan et al., 2005
Southern Ningxia province, China	Mountain	Increase in farming opportunity costs, out-migration of agricultural laborers, marginalization of farmland		~2008		Tian et al., 2009
Chongqing, China	Mountain	Increase in farming opportunity costs, out-migration of agricultural laborers		~2010/2012		Zhang et al., 2011a; Shao et al., 2015; Yan et al., 2016a
Jiangxi province, China	-	Rising opportunity cost of agricultural production, out-migration of agricultural laborers		1990-2005		Xie et al., 2014
Bijie in Guizhou province, China	Mountain	Low income for agricultural production, poor farm conditions, lack of laborers		~2012		Ge et al., 2012

Table 1

Figure 2

Table 2

Determinants of farmland abandonment at different levels"

Levels	Labor attributes	Agricultural production conditions	Socioeconomic situations
Regional/village scale	No. of agricultural laborers (-) Labor participation (-) Land area per agricultural laborer (+) Percentage of off-farm laborers (+) Percentage of full-time farms/farmers (-)	Mechanization (-) Average elevation (+) Average slope (+) Temperature (~) Precipitation (~) Degree days (~) Fragmentation (+) Parcels per household (+) Agricultural infrastructure (-) Soil quality (-) Average farming distance (+) Average nearest distance from land parcel to road (±) Average nearest distance from land parcel to forest edge (-) Wild animal influence (+) Average yield (-)	Farming opportunity cost (+) Off-farm income (+) Proportion of non-agricultural employment (+) Percentage of non-agricultural GDP (+) Per capita GDP (+) % change of rural labor force and population (+) Urbanization rate (+) Distance to administrative center (±) Road density (+) Land rental rate (-) Agricultural subsidy (-)
Household/ farm level	No. of agricultural laborers by household (-) Household size (-) Land area per agricultural laborer (+) Average age of agricultural laborer in the household or farm (+) Percentage of elderly agricultural laborers (+) Percentage of male agricultural laborers (-) Age of head of a household or farm (+) Age of farm holder/head of household (+) Dependency ratio (+) Percentage of part-time farmers (+) Education (±) Household type	No. of pieces of agricultural machinery (-) Farm size/No. of parcels (+) Average area per parcel (-) Average farming distance (+) Soil quality (-) Average yield of the household or farm (-)	Per capita income (+) Agricultural income (-) Non-farm income (+) Percentage of non-farm income (+)
Parcel level		Parcel size (-) Shape index of the parcel (+) Slope (+) Elevation (+) Soil quality (-) Potential productivity (-) Farm distance (+) Distance from land parcel to nearest road (±) Distance from land parcel to forest edge (-)

Table 2

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