Farmland endowment, non-agricultural employment and the choice of diversified compensation patterns for farmland protection

The reasonable design of the compensation patterns for farmland protection is not only the objective requirement for the smooth development of the compensation mechanism, but also the inevitable choice to satisfy the long-term livelihood of farmers and to guarantee food security and the interests of farmers. Based on a survey data of households in Hua County, Henan Province, this paper employed the Ordered Probit model to investigate the impacts of farmland endowment on the diversified compensation patterns for farmland protection, and explored the regulatory effects of non-agricultural employment in the above impacts. Results show that most farmers prefer to choose “monetary compensation” or “money social security compensation”. Farmland endowment shows a significant impact on the choice of diversified compensation patterns for farmland protection, among which farmland scale, per capita farmland area and farmland fragmentation present some positive influences. Furthermore, non-agricultural employment shows a negative regulatory effect. Based on the above results, this paper provides the policy suggestions: formulating differentiated compensation plans for farmland protection, making more favorable policies to promote farmland transfer, and intensifying the publicity on policies related to the compensation for farmland protection.