Forging new pathways: How farmland abandonment affects decision-making of non-grain production - Insight from China's mountainous areas

The shift in crop growth in rural households towards non-grain crops is a focus of concern in China's grain security. Land allocation decisions by rural households to abandon farmland can affect crop growth decisions. Prior studies on the relationship between farmland abandonment and rural households' crop growing decisions have been insufficient. This study presents a theoretical framework that encompasses land, labor force, and capital. Using unique survey data from 2448 rural households in China's mountainous areas, we employ an endogenous switching regression model for empirical estimation. The findings demonstrate that farmland abandonment significantly promoted rural households to grow grain crops on their remaining farmland. If rural households had not abandoned their farmland, the crop acreage used for growing non-grain crops would have increased by 16.4%. The effects of abandonment on non-grain production decision-making vary based on per capita farmland area, farmland transfer, and agricultural social services. Furthermore, farmland abandonment by rural households affects decision-making regarding non-grain production by adjusting the agricultural labor force supply. Thus, under policies such as farmland protection and food security, it is necessary to balance the goals of replanting abandoned farmland and preventing non-grain crop growth in mountainous areas, with a focus on enhancing the level of mechanization.