Spatiotemporal Variations in Farmland Rents and Its Drivers in Rural China: Evidence from Plot-Level Transactions

Reasonable rent is the key to promoting land transfer and realizing agricultural operations on a moderate scale in rural China. The purpose of this study was to reveal the spatiotemporal variations in farmland rents and their drivers by employing a multilevel model based on 3547 plot-level transactions in Sichuan Province of China. The results show that the rents of paddy field, irrigated land, dry land and other types of farmland have all maintained an upward trend since 2014, rising by 61%, 53%, 44% and 224%, respectively. The average rent per ha for these properties reached CNY 13,920, 12,285, 10,230 and 7980 in 2020 (1 USD = CNY 6.90 in 2020), respectively. Farmland rents have shown a significant spatial agglomeration phenomenon, and the regions with higher rent were mainly distributed in Chengdu and its surrounding areas, while the regions with lower rent were distributed in the east and northeast of Sichuan Province. The differences in farmland rent were influenced by multilevel factors such as plot level and regional level, and the former explained 73.4% of the farmland rent variation. The plots with a larger area, longer transfer period, clear ownership, better location and good-quality land had higher rents; otherwise, the rents were lower.