The Mechanization of Farming on Tiliu Tian Boosts Transfers of Chengbao Tian: Economic Analysis and Descriptive Evidence from Chizhou, Anhui Province, China.

This paper studies how the early adoption of mechanization services on tiliu tian (large and non-fragmented farmland) helped boosting transfers of chengbao tian (small and fragmented farmland) in China. Self-conducted household surveys and interviews in Anhui Province show that the mechanization services initiated on the former farmland expanded to the latter farmland as they are geographically close to each other. The expansion of mechanization services lowered the labor cost of cultivating small fragmented farmland in scale and thereby boosted transfers of chengbao tian among heterogeneous households in the opportunity cost of labor.