<研究ノート> 中国・湖南省で農地流動化は進んでいるのか : 伝統社会を生かした新農村建設

Abstract

Recently, the shortage of young laborers and destruction of farmlands are the problems that are being faced even in Chinese villages. Farmlands must be lent and borrowed, and the size of farms should be enlarged in order to resolve this problem. However, the actual conditions involved in lending and borrowing farmlands by individual farmers have not been clarified yet. We directly interviewed farmers regarding these conditions in Hunan province and analyzed the determinants of the lending and borrowing of farmlands. The following four points can be concluded from the analysis: (1) Farmlands can be supplied and demanded on the basis of economic reasons; (2) Transaction cost problems surface during the lending and borrowing of farmland; (3) Social relationship, "Guanxi, " is an integral aspect in lending and borrowing of land to save transaction cost; (4) "Guanxi" is promoted among villagers to not only smoothen human relationships but also to facilitate economic transactions, such as lending and borrowing of land. This traditional social relationship, "Guanxi, " is expected to play a crucial role in the new village construction program, which is recently being promoted by the Chinese government.