Factors influencing farmers' willingness and behavior choices to withdraw from rural homesteads in China

The rapid pace of urban development and farmer differentiation has led to large-scale migration of farmers to cities, resulting in the abandonment of rural homesteads in China. This study aims to explore the key factors influencing farmers' willingness and choices to withdraw from rural homesteads and find the key factor of different groups of farmer differentiation degree. Data from 479 farmers in Weinan and Shizuishan and multigroup structural equation model were used for analysis. The results showed that labor supply shortages in completely non-agricultural farmer households had the greatest influence on their willingness to withdraw from rural homesteads. Whether a withdrawal compensation could guarantee farmers' future livelihood has the greatest influence on willingness to withdraw from rural homesteads among non-agricultural and agricultural farmer households. The per-capita area of rural homesteads has the greatest influence on willingness to withdraw among completely agricultural farmer households. Regardless of the farmer differentiation degree, whether the withdrawal compensation can guarantee their future livelihood significantly affects farmers' willingness to withdraw from their rural homesteads. The policy implication of the study was that, for different levels of livelihood dependence, local governments should adopt a targeted policy to encourage farmers to withdraw from their rural homesteads.