Labor location and agricultural land use in Jilin, China

Conventional agricultural land-use theory overlooks labor location and its effects on land use. This paper argues that in labor-intensive commercial agriculture where labor concentrates in large labor centers (villages), the distance from the labor center is more important than the distance from market in determining land use and land rent and is important at both the microscale and larger scales. Both qualitative observations and quantitative held level land-use research in Jilin, China, support this approach. A new model is developed to incorporate labor location into the conventional land-use model. It regards agriculture as an industry using localized gross inputs.