Report from a Chinese Village 2019: Rural Homestead Transfer and Rural Vitalization
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
In the first case, the transfer of homestead for rural revitalization is actually a concentration of land, which is passed to a company and uses the village's labor for agricultural and industrial purposes. It would be necessary to know under what conditions, what wages it offers, etc.
The Chinese government is promoting the concentration of property and plots, with the aim of increasing productivity and a more competitive market economy as opposed to a traditional subsistence farming economy. There is no doubt that there is a diversification of activities, employment and income, which can be positive and promote rural revitalization. However, it also often leads to the emigration of surplus labor.
In this case, the village and its agrarian dedication is so small that the model cannot be extrapolated to other villages. As recognized in lines 670-672, it does not work for all villages, especially for those farthest from cities.
It would be necessary to make a more global initial approach to the Chinese government's agricultural policy and the measures it is taking to insert this "case" in that context.
It is interesting to consider rural governance and co-governance, with bottom-up and top-down initiatives.
It is recognized that "However, it has been observed that villages lacking amenities have difficulties in establishing market connections with urban areas" (lines 297-298).
Throughout the article, there is an idea - although it is not developed - about the role of the city in rural development, insofar as the city offers equipment and services and, above all, activities, employment and income for its inhabitants and for those in its rural environment, thus contributing to the stability of the population in the surrounding rural areas. The proposed case is that of a village in the vicinity of a city and it would be necessary to analyze to what extent the income of this village comes from the city, before and after the proposed initiative.
The methodology is limited to the study of a small village and a few interviews. More than an investigation, it is the description of an rural policy, which seeks - according to different models applied by the Chinese government - the concentration of land, in this case with a small industry and other leisure spaces.
In any case, the achievements made are too insignificant to be able to extrapolate this policy to other villages. They have an area of only 11.5 ha, which is increased by 2 ha (13.33). And the employment of the industry is only for 20-30 workers. These are very limited achievements for the development of a policy of such complexity and insertion difficulties, as mentioned.
In fact, it is indicated that the sale of the land " It has promoted the migration of farmers to off-farm employment in the urban areas and indirectly increased the farmers’ incomes" (461-462).
On lines 482-483 it appears that there might be an error as written. Please check it.
It is difficult to conceive, as indicated in line 546, an "industrial park construction and industrial agglomeration" in a small village, at least in the short term.
Line 556 mentions the average increase in household income to 125,174 Yuan. In the surveys conducted, a greater detail of the origin of the income could have been obtained, to better understand the effects of the reform. They do not come from agricultural resources, as these only account for 0.69% of the total (Ref. 6, page 17) and the rest "from a variety of sources". What is the percentage of income from jobs in the city?
In this sense, it is also indicated that “Especially remote villages might lack the necessary resource endowments and access to markets, and may therefore not achieve rural revitalization in this way" (670-671). This example is not very appropriate.
Author Response
1，ok, I have clarified that the land have been intensive and used for the industies, the farmers have access to different employment types, in the table 6, I have explained under what conditions, what wage it offers.
2 yes,definitely, the China's government promote increasing proiductivity and a more competitively market economy, hence there is a diversification of activities, empoyment and income, which can be positive and promote rural revitalization, it also often leads to the migration of surplus labors. While in our paper, we use the theoretical farmework to explain that the rural homestead transfer have brought about the multi-path of the labors' migration, which is concentrated reflect in the case, this have opposite to the traditional labors' migration, and achieved the livelihood diverdification,which is a must for the rual revitalization.
3 . ok, I have given ditailed explanation and stated some useful experience for the same conditions villages in the corresponding position.
4.yes, it is necessary to make a more global initial approach to Chinese government's agricultural policy and the measures, I have made an extension in lines 701-704.
5 yes, agree with you,I have made explanation and illustratrion in lines 677-678.
6. yes, agree with you, it has been generally acknowledged, hence in the case overview will appears no necessary, I have delete the sentences.
7. yes, agree with you. Therefore, I have devoted some contents to explaine and illustrate the role of urban areas in the development of rural areas in lines 573-581.
8. yes definetely, even if we only have two times in-depth interview in the village, we have already reveal and illustrate the theoretical mechanism how does the rural homestead transfer promote the rural revitalization. The housing dendification have intensived the construction land in the village, which can available for the industries. To be more precise, it has formed an industry park, in which the primary, secondery and tertiary industries have gathered and agglomerated , not only the industries but also some tourists and leisure space sa you said.
9 yes, the village is small even not very big, but it is the miniature of the thousands of villages in urban-rural fringle areas can realize the devlopment of rural economic development and rural revitalization in this way and deplicate the experience what we have explained in the case, since they may possess the same resources endowments, location conditions and amentities. Hence, the contribution is still need to be acknowledged and empheszed.
10, yes, definetely, no matter in the theoretical level but also the practical level,the transfer/ sale of the homestead/house may have promoted the farmers' out-going migration and indirectly increses their income. The theoretical basis lies in the rent/sell of the homestead have incresed their capital accumulation and enhance the farmers' ability to move to town, eventually increase the off-farm employment in the urban areas.
11 ok, I will detailed check the errors and to modified them.
12 yes, definetely, I agree with you,the construction of the industries park will need a perod of time,it will need to introduce, foster and development, it need time and efforts to gather and agglomration, I will state clearly in our paper.
13. ok, agree with you, to demostrate this point, I have devoted some contents to explanine in the lines 560-563, to descpribe the diversity sources of income and the percentage of urban incomes.
14. we just point out that this case study and the successful esperience may have its limitations,not all the villages in rural China can deplicate this experience and policy tools in the case, especially those some remote and in the mountain areas without the spercial resources endowments and amentities will be a little hard the achieve their rual revitalization, However, if they possess the amentities and some degree of transportation condition, they still have the possibility to reach the goal of rural revitalization in this way, even if the process will be more longer, to be responsibility, we need to acknowledge and point out these. Otherwise, we have substitute the examples by some villages in remote rural areas and some with poor geographical location conditions.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper deals with an important phenomenon in rural China. However, it needs another round of rewriting in order to stand out as a thorough scientific contribution.
The introduction should be rewritten in order to catch the attention of the reader better. As a reader unknown to the Chinese situation, it is very difficult to follow, and I am not really enthusiastic on continuing reading.
The many bullet point lists in the text makes the paper appear unfinished. This also counts for the tables, where there is some repitition of the same content.
It seems that the authors should take a look at their findings once more and only try to communicate the most important findings, not all kinds of findings.
There seems to be a rather random selection of interview persons. at least, there is a need to insert more knowledge on how the interview persons were selected. And what are the limitations and advantages from choosing these interview persones. There seems to be a group of people not so happy about the whole process in the village, what about including their views? Or why is it okay to not include their views?
It would be nice to see some quotes in the text to make it more lively and more based on the interviews.
Author Response
"Please see the attachment." thank you very much !
Reviewer 3 Report
1. Review the MDPI citation system. References must be changed
2. Abstract: The objective of the research is not clear
3. Introduction:
- Line 57 Explain in detail what hollow villages are in the introduction.
- Line 67: -Regarding the necessity of homestead withdraw, some scholars consider rural homestead to be a kind of social welfare good or social security product, that was distributed for free to farmers as a place of residence under the arrangements of collective ownership of properties in the planned economy...- What scholars? References are missing
- Line 88: -It has been argued that the value of the functions of social security and unemployment insurance of the homestead is much higher than the actual compensation for quitting- Who has argued this? References are missing
- Line 210: The line of research is already explained in the introduction; it is considered that it is not necessary to repeat it
- Line 301: Would be point 3.3. check numbering
- I recommend combining points 3.1 and 3.3
- Line 376: Improve the quality of the first image. Both images are not numbered
- Questions raised in the research are not answered in the discussion
Author Response
Please see the attachment. thank you very much !
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors' responses are very appropriate to the considerations that were made.
Author Response
Yes, Thank you very much ! we have checked and modified agian for the laguage and to make it more clearly.
Reviewer 2 Report
The text needs a final round of checking for language and structure.
Author Response
Ok, thank you very much for the revise opinions. The two authors of the paper have checked and gone through the paper from the beginning to the end.
- First, we have checked the language and modified some sentences and graphs in the paper, and to make it more clearly and understandable.
- Secondly, we have checked the structure of the paper, and make modification for the headline of 3.1, also we adjust the table and figures of the paper, to make it more tidy and more concise, which will also save a lot of space.
Thank you very much for you opinions.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
With the changes and improvements introduced you can publish the paper.
Author Response
thank you very much for your comments, We still have checked and modified some senteneces in the paper.
