Abstract: Farmland transfer rents are an important indicator of the level of development of the farmland transfer market. Based on the survey data from 1,599 farming households in Jiangxi Province, this study empirically analyzes the impact of high-standard farmland construction on agricultural land transfer rents and its underlying mechanisms. The findings reveal that high-standard farmland construction can significantly drive up agricultural land transfer rents, this conclusion holds true even after robustness tests. The mechanism analysis indicates that high-standard farmland construction promotes the rise in agricultural land transfer rents by enhancing farmland quality, improving conditions for mechanization, and increasing grain yields per unit area. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that the construction of high-standard farmland has a more pronounced promotional effect on farmland transfer rents in areas with land consolidation, smaller transfer scales, and non-plain regions. To promote the orderly development of the farmland transfer market and leverage the positive role of high-standard farmland development in ensuring food security, it is necessary to establish a mechanism to prevent excessive increases in farmland transfer rents, optimize the development model of high-standard farmland, and enhance the effectiveness of such development.

Key words: high standard farmland construction, agricultural land transfer rent, agricultural land quality, local storage of grain, food safety