Welfare effects of rural-urban land conversion on different aged land-lost farmers: exemplified in Wuhan city

Rural-urban land conversion is a universal phenomenon in the rapid process of economic development and urban growth. The welfare of farmers who lost their farmland attracted a widespread concern within the society and academia. However, further research about differentiated policies according to the characteristics of different farmer groups is still need to be conducted. This article divides the land-lost farmers into three age groups: younger than 45, 45–65, and more than 65. It proposes a welfare index system including eight functional areas based on different age groups of affected farmers, taking four districts of Wuhan City as case study area. Fuzzy mathematics method is used to derive the aggregated welfare effect index. Our analysis show that the overall welfare levels of land-lost farmers of all age groups declined, but with a varying degree, with the level of welfare in those farmers who are 45–65 years old, younger than 45 years old, and older than 65 years old decreased by 18.7%, 16.6%, and 12.7%, respectively. The direction and degree of effects on the functional activity index varies among different groups. Economic conditions, living environment, health, and social participation of all age groups decrease while social security and housing conditions increase. On the other hand, development opportunities, social communication, and leisure have different changing directions in different age stages. These results call for differentiated and tailor-made compensation policies for land-lost farmers, towards improving the welfare levels of all farmers and reduce the disparity among them.