Off-farm employment and time allocation in on-farm work in rural China from gender perspective

•Impacts of off-farm employment on time spent in on-farm work are examined using survey data in rural China.•No trend towards a feminization of agriculture is found in China, rather a declining tendency.•Off-farm employment does not have a direct influence on time allocation in on farm work.•The impacts of off-farm employment on time allocated to on-farm work do not differ by gender.•Adjustments in time worked on farms occur via hiring labor and by buying agricultural services.

This paper sheds light on how the growing number of off-farm employees affects the labor allocation of female and male left-behind farmers in the Chinese agricultural sector. We find no direct effect of off-farm employment on left behind workers' total working time in farming, nor do we observe a gender difference in this respect. However, we do find that increasing off-farm work is associated with fewer days worked on staple crops, and in the harvesting and sales stages of the production process. Hiring labor and buying agricultural services also impact left behind workers' time allocation. Moreover, we find that in China, contrary to several other developing countries, there is no trend towards a feminization of agriculture, but rather a tendency in the reverse direction.