Abstract: The new round of rural land system reform has strengthened the protection of the legal rights of farmers and agricultural
business entities, improved the property rights of village collectives, and laid a solid foundation for the orderly circulation of village
collective land. Based on a set of survey data of rural households in Yunnan, this research studies the way that village collectives play
an intermediary role in the transfer of agricultural land and its influence on the behavior of rural households in land transfer.
Theoretical analysis and empirical test results show that when the village collective acts as an intermediary and transaction guarantee,
transaction costs can be reduced, and the transfer of farmland between farmers and farmers or agricultural organizations can be
promoted, which facilitates the land transfer. However, the opening of the farmland market and increased buyer competition will
increase the rental cost of transferred land of the farmers in the village, reduce their farmland transfer area, and force some of them to
leave the farmland transfer market. This means that the village collective should pay attention to balancing the conflicts of interest
between farmers when playing the role of a trading medium in the circulation of farmland, and the grassroots government should also
strengthen the supervision of the village collective behavior.

Key words: village collectives, rural households, transaction intermediary, rural land transfer