A rural settlement environment improvement programme is a livelihood project involving the vital interests of farmers. However, whether farmers should take the main responsibility for improving the rural settlement environment is an open issue. This study constructs an evaluation index system for farmers’ participation in rural settlement environment improvement on the basis of policy cognition, participation behaviour, and participation awareness. Using survey data from 909 farmers in eight provinces in China, this study empirically analyses farmers’ participation in a rural settlement environment improvement programme. The study’s results indicate that farmers have a high awareness of participation, a low level of policy cognition, and low involvement in the action regarding the rural settlement environment improvement. The participation of farmers in the rural settlement environment improvement is generally low and decreasing in the eastern, western, and central regions, in that order. Farmers’ participation in rural settlement environment improvement decreases in the order of suburban integration villages, characteristic protection villages, agglomeration and upgrading villages, and relocation and evacuation villages. To increase farmers’ participation in rural settlement environment improvement, the government can clarify the tasks in which farmers can participate, and establish an organisation and system to guide farmers’ involvement.

Assessing incremental land value is a key issue in rural land system reform. This study clarifies the formation mechanism of incremental income of idle homestead (IIIH), analyzes its spatial distribution characteristics using exploratory spatial data analysis methods, and identifies the spatial heterogeneity of its influencing factors using a geographically weighted regression model. The results showed that: (1) The idle homesteads have higher increment income. The Cities with high IIIH are concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), Pearl River Delta (PRD), Chengdu-Chongqing and Bohai Rim urban agglomerations. Provincial capitals and cities specifically designated in the state plan exhibit higher IIIH than ordinary prefecture-level cities; (2) The IIIH involves two stages, “implicit” and “explicit”, and follows two distinct paths characterized by “high development capacity” and “low development capacity”; (3) Spatial heterogeneity exists in the effects of the factors influencing IIIH. The regression coefficients for urban grade, output value of the tertiary industry, health care resources and education funding input show increasing trends from north to south, west to east, south to north and northwest to southeast respectively. Based on the conclusions, this article proposes that: first, cross-province and cross-city trading mechanisms for surplus construction land quotas should be promoted according to local conditions. Second, farmers’ contributions during the “implicit” increment stage should be recognized in the distribution of incremental income. Third, a differentiated distribution pattern for increment income should be established based on the primary drivers of IIIH for different types of idle homesteads.