The rural land right has paved the way for the deepening of China’s agricultural land system, which is critical to the successful implementation of the rural revitalization plan in the new era. Based on the micro-survey data of farmers in Yunnan Province, we use an OLS model to empirically test the impact of rural land rights on farmers’ income in underdeveloped areas, and we use a stepwise regression method to test the mechanism role of land transfer willingness and behavior in the rural land right on farmers’ income. Benchmark regression results show that the implementation of rural land rights policy significantly increased the total income of farmers, which mainly comes from farm income. Although the rural land right policy has no significant impact on farmers’ non-farm income, the sign of right coefficient is positive. Mechanism analysis shows that the rural land right can increase the income of farmers by encouraging them to transfer to land. It shows that the property right of land is clear, which makes it easier for land to transfer and trade, and farmers can achieve a certain degree of scale operation, thereby increasing income. Finally, it is suggested that future fiscal funding in impoverished regions be directed toward land transfer links and that accompanying rules and regulations adequately protect farmers’ land contract management rights.

Based on data from the Yunnan Province farm household survey, we examine the effect of rural land rights policy on farmers’ income. The regression results show that right significantly raises the total income of farmers, with farm income serving as the primary source of total income. After performing numerous robustness tests, using instrumental variables to handle endogeneity and arriving at the same conclusion, the result is still valid. According to the heterogeneity analysis, in the sample of households with long-term migrant workers, the confirmation of rural land rights significantly increases total and nonfarm income while decreasing farm income. Furthermore, total income includes nonfarm income, which reflects the effect of different farmers' optimal labor allocation based on the external market environment. According to the impact mechanism anal-ysis, right can increase farmers' total income by promoting land transfer, and farmers in less developed areas are more willing to increase their income by land transfer out.