Abstract:Based on the panel data from China health and nutrition survey (CHNS) from 1989 to 2011, by using Logit model, this paper empirically investigates the effect and difference of nutritional health on farmers’ labor participation from the two perspectives of calorie and nutrition factors. Results show that both calorie and main nutrient intake have a significant effect on the farmer’s labor participation, that calorie, carbohydrate and protein intake has positive effect, however, fat intake has negative effect, that the influence of nutrition on farmers’ labor participation has difference in gender, age and time, that the effect on women farmers is higher than the male farmers, that the effect on elderly farmers is higher than the young and middle-aged farmers, the effect of calories, fat and protein intake increases with the changing of time, and that the effect of carbohydrate intake presents a trend of rise first then fall. These results suggest that in order to increase the farmers’ labor participation rate, the government should not only enhance and improve the peasants’ nutrition level and nutrition structure, but also make the targeted policies according to farmers’ characteristics such as gender and age.