Objective/Meaning Through the empirical analysis of the impact of migrant work experience on the entrepreneurial performance of farmers, it aimed to promote the high-quality entrepreneurship of farmers, advance the sustainable development of returning home to start businesses, and help achieve the goals of rural revitalization strategy.

Methods/Procedures Based on the data of China Household Finance Survey (CHFS) in 2019, the OLS model and the mediating effect model were used to explore the impact of migrant work experience on the entrepreneurial performance of farmers.

Results/Conclusions The study found that: (1) The migrant work experience could significantly improve the entrepreneurial performance of farmers; (2) The family social capital has played a partial mediation role in the process of the migrant work experience affecting the entrepreneurial performance of farmers; (3) There were initial investment scale differences and regional differences in the impact of migrant work experience on the entrepreneurial performance of farmers. The migrant work experience could significantly improve the entrepreneurial performance of large-scale investment projects, and it only had a significant positive impact on the improvement of entrepreneurial performance of farmers in the eastern region. Based on these findings, the countermeasures were put forward including encouraging the migrant workers to return home and start businesses, strengthening the entrepreneurial training for the returning entrepreneurs, and improving the supply level of public services for returning home to start businesses.