China Agricultural Economic Review

Deng, Xin; Xu, Dingde; Zeng, Miao; Qi, Yanbin

2020 China Agricultural Economic Review

doi: 10.1108/caer-12-2018-0236

Previous studies focused on the influence of outsourcing (labor division) on productivity, especially in the industrial economy. However, few studies have focused on how labor division in agriculture affects agricultural productivity. To bridge this gap, this study uses survey data from 4864 farmer households in China to explore the impacts of outsourcing on agricultural productivity.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs an endogenous switching regression to account for selection bias and a counterfactual framework to measure the degree of influence. Thus, this study analyzes determinants of outsourcing and the impacts of outsourcing on agricultural productivity under the same framework.FindingsThe results revealed the following. (1) Farmer households with the below average productivity tended to outsource; conversely, farmer households with the above average productivity tended to cultivate the land by themselves. (2) Productivity increased by 25.61% for farmer households who choose to outsource. Moreover, if nonoutsourcing farmer households would choose to outsource, their productivity would increase by 10.86%.Originality/valueThis study furthers one’s understanding of how outsourcing affects agricultural productivity among farmer households.

Han, Jun

2020 China Agricultural Economic Review

doi: 10.1108/CAER-02-2020-0020

PurposeThis article revealed the difficulties that lie ahead of implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.Design/methodology/approachThis article performed a systematic analysis of the difficulties ahead of implementation of the rural revitalization strategy on the basis of three factors, namely, people, land and money.FindingsThis article concluded that it is necessary to revitalize the rural human resources by introducing skilled labor; managing the farmer–land relationships through deepening the land reform and facilitating multidimensional investment that includes fiscal, financial and social factors.Originality/valueFor the first time, this article systematically explored the solutions to the problems related to people, land and money in the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.

Zhu, Wenbo; Chen, Yongfu; Zheng, Zhihao; Zhao, Jing; Li, Guojing; Si, Wei

2020 China Agricultural Economic Review

doi: 10.1108/caer-09-2019-0162

China has experienced a fast economic growth and shown a significant rise in income inequality in the past decades. During the same period, fluid milk consumption in urban areas has rapidly expanded. The objective of this paper is to analyze and simulate the influence of income distribution changes on fluid milk consumption of households in urban China.Design/methodology/approachThis study applies an inverse hyperbolic sine (IHS) double-hurdle model to modeling at-home fluid milk consumption of households across different income strata based on a sample of 11,861 urban households in five provinces in China, and simulating the impact of changing income distribution, including five income growth patterns, on fluid milk consumption of total households as well as specific household groups.FindingsThe fluid milk consumption in urban China will continue to increase, with the unconditional income elasticity being 0.334 for the full sample and 0.347, 0.335 and 0.162 for the low-, middle-, and high-income groups, respectively. The simulation results show an evidence that, compared with distribution-neutral and disparity-enlarging income growth patterns, a rising income equality would lead to a more significant increase in fluid milk consumption. And the inequality-reducing income growth pattern has a larger impact on fluid milk consumption of households with seniors and no children, as well as households having no local urban household registration (hukou).Practical implicationsThe government should strengthen the supply measures of fluid milk in urban areas, enlarge domestic dairy production, and diversify the sources of milk imports. It is also necessary to subsidize low-income families, especially households with seniors or households migrated from other areas without getting local urban hukou, which could simultaneously improve nutritional benefits and alleviate financial pressures.Originality/valueA simulation considering the evolution of income distribution as well as different household groups is conducted. Widely distributed data with a large sample size and detailed demographic information are used. The problems of zero consumption and non-normal distribution are addressed by the IHS double-hurdle model.

Fan, Shenggen; Yosef, Sivan; Pandya-Lorch, Rajul

2020 China Agricultural Economic Review

doi: 10.1108/caer-03-2020-0040

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the evolution of global and national policies linking agriculture to nutrition in 2010–2020, and provides insights on the recent policy trajectory in China to illustrate how individual countries are addressing agriculture and nutrition.Design/methodology/approachThe authors utilize a noncomprehensive review of gray and peer-review literature, as well as a case study approach.FindingsSelect countries have made initial strides in linking agriculture and nutrition through policy, though progress is not widespread and uneven.Practical implicationsResearchers can begin closing the existing knowledge gaps on agriculture and nutrition. Policymakers can learn from the country lessons and experiences in agriculture and nutrition policy.Originality/valueThis paper provides one of the only overviews of global policy on agriculture and nutrition during the period 2010–2020.

Wang, Juanli; Etienne, Xiaoli; Ma, Yongxi

2020 China Agricultural Economic Review

doi: 10.1108/caer-11-2019-0197

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the technical efficiency and production risk in China's rice production and examine the effect of factor market reform on these two agricultural performance metrics.Design/methodology/approachUsing an unbalanced farm-level panel data with 2,193 observations on 329 rice farms from 2004 to 2016, the authors estimate a translog stochastic production frontier model that accounts for both technical inefficiency and production risk. A one-step procedure through the maximum likelihood method that combines the stochastic production frontier, technical inefficiency and production risk functions is used to circumvent the bias problem often found in the conventional two-step model.FindingsEstimation results show that both land and labor market reforms significantly improved the level of technical efficiency over the years, although the effect of land market deregulation is of a much higher magnitude compared to the latter. The land market reform, however, has also increased the risk of production. The authors further find that a higher proportion of hired labor in total labor cost helps lower production risk, while also acting to decrease technical efficiency. Additionally, agricultural subsidies not only increased the output variability but also lowered technical efficiencyOriginality/valueFirst, the authors evaluate the effect of market deregulation on technical efficiency and production risk under a stochastic frontier framework that simultaneously accounts for both production performance metrics, which is important from a statistical point of view. Further, the authors exploit both cross-sectional and time-series variations in a panel setting to more accurately estimate the technical inefficiency scores and production risk for individual farmers, and investigate how the exogenous land and labor market reforms influence these two production performance measures in China's rice farming. This is the first study in the literature to analyze these questions under a panel framework.

Li, Qian; Wang, Jingjing; Wang, Xiaoyang; Wang, Yubin

2020 China Agricultural Economic Review

doi: 10.1108/caer-09-2019-0158

This article examines the impact of different policy instruments on livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure. The results shed light on the optimal policy combination.Design/methodology/approachA game theoretical framework is constructed to illustrate farmers' optimal strategies under different policies. Theoretical results are empirically tested by survey data from beef cattle farmers in Central China.FindingsEmpirical results show that penalties work better than subsidies if each type of policy is implemented separately. The authors also find a positive interaction between subsidy and penalty policies, suggesting that a combination of subsidy and penalty policies produces the best outcome in incentivizing livestock farmers to recycle manure. Furthermore, planting and breeding simultaneously have the strongest effect on increasing livestock farmers' willingness to recycle manure, suggesting that the combination of planting and breeding can be an optimal strategy for manure management.Originality/valueThis study is based on firsthand survey data and provides new evidence on the effectiveness of alternative environmental policies on manure recycling.

Sun, Lin; Ye, Li Tao; Reed, Michael R.

2020 China Agricultural Economic Review

doi: 10.1108/caer-03-2019-0055

Against the background of the rapid increase of total imported food in China, China's imported high-quality food has increased more than low-quality ones, and China's imported food quality structure has continuously improved. It is a new issue that needs further examination.Design/methodology/approachBased on the assumption of non-homothetic preference, this paper apply the method provided by Eaton and Kortum (2002) in a new theoretical model and empirically analyzes the impact of per capita income on the quality structure of imported food by using SYS-GMM with firm import data from Chinese customs.FindingsThe study finds that income is a significant factor which affects the imported food quality structure in China. The higher the per capita income, the higher the imported food quality structure. Furthermore, per capita income has a significant positive impact on the imported food quality structure in different quality groups. The research confirms that China import more food with the highest quality as its per capita income increases.Research limitations/implicationsChinese policymaker needs to reconsider the role of food imports in improving food quality structure. The aim of the Chinese food industry's supply-side reform should be not only to remove excess capacity but also to produce high-quality products that meet the demand of discriminating consumers.Originality/valueThis paper constructs a new theme for imported food quality structure and investigates import food quality structure improvement from the perspective of demand by incorporating non-homothetic preferences. Another feature of this paper is that it conducts an empirical analysis with unique and highly disaggregated firm import data from Chinese customs to measure imported food quality, which is more refined than the national-product dimension data.

Li, Junpeng; Ma, Wanglin; Renwick, Alan; Zheng, Hongyun

2020 China Agricultural Economic Review

doi: 10.1108/caer-09-2019-0172

The objective of this study is to estimate the impacts of access to irrigation on farm income, household income and income diversification.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs an endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to address the selection bias arising from both observed and unobserved factors and analyze cross-sectional data collected from Fujian, Henan and Sichuan provinces in China. The authors use the Simpson index to measure household income diversification. The propensity score matching (PSM) model and control function approach are also used for comparison purpose.FindingsAfter controlling for the selection bias, the authors find that access to irrigation has a positive and statistically significant impact on rural incomes and diversification. The treatment effects of access to irrigation are to increase farm income, household income and income diversification by around 14, 10 and 107%, respectively. The positive effects of access to irrigation are confirmed by the estimates of the PSM model and control function approach. Further analysis reveals that the irrigation effects on rural incomes and diversification are heterogeneous between small-scale and large-scale farmers and between male-headed and female-headed households.Practical implicationsThe authors’ findings suggest that the government should continue to improve irrigation infrastructure construction in rural China to promote smallholder farmers' water access and at the same time facilitate farmers' access to better agronomic and irrigation information. There exist gender and farm size related income and diversification effects of access to irrigation, and the irrigation access is associated with farm location. Thus, when developing regional irrigation programs consideration needs to be taken of whether the rural farming systems are dominated by male/female household heads and land fragmentation/consolidation issues.Originality/valueAlthough a large body of literature has investigated the effects of irrigation development in rural areas, little is known about the impact of access to irrigation on income diversification. The selection bias associated with unobserved heterogeneities is usually neglected in previous studies. This study provides the first attempt by examining the impacts of access to irrigation on rural incomes and diversification, using the ESR model to address both observed and unobserved selection bias.