Competiveness Promotion Of Waterfowl Industry Based On Farmers’ Behavior

With a long history, the development of waterfowl industry composes an important part of both agricultural and animal husbandry economy. Under the favorable environment of economic orientation and policy support, waterfowl industry in China has gone through a rapid development since the policy of reform and opening up. Except for the impact of floods in1998and the avian flu in2003, there has been a yearly increase in waterfowl stock and slaughtering volume, among which the growth rate of slaughtering volume ranges from5%to8%per year. In2011, the gross output value of Chinese waterfowl industry was over150billion yuan, accounting for30%of the total output value of the poultry industry. Therefore, waterfowl industry has become an important constituent part of the Chinese animal husbandry. Besides, with unique flavors, abundant nutrition and high safety, waterfowl products have the price which is1.3to1.5times that of ordinary chicken products. So the impressive industrial profits and significant economic benefits have gradually made waterfowl industry one of the major industries which can promote the development of modern animal husbandry and guide farmers to achieve prosperity. So far, China has become the world’s largest country in waterfowl production, with the raising amount of ducks accounting for world’s70%and the amount of geese accounting for about90%.Although Chinese waterfowl industry has obtained absolute international competitiveness in production, this does not mean that China has superpower in waterfowl trade. The exports mainly consist of primary processed products at low prices with small profit margin, and the imported products are primarily breeding technologies with high profits. For instance, defective domestic breeding system and backward breeding methods lead to the over-reliance of waterfowl industry on foreign varieties. Consequently, exotic species like Cherry Valley ducks and Maple ducks have monopolized Chinese waterfowl seed market and production, resulting in serious loss in industrial profits and potential safety risks for industrial sound development. In addition, compared with the similar domestic industries, the overall competitiveness of waterfowl industry lags behind other poultry industries. The absolute production, consumption and output of waterfowl products still leaves a large distance from swine, cattle, and chicken industries, contributing less to national economic and social development than other industries. Therefore, insufficient attention is paid to waterfowl industry. The lack of industrial development information and the incomplete statistics have resulted in the lagged decision-making of macroeconomic management departments of the government in determining the focus of industrial development, scientific planning and layout of waterfowl industry. Besides,the short of tilt policy supports and the sluggish macro decision-making and market regulation have caused a serious impediment to the great development of waterfowl industry.Furthermore, the problems in the development of waterfowl industry is much more than those mentioned above. Specifically, there are five problems as follows:(1) a low industrial entry and exit standard and the strong product substitutability lead to a drastic fluctuation in market price and instable management efficiency;(2)the demand verging to saturation, expansion of market demand becomes more difficult with an urgent upgrading of product structure;(3) lack of industrial standards, unified regulations and a unified standard in each link of industrial chain results in alarming product quality and safety;(4)the backward breeding methods leads to a high risk of diseases and the destructive effect to eco-environment;(5) there are uneven distribution of profits in waterfowl industry and unreasonable interests distribution among business entities in each link of the industrial chain.Therefore, this dissertation studies on the promotion of waterfowl industry’s competitiveness with the purpose of healthy and sustainable industrial development, on the basis of first-hand information related to industrial development from field researches and statistic analysis. Firstly, the development status, problems and industrial competitiveness of waterfowl industry are described and analyzed, providing basis for the government, enterprises, and other industrial practitioners to understand international and domestic competitive situation and challenges of waterfowl industry. Secondly, this dissertation studies on the promotion of behavior-oriented competitiveness based on four aspects:the competitiveness of quality, price, technology and organizations. A more specific, comprehensive and profound analysis is conducted on the level of competitiveness and the development trend of waterfowl industry in China, which can be helpful to determine the specific improving path of industrial competitiveness. Finally, some policy references are proposed for the government to promote healthy and sustainable development of waterfowl industry, according to the research on supporting policies of promoting competitiveness of waterfowl industry. Also, the behavior specification for farmers and some optimization strategies are put forward. Starting with the source of the industrial chain, the improvement of farmers’behavior, the implementation of ecological and healthy breeding methods, the reduction of farming costs, the promotion of new technology application, and optimization of the main cooperative forms of organization, can all be employed to promote the overall competitiveness of the whole industry.The main research content can be divided into eight chapters.Chapter1is an introduction. As the foundation of the entire dissertation, this chapter, in details, introduces the reason for research questions, concludes and summarizes the theoretical basis and foreign research trends, absorbs the achievements of the previous studies, points out the deficiency and blank, and then conducts a literature review referring to the direction of this research. On this basis, the research ideas and technical route are determined, and also the whole content and the research methods used are briefly introduced. Finally, the possible innovation in this research is explained.Chapter2concerns with the development and competitiveness status of waterfowl industry in China. The data is from the available information of waterfowl industry and the data from a nationwide field research. Firstly, the overall development situation and existing problems of waterfowl industry in China are studied. Followed is the analysis on competitiveness status of waterfowl industry from three aspects, international competitiveness, inter-industry competitiveness and industrial competitiveness. Then, with the industrial developing characteristics, a descriptive analysis is conducted on four dominant factors influencing the competitiveness—price, quality, technology and organization. At last, the necessity and importance to enhance the industrial competitiveness of waterfowl industry in China are explained.Chapter3focuses on quality competitiveness of waterfowl industry. First of all, it explains the concept and connotation of ecological and healthy breeding, and proposes that healthy breeding should be the essential way to enhance the the quality competitiveness of waterfowl industry. Secondly, the status quo of breeding modes in China is analyzed from the perspective of ecological health. As farmers" behaviors directly affect product quality and safety in the whole industry chain, an empirical analysis is conducted on influencing factors of farmers’decision on ecological behavior, using logistic model and questionnaires for farmers in Shandong, Anhui, Hubei and other main production provinces. Some references are expected to be provided to improve farmers’ ecological and healthy breeding, then contributing to raising quality competitiveness of waterfowl industry.Chapter4discusses the price competitiveness of waterfowl industry. This chapter begins with the analysis on the fluctuation and discipline of waterfowl products’price. A conclusion is made on the relationship between the price fluctuation mechanism and each link in the industrial chain. Secondly, the factors for price fluctuation are analyzed from the perspectives of internal production supply and external demand. Finally, this chapter studies on the price conducting mechanism with VAR model to find the main factors affecting the price fluctuations, thus the costs can be minimized while ensuring quality. Meanwhile, with the basis provided for practitioners to resist market risks, the price competitiveness of waterfowl industry can be improved.Chapter5involves the technological competitiveness of waterfowl industry. At the beginning, it is proposed that to ameliorate the economic efficiency of farming through new technologies and methods optimization should be significant for improving industrial competitiveness of waterfowl industry. Then, the empirical study is conducted on farmers’ willingness to adopt new technologies, with the data and summaries from field researches. Finally, the significant factors are discussed and some suggestions on the promotion of new technology application are presented based on the results of models.Chapter6discusses organizational competitiveness of waterfowl industry. This chapter firstly analyzes the impact of organizational competitiveness on the waterfowl industrial competitiveness. Secondly, current development of cooperatives of waterfowl industry in China is analyzed based on the data from field researches. Finally, a dynamic game model of enterprises, cooperatives and farmers is established based on game theory and information economics. This model helps explain how to strike a interests balance between individual and collective rationality, to relieve the conflicts among various stakeholders, and to avoid defaults of enterprises or farmers during the game, thus to optimize the industrial organization and promote a balanced distribution of profits among industrial entities, and finally to achieve the stable development of the industry.In chapter7, the supporting policies and specification of farmers’behavior to improve waterfowl industrial competitiveness are discussed. According to the development status of waterfowl industrial competitiveness and the conclusions from analysis of farmers’ behavior, the specific path of improving waterfowl industrial competitiveness is firstly proposed from the perspective of industrial development. Secondly, the corresponding supporting policies are put forward in order to further enhance waterfowl industrial competitiveness and to promote industrial healthy and sustainable development. Finally, some strategies for optimization of farmers’behavior are presented, according to the current situation of waterfowl breeding in China and the nature of farmers’ behavior—duality, part-time business, experiential nature, short-term reality.Chapter8is the conclusion and prospects. This chapter begins with the summary of all research conclusions. The conclusions are that the overall competitiveness of waterfowl industry is yet to be advanced, that to improve farmers ecological breeding helps to promote industrial quality competitiveness, that to reduce the factor costs in breeding helps to enhance industrial price competitiveness, that to promote farmers’ willingness to adopt new technologies helps to improve industrial technological competitiveness, and that to deepen the organizational degree of farmers helps to enhance industrial organizational competitiveness. Finally, the drawbacks of the research is presented based on which research prospects are proposed.