Effects Of Household Food Security Constraints On Planting Decision And Labor Utilization Of Traditional Agricultural Household

In 1920/30s,there were a huge surplus of labor force in rural China given its relatively large population and low level of industrialization.Rural households mainly relied on crop farming production,whose revenue occupied nearly 80%of total income,and meanwhile,their production was usually food crops based,which were more than 86%of the whole crop area,therefore,their income was broadly subject to farm area.In addition,because of high land concentration,70%-80%of rural land was owned by landlords and rich farmers who accounted for less than 10%of rural population and plenty of semi-owner peasants and tenant peasants were suffered from the feudal land rent to some extent.On the whole,traditional agricultural development was constrained to a large extent,and agricultural households seriously faced household food security problems.So how did the traditional agricultural households solve the household food security problems depending on the small farm area?Previous research reached 2 conclusions from sociology aspect,such as,one is consumption,which meant eating coarse grains instead of flour and rice,the other is production,which meant translating more labor into revenue.But all these research were based on qualitative approaches,rather than quantitative ones,and furthermore,there were many weaknesses of these macro researches which were so general and obscure that could not differentiate regional differences and individual differences.Hence,based on Buck's original household data,this paper uses economic method,then constructs an economic structure to make an micro-empirical analysis on planting decision and labor utilization of traditional agricultural household in South and North China from the aspects of consumption and production respectively,in order to explain how to feed so many people on the limited land under the circumstances of large population,backward agricultural technology and great difficulties to transfer surplus agricultural labor force.The main research contents and conclusions are as follows:Content 1:household food security constraints and land outputThis section aims at testing whether the agricultural households within the context of household food security constraints relied on land to relieve their survival pressure.First of all,the clear definition of agricultural households which were within the context of household food security constraints was given,which the ones maximized total revenue rather profit.Based on this definition,this section divided agricultural households into different types and tested their relationships between household food security constraints and land output,finally found that the larger household food security constraints,the more land output,which was the answer to whether the agricultural households within the context of household food security constraints relied on land to relieve their survival pressure.Content 2:Effects of household food security constraints on planting decisionThis section aims to understand how the agricultural households adjusted planting decision to relieve survival pressure.It is concentrated on consumption:eating coarse grains instead of flour and rice.It can be analyzed that there were 2 methods to gain coarse grains including expanding its planting area to increase output and expanding the planting area of flour and rice(cash crops)to increase income for improving purchasing ability.The above 2 choices could be reflected by the planting proportion of coarse grains and flour and rice.On this basis,this section divides household food security constraints into household food supply capacity and market food availability.It can be concluded that:(1)agricultural households within the context of household food security constraints would increase multiple cropping index to relieve survival pressure.The multiple cropping index was influenced by farm size,that was the larger the land area,the higher multiple cropping index,but it was affected by land quality(containing soil material and irrigation condition)as well,which manifested the worse the land quality,the more limitation of crop production and lower multiple cropping index.(2)the agricultural households in South within the context of household food security constraints would mainly plant rice,but product coarse grains as an supplement,which were restricted by natural resource endowment,showing the more restriction,the higher planting proportion of coarse grains.The reasons may be one hand,the agricultural households with poor land quality could not plant rice which required good production conditions,but coarse grains only;on the other hand,the agricultural households with large survival pressure may product coarse grains whose growth cycle were relatively shorter among the time gap of rice planting.(3)the agricultural households in North within the context of household food security constraints would plant flour and rice to trade-in coarse grains to maintain survive in conditions of good food market.The market food availability was affected by the combination of transaction costs and food supply stability,which meant lower transaction costs and better food supply stability,the higher planting proportion of flour and rice.Content 3:Effects of household food security constraints on labor utilizationThis section aims to study how the agricultural households adjusted labor utilization to relieve survival pressure.It is based on the theory of "involution" and "diminishing marginal returns",and describes labor utilization in terms of "labor input time per output".It can be seen that the agricultural households within the context of household food security constraints would increase labor utilization to transfer more labor into revenue to relieve survival pressure,this was to say,"involution".The degree of "involution" in rice region was influenced by land area and food transaction costs,which was the small land area and higher transaction costs,the higher degree of "involution";while the degree of "involution"in wheat region was influenced by land area and food transaction costs as well,besides land quality played an important role.It can be seen that the poorer land quality,the higher degree of "involution".Moreover,labor efficiency and off-farm employment opportunities would relieve "involution";the proportion of land rent was positive to "involution" in rice region while negative in wheat region,both of which depended on the effects of land rent on food security constraints.Based the above contents and conclusions,this paper summarizes that:the key reasons for household food security constraints in traditional agriculture were limitation of resource factors and product distribution,resulting in using limited resource(such as land)too much and wasting abundant resource(such as labor force),which were contrary to the theory of"optimizing resource allocation".Therefore,the policy implications is reducing the limitations of resource factors and product distribution,which manifested as "chief executive responsibility" and "regional balance" in modern agriculture.It can be suggested that "breaking food security constraints in modern agriculture and improving construction of food distribution system",described as:1.Establishing a long-acting food direct subsidy mechanism to encourage food production and ensure food supply;2.Improving food pricing mechanism to make the purchase and sale of grain market-based;3.Constructing the food stock system to keep food supply basically stable;4.Perfecting food credit polity to support food industry development.