Study On The Efficiencies Of The Small Holder Food Production And Its Influence Factors

The issue of food security has always drawn a wide attention from the international community and has also been a focused issue for domestic scholars.In our country,food security is not only a top priority that is related to the country's economy and people's livelihood,but also an important part of national strategy.At the same time,our country is a giant producer of crops and also a giant consumer of grains.Thus,the Party and the state government have always attached importance to and pay attention to the issue of food security in our country.Apart from emphasizing the issue of food security in the central No.1 file for years,the state government has also issued a variety of policies to encourage and promote food production.Although continuous growth has been achieved in the food production in our country in recent year,the grain output is still smaller than its consumption.The economic development,the continuous improvement of people's living standard and the continuous population growth have put tremendous pressure on China's food production.Moreover,changes in economic and social structures,resource constraints,deteriorating ecological environment and increasing food production costs have also posed enormous challenges to food security in China."Who will feed China" and "how to feed China"become problems to be solved urgently.The fundamental driving force for promoting food production is the productive capacity of a grain-produced management entity.Smallholders are major components of China's agriculture producing and operating entities,while.family farms represent a new agriculture managing entity in our country.Under the background of our country supporting and nurturing the new agriculture managing entity,the family farm is the development direction of the future food production and management,while smallholders are still the main forces of China's food production.Improving the efficiency of smallholders' food production in our country with all-around considerations to promote the food production of smallholders and family farms in our country is of great significance to guarantee the food security of our country.The technical efficiency,scale efficiency and cost efficiency of food production for smallholders have been calculated systematically and comprehensively in this paper.Also,factors affecting the efficiency of food production of smallholders have been also investigated for improving and optimizing the path of production efficiency of smallholders.And then,the efficiency of food production and affecting factors of smallholders have been compared and analyzed with that of family farms with an aim to explore a mode that makes overall planning and all-around consideration to improve food production capacity of smallholders and family farms.Based on this idea,this article can be divided into six chapters,as shown below:The first chapter is an introduction.The problem researched in this paper has been introduced under the background and cutting point of the food security issue concerned both at home and abroad.And then,the theoretical significance and practical significance researched by the thesis have.been elaborated before presenting research ideas,research methods and research contents of the thesis.At last,possible innovations in this thesis have been also briefed to complete the "bird's eye view" of the full text.The second chapter is literature review and theoretical basis.Relevant domestic and foreign literature about the research on the efficiency of food and agricultural production have been reviewed.Also,related research of different scholars at home and abroad has been combed,elaborated and evaluated according to different levels and dimensions of the research.In addition,shortages of existing research has been also pointed out.And then,the relevant efficiency theories,efficiency explanation and definition adopted in this thesis have been also introduced.The third chapter is the calculation and analysis of the efficiency of food production of smallholders.First of all,methods and models for calculating efficiency have been introduced a comprehensively and systematically.Secondly,technical efficiency,scale efficiency and cost efficiency of food production of smallholders have been calculated.The empirical results for the established model have been analyzed in details,so that the efficiency of food production of smallholders can be observed quantitatively investigated to know the capacity of food production of smallholders comprehensively and systematically.The fourth chapter is the affecting factors and the action direction of the efficiency of food production of smallholders.The micro-family factors and macro-policy factors that affect the technical efficiency,scale efficiency and cost-efficiency of food production of smallholders have been introduced in this chapter to discuss the action direction and the possible causes of various factors on the efficiency of food production of smallholders in details,thus,seeking methods and paths to enhance food production capacity of smallholders.The fifth chapter is the comparison of efficiency of food production and affecting factors between family farms and smallholders.The technical efficiency,the scale efficiency and the cost efficiency of food production of family farms have been calculated firstly in this chapter.Then,the action direction of human capital factors of family farmers on different efficiency of family food production.Finally,food production efficiency and its common affecting factors between family farms and smallholders have been compared and analyzed for providing a decision-making basis for the overall improvement of efficiency of food production of smallholders and family farms.The sixth chapter is the research conclusion and policy suggestion.As this chapter consists of concluding comments,targeted policy suggestions have been proposed on the basis of summarizing research conclusions from the third chapter to the fifth chapter.Main research conclusions of the thesis include:(1)The average technical efficiency of food production in China is 0.85,while its grain output can reach 85%of its potential output.Thus,the technical efficiency of food production of smallholders is at a high level.In food production activities that smallholders are engaged in,the elasticity of capital input is the largest and highly significant,indicating that increasing the capital input of smallholders can significantly increase the food output of smallholders while keeping other factors constant.And the average efficiency of smallholders reaches as high as 0.94,indicating that the food production of smallholders is very close to its optimal size.Moreover,nearly half of food production of the sample smallholders are out of the stage of decreasing returns to scale,indicating that the increasing scale of food output is larger than the input scale of production factors.The average cost efficiency of food production of smallholders is about 56%with its cost efficiency declining year by year,while the increase of labor cost is a main factor that drives the increasing cost of food production of smallholders.(2)It can be found that the technical efficiency,scale efficiency and cost efficiency of food production of smallholders tend to decrease,while the cost efficiency of food production of smallholders is increased as the average age of family labor forces increases,after investigating the influence of factors endowed by families of smallholders and national policy factors on the technical efficiency,scale efficiency and cost efficiency of food production of smallholders.In addition,the enhancement of the average education level of family labor forces of smallholders can significantly improve the technical efficiency,scale efficiency and cost efficiency of its food production.Meanwhile,conducting technical training for family labor forces can significantly improve the technical efficiency of food production yet cut the cost efficiency.If smallholders are village cadres,then the technical efficiency and cost efficiency of their food production will be significantly increased.When more non-farming income obtained by the family of smallholders will significantly increase the technical efficiency and cost efficiency of food production of smallholders;while more bank loans obtained by smallholders may lower the technical efficiency of food production;more lands owned by smallholders will reduce the technical efficiency of food production and scale efficiency yet will increase the cost production of food production of smallholders;and more cultivated land plots owned by smallholders will lower the technical efficiency and cost efficiency of food production of smallholders;The technological efficiency of smallholder food production continues to increase over time with the continuously reducing cost efficiency.Except that there is no significant influence of direct food subsidies and subsidies for superior crop varieties on the scale efficiency of food production of smallholders and on the scale efficiency and cost efficiency of food production of smallholders,respectively,other grain-growing subsidies of the country have significantly promoted the technical efficiency,scale efficiency and cost efficiency of food production of smallholders.(3)The technical efficiency value,scale efficiency value and cost efficiency value of food production of family farms are 0.64,0.45 and 0.68,respectively.In general,the scale efficiency of food production is low.Among various factors that affect food production efficiency of family farms,if the family farmer is a village cadre,the technical efficiency and the scale efficiency of food production can be remarkably improved.Also,scale efficiency and cost efficiency of food production of family farms can be significantly improved along with the continuously enhancing educational levels of the family farmer.At the same time,technical efficiency,scale efficiency and cost efficiency of food production of family farms are significantly reduced by the financing difficulty of family farms.(4)After comparing smallholders with family farms,it can be found that both the technical efficiency and scale efficiency of food production of smallholders are higher than that of family farms except the cost efficiency of food production.Compared with smallholders,family farmers have no obvious advantages in the efficiency of food production,which even presents a certain disadvantage in the scale efficiency of food production.Among various common factors affecting the efficiency of food production of smallholders and family farms,enhancing education levels of family labor forces of smallholders and family farmers can remarkably improve the efficiency of food production of both smallholders and family farms.Also,the efficiency of food production of village cadres has the highest production efficiency for both smallholders and family farms.Moreover,increasing the average age of family labor force of smallholders will reduce the technical efficiency and scale efficiency of food production of smallholders,while increasing age of family farmers will enhance the technical efficiency and scale efficiency of food production of family farms.However,on one hand,increasing average ages of family labor forces of smallholders and increasing the age of family farmers can enhance the cost efficiency of food production and smallholders and family farms.On the other hand,the constraint of available funds reduces the efficiency of food production of family farms,while the technical efficiency of food production of smallholders is decreased along with the continuous increase of loanable funds.