Research On Farmers’ Moderate Scale Of Laying Hens Breeding From The Perspective Of Factor Inputs

China has a long history of laying hens breeding which occupies an important position in animal husbandry.In the early days of reform and opening up,scattered individual breeding mode of farmers fully mobilized idle capital and labor in rural areas,greatly increased the output of egg,then effectively met the domestic demand for egg.With the emergence of problems such as rising cost of laying hens breeding,breaking out of epidemic diseases,and the increasingly strict regulation of environmental protection,the disadvantages of scattered individual breeding mode is gradually highlighted,which no longer match with industrial development.Document No.1 of the CPC Central Committee in 2017 pointed out that problems like "unreasonable allocation of factors" are still prominent in the process of agricultural transformation and upgrading,and proposed that it is necessary "to develop large-scale and efficient breeding industry " in order to solve these problems.Therefore,how to optimize the rational allocation of production factors,so as to give full play to factor efficiency of the moderate scale of laying hens breeding is the primary goal and the only way.Given the above background,the research in this thesis is targeted at the farmers with more than2,000 laying hens who are randomly drawn in the field survey from eight provinces.An systematic and complete analysis framework is constructed based on the data from the survey.With this framework,an economic model was established,which can qualitatively and quantitatively analyzes the variations of production factors and their effects on the scale in the process of laying hens breeding.Meanwhile,different moderate scales for different breeding scales and different regions are calculated in terms of profit maximization,factor productivity,cost efficiency and factor endowments.This thesis aims to probe the influence of factor endowment change on the moderate scale development of laying hens industry,provide theoretical support and empirical basis for the realization of policy objectives such as optimizing the industrial structure of laying hens,gathering factors of production,improving efficiency and regional distribution,as well as increasing farmers’ income.The main contents and important conclusions are as follows:Firstly,factor structure,factor substitution and their relationship with the moderate scale of farmers’ laying hens breeding.By using the first-hand data of farmers,this part calculates the moderate scale of laying hens breeding based on the estimation results of transcendental logarithmic production function and cost function by constructing the optimal production model and the profit maximization model.The results show that :(1)In terms of profit maximization,the moderate scale of farmers’ laying hens breeding is about 4 times of the actual scale,and the scale of farmers’ laying hens breeding still has a large expansion space;(2)Substitution of machinery for labor force will be a feasible path for farmer to realize moderate scale of laying hens breeding.At present,the transfer of agricultural labor force and the increase of labor price push farmers to use machinery to realize this substitution,in line with large-scale laying hens farmer’s more and more extensive demand for mechanization,as well as in line with the gradually formed new pattern of coordinated development of large-scale breeding and mechanization of laying hens industry;(3)The effects of substitution of machinery for labor force aredifferent among different scales of breeding.The substitution of machinery for labor force can promote the expansion of production scale,but the promotion effect for farmers with scale more than 10,000 heads is greater than those with scale below 10,000 heads.It means that mechanized breeding is the right way for the moderate scale development of industry and farmers with scale more than 10000 heads should be main producers in laying hens industry.Secondly,factor productivity,frontier cost,efficiency loss and their relationship with the moderate scale of farmers’ laying hens breeding.This part also uses the data from the survey,divides the farmers according to different scales and different regions,and makes a descriptive statistical analysis of the labor productivity,capital productivity and cost profit rate of the farmers’ laying hens,and uses the stochastic frontier analysis method to calculate farmers’ frontier cost and cost efficiency.The results show that :(1)From the point of view of factor productivity,the scale of farmers’ laying hens breeding will develop towards scale more than 10,000;the regional layout of laying hens industry is relatively stable,and the eastern region is still the dominant region of laying hens breeding,but there is a trend of transferring from the eastern region to the central and western regions.Due to the difference at mechanization level and economic development level,there are advantages in labor productivity and cost profit rate of farmers’ laying hens breeding in the eastern region,the cost efficiency loss in the western region is small,and the industrial development will show a trend of gradual transfer to the central and western regions.(2)From the point of view of frontier cost,the cost efficiency and scale of farmers’ laying hens breeding show an inverted U distribution,that is,with the expansion of breeding scale,the cost efficiency shows an upward trend,but when the scale of breeding exceeds 17,405,the cost efficiency begins to decline,and the scale of breeding is too large or too small is not conducive to the improvement of cost efficiency.Therefore,moderate scale plays a key role on improving cost efficiency.Thirdly,the effect of factor endowment on the industry of laying hens and the moderate scale of farmers’ laying hens breeding.Combined with the factor endowment changes in the development of laying hens industry,this part aims to make a macro analysis of laying hens breeding on a moderate scale,and analysis the influence of farmers’ factor endowment on the scale of laying hens breeding empirically.The results show that:(1)The laying hens industry shows obvious inductive bias,and the growth path of laying hens industry is developing towards "capital intensive".As a typical "labor-saving" factor of production,the mechanical investment of farmers’ laying hens is increasing year by year,and the development of laying hens industry is breaking through the dilemma of "over-dense ".The structure of factor of production is changing,and productivity is increasing,the industry is changing from traditional breeding to modern scale.(2)Capital endowment is the most important factor affecting farmers’ laying hens breeding scale.The key to the expansion of farmers’ laying hens breeding scale is to break through capital constraints,realize the transformation of laying hens breeding mode from labor-intensive to capital-intensive,improve the production efficiency,and promote moderate scale breeding.Based on the above research contents and results,some policy suggestions are put forward torealize the moderate scale of laying hens breeding from the perspective of factor input: improve the mechanization level of laying hens breeding;to improve agricultural credit policy and provide financial support for large-scale breeding;to improve and develop the supply mechanism of laying hens industry factor market,and stabilize factor price and reduce breeding cost;to standardize and simplify the examination and approval procedure of land for laying hens breeding areas;to cultivate new production and management service organizations;to promote the development of laying hens industry moderately.