| With the rapid progress of urbanization in China,a large number of young and middle-aged rural labor force flows to urban and non-agricultural industries.The phenomenon of rural population aging and hollowing out is becoming increasingly prominent.The weakening and structural shortage of agricultural labor force caused by this has brought enormous pressure to agricultural production.The structural shortage of agricultural labor force and the rise of non-agricultural wages have also promoted the continuous rise of agricultural labor cost,and induced the strong demand of agricultural producers for mechanized operation.Generally speaking,agricultural operators can achieve mechanized operation through two ways: one is self-purchasing machine operation,the other is purchasing agricultural mechanization services.However,the inadequate capacity of the overall purchasing machine and the reality of small-scale decentralized management of arable land determine that it is impossible for every household to realize mechanized operation by purchasing machines independently.In this context,agricultural mechanization services emerged as the times require,effectively alleviating the contradictions between "small-scale operation" and "large-scale operation","unaffordable" and "strong demand",breaking the constraints of financial and technical factors on farmers’ use of agricultural machinery,and promoting agricultural mechanization in a low-cost and efficient way.More and more agricultural operators begin to realize mechanized operation by purchasing agricultural mechanization services.Promoted by market demand and policy support,Agricultural Mechanization Service represented by agricultural machinery operation service has achieved rapid development.According to statistics,in 2017,there were more than 5 million agricultural machinery professional households and 51.28 million rural agricultural machinery practitioners in China.There are 187,000 agricultural machinery operation service organizations,an increase of 19,000 over 2013,and more than 4.2 billion mu of socialized agricultural machinery service area in China.With the development and improvement of agricultural mechanization services,Agricultural Mechanization in China has also achieved rapid development,and the level of comprehensive mechanization of crop cultivation and harvest has increased from 34% in 2004 to 66% in 2017.The rapid development of agricultural mechanization services has also played an important role in promoting the organic link between small farmers and modern agricultural development.In view of the importance of agricultural mechanization services,document No.1 of the Central Committee in 2019 clearly put forward the idea of "speeding up the cultivation of various kinds of social service organizations to provide the whole process of social services for one household".Agricultural machinery is an important input factor in grain production process.From 2014 to 2018,China’s total grain output increased from 46,946.95 million tons to 65,789 million tons.A large number of studies have shown that the wide application of agricultural machinery and equipment has played a great role in increasing grain production.Purchasing mechanized services is one of the ways for grain producers to achieve mechanized operations.The essence of Agricultural Mechanization Service is that agricultural producers outsource mechanical operation to specialized agricultural machinery service subjects,so as to realize the division of labor economy in grain production.Then,why does agricultural mechanization service be needed in grain production? What kind of impact will agricultural mechanization service formed by social division of labor have on grain production? Will it affect the input of factors in grain production? Will it affect grain production capacity? Is it conducive to improving food production efficiency? Answering these questions requires careful theoretical analysis and rigorous empirical research.In view of this,this study will systematically construct a theoretical analysis framework of the impact of agricultural mechanization services on grain production based on the analysis of the basic status of grain production and agricultural mechanization services,explain the theoretical logic of the demand for agricultural mechanization services from the level of farmers,and analyze the impact of agricultural mechanization services on the input of grain production factors,grain production capacity and grain production.Based on the relevant data,this paper makes an empirical study on four topics: farmers’ choice of mechanized grain production services,the impact of agricultural mechanization services on input of factors of grain production,the impact of agricultural mechanization services on grain production capacity,and the impact of agricultural mechanization services on grain production efficiency.This study hopes to find relevant research conclusions,and provide reference for improving agricultural mechanization services and ensuring national food security.This study consists of nine parts,which are summarized as follows:The introduction part introduces the research background and significance,combs the relevant literature at home and abroad,explains the research objectives and contents,research methods and data,and points out the possible innovations and shortcomings.The first chapter defines the core concepts of agricultural mechanization service,grain production factors,grain production capacity and grain production efficiency,and introduces basic theories such as division of labor theory,transaction cost theory,farmers’ behavior theory,induced technological change theory and production efficiency theory.In the second chapter,the basic situation of grain production in China is analyzed from two aspects of grain production capacity and input of grain production factors.At the same time,the development course and trend of Agricultural Mechanization Service in China are summarized,and the institutional advantages of various agricultural mechanization service subjects are compared.The third chapter systematically constructs the theoretical analysis framework of the impact of agricultural mechanization services on grain production,explains the theoretical logic of the demand and choice of agricultural mechanization services from the perspective of grain farmers,and clarifies the mechanism of agricultural mechanization services on the input of grain production factors,grain production capacity and grain production efficiency.The fourth chapter uses CLDS 2014 micro-data to empirically investigate the influencing factors of farmers’ choice of mechanized service,and empirically analyses the temporal and spatial evolution and driving factors of farmers’ expenditure on mechanized service of grain production by using national provincial panel data and Hubei County panel data,respectively.The fifth chapter empirically examines the effects of agricultural mechanization service supply level on mechanical input,manual input and fertilizer input in the production process of three kinds of grain crops by using panel data of main producing areas of rice,wheat and maize.The sixth chapter empirically studies the impact of agricultural mechanization services on the total grain production capacity by using provincial panel data and county panel data of Hubei Province,and empirically studies the impact of agricultural mechanization services on the grain yield capacity by using panel data of the main producing areas of rice,wheat and maize.The seventh chapter uses panel stochastic frontier model to measure the production efficiency of rice,wheat and maize,and uses Tobit model to empirically analyze the impact of agricultural mechanization services on the production efficiency of three grain crops: rice,wheat and maize from two dimensions of supply level and utilization level.Research conclusions and policy recommendations summarize the findings of the full text,and put forward reasonable countermeasures and suggestions.Based on the relevant research results at home and abroad,this study focuses on the research objectives.The main innovations are as follows:Firstly,the theoretical analysis framework of the impact of Agricultural Mechanization Service on grain production is systematically constructed,and the theoretical logic of the demand and choice of Agricultural Mechanization Service for grain production is explained from the perspective of grain farmers,and the mechanism of the impact of Agricultural Mechanization Service on the input of grain production factors,grain production capacity and grain production efficiency is clarified.Secondly,the literature on the demand and choice of agricultural mechanization services mostly focuses on whether farmers choose agricultural mechanization services,and mostly uses cross-sectional data of micro-survey to conduct empirical research from a static point of view,lacking spatial and temporal dimension analysis.This study empirically analyzed the temporal and spatial evolution and driving factors of farmers’ expenditure on mechanized grain production services by using provincial panel data and county panel data in Hubei Province.Thirdly,there are few empirical studies on the impact of agricultural mechanization services on the input of grain production factors.This paper empirically analyzed the impact of agricultural mechanization services supply level on the input of labor,machinery and fertilizer of three food crops by using panel data of the main producing areas of rice,wheat and maize.Fourthly,the relevant literature on the impact of agricultural mechanization services on grain production efficiency focuses on the utilization level of agricultural mechanization services,and mainly focuses on rice production efficiency.Using panel data of main rice,wheat and maize production areas,this study empirically analyzed the effects of agricultural mechanization services on the production efficiency of rice,wheat and maize crops from two dimensions of supply level and utilization level.Because of the author’s inadequate research ability and the limitation of research data,there are still some shortcomings in this study,which need to be further expanded in the future research.Mainly reflected in the following aspects:Firstly,in the empirical study of farmers’ choice of mechanized services for grain production,due to data constraints,the impact of price factors of mechanized services is not taken into account.Secondly,this study mainly discusses the impact of agricultural mechanization services on grain production from three aspects: factor input,production capacity and production efficiency,without considering the impact of agricultural mechanization services on grain planting structure and scale.Thirdly,in the empirical analysis of the impact of agricultural mechanization services on the input of grain production factors,production capacity and production efficiency,this study mainly uses macro-level data,but lacks micro-level research due to data constraints.Fourthly,the differences of the effects of mechanized services provided by different links and main bodies on grain production(factor input,production capacity and production efficiency)are not taken into account. |
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