Comprehensive Benefit Evaluation And Incentive Mechanism For Coupling Maize Silage Planting And Dairy Cow Breeding

Over the past twenty years,there was a rapid growth in dairy farming in China,meanwhile,the resources and environmental issues attract more attention.The integrated maize silage planting and dairy cow breeding system(IPBS)can achieve the goal of comprehensive utilization of manure,straw and maize silage on farm.Thereby reducing chemical fertilizers for maize cultivation,fodder purchasing,and breeding feed costs,which have obvious economic and environmental benefits.However,there was a lack of comprehensive and systematic knowledge of environmental,economic and productivity of IPBS.How to improve it? What kind of incentive and restraint mechanism is needed? The problems mentioned above limit the management of IPBS by dairy farmers,and also restrict the development of relevant support policies.This study based on the dairy farms investigation data in Shandong and Heilongjiang provinces,conducted the theoretical and empirical analysis of the environmental performance,economic benefit,and production efficiency of milk production on only dairy cow breeding system(non-IPBS)and IPBS.Firstly,this study evaluated the environmental performance of non-IPBS and IPBS to reveal the environmental mitigation potential of IPBS and explored the determinants affecting the environmental performance of IPBS by Life Cycle Assessment(LCA)and Ordinary Least Square(OLS).Secondly,based on the Cost Benefit Analysis(CBA)and Propensity Score Matching(PSM),the economic performance of two systems have examined,and empirically analyzed whether there are significant differences between them in terms of milk yield,quality or other indicators.Thirdly,the Slack Based Model(SBM)and Tobit model(Tobit)have achieved the measurement of the productivity of non-IPBS and IPBS and analyzed the constraints affecting dairy production efficiency.Finally,based on the Logit model(Logit)and Interpretative Structural Modeling(ISM),to explore the driving factors of IPBS selection in dairy farms and the hierarchical structure relationship between each factor.From the perspective of government and market,to construct an incentive mechanism for the sustainable operation of IPBS.The relevant research conclusions are as follows:1)IPBS had significance in reducing damage to the breeding environment,the reduction depends on the self-sufficiency rate of maize silage of IPBS.Environmental impacts for production of 1t of Fat and Protein Corrected Milk(FPCM)in non-IPBS were 1351.1kg CO2-eq,18.2kg SO2-eq,8.8kg PO43--eq,4600.5 MJ,414.9m3 and 1533.3 m2 for Global Warming Potential(GWP),Acidification Potential(AP),Eutrophication Potential(EP),Non-renewable Energy Use(NREU),Water Use(WU)and Land Use(LU),respectively.IPBS correspondingly decreased by 14.3%,10.4%,18.2%,9.9%,7.9% and 13.1%.If the self-sufficiency rate of maize silage was increased from 56.6% to 100%,the corresponding reduction would be 26.9%,17.0%,28.4%,17.2%,14.9% and 18.9%.There would be up to 81% of the dairy farms in China could adopt IPBS if the self-sufficiency rate of maize silage reaches 100%,which responded to a reduction of 18.7% of greenhouse gas emissions.2)IPBS had great potential to improve farm net benefits,with the improvement rate dependent on arable land transfer cost and maize silage price.non-IPBS produced 1t FPCM with 1415 RMB,while the net benefits improvement rate of IPBS was 15%,mainly due to the lower cost of self-produced silage maize and the reduction of transportation costs.The scenario analysis revealed that the equilibrium point between the net benefits of non-IPBS and IPBS production of 1t FPCM was 17262RMB/ha for arable land transfer cost or 261RMB/t for silage maize price.Meanwhile,IPBS could significantly reduce milk somatic cell count and total bacterial colony count.3)IPBS had a significant effect on improving the production efficiency.The production efficiency of non-IPBS and IPBS was 0.75 and 0.79,respectively,without considering environmental factors.When incorporating environmental factors,the corresponding production efficiency dropped by 16% and 10%.In milk production,the inputs of feed cost and total number of cows are seriously redundant.Factors as low education level of dairy farmers,low milk production of dairy cows,low proportion of lactating cows,etc.,were constraining the improvement of milk production efficiency.Thus,it is necessary to continuously optimize the input ratio and structure of various factors.4)The decision of dairy farmers to choose IPBS is the result of the combination of interest factors and external conditions.The distance between dairy farms and farmland,perception of lower feed cost,and perception of lower manure management cost are the surface-level direct factors.As for the middlelevel indirect factors,including the education level of dairy farmers and farm income.Total number of cows on farm,land transfer price,maize silage price,and manure management regulatory strength by local government factors are the root factors driving dairy farms to choose IPBS.Based on the results mentioned above,it should develop incentive and constraint mechanisms based on market and government instruments to ensure the long-term operation of IPBS.This includes improving the land transfer market system,establishing a low-carbon production service system,exploring the green product market system,building a technical support platform for green development,formulating a reasonable pro-environmental farming subsidy policy,standardizing farming supervision and inspection laws and regulations.