Research On The International Competitiveness Of American Agriculture

Since the reform and opening up,China's agriculture has made great progress.However,affected by changes in the scale of agricultural operations,technological progress,and international environmental conditions,China's agricultural development and the improvement of its international competitiveness are still facing great challenges.At present,international agricultural exchanges and cooperation have become an important way and inevitable trend for countries all over the world to grasp the new trends and patterns.Facing an increasingly fierce international competition environment,improving the international competitiveness of agriculture is the key,and the promotion of China's agricultural international competitiveness needs to learn from the experience and lessons of other countries.Since the end of the Second World War,modern agriculture in all countries of the world has developed under the impetus of industrialization.Among them,the agricultural development of the U.S.is representative and advanced.After more than a century of development,American agriculture has created a world-class agricultural power.In-depth research on the international competitiveness of American agriculture has important practical significance for promoting the development of China's agriculture and enhancing the international competitiveness of China's agriculture.The thesis takes the international competitiveness of American agriculture as the research object.After defining the related concepts of agricultural international competitiveness,it explains the theoretical connotation and analytical framework of the international competitiveness of agriculture,based on theories of comparative advantage and competitive advantage,and based on the historical evolution of American agricultural international competitiveness as a background,it comprehensively evaluates the level of American agricultural international competitiveness,analyzes in detail the cost advantages and differentiated advantages of American agricultural international competitiveness,and deeply explores the influencing factors of American agricultural international competitiveness.The experience and lessons of the U.S.in enhancing the international competitiveness of agriculture provide enlightenment for enhancing the international competitiveness of China's agriculture in view of the plight of China's agricultural development.Looking back at the historical evolution of the international competitiveness of American agriculture since the Civil War,it can be divided into three periods:(1)The period from 1860 to 1945 was a historical period of major changes in the international competitiveness of American agriculture.During this period,American agriculture has experienced agricultural semi-mechanization(1860-1914)and agricultural mechanization(1915-1945).American agriculture completed the transformation of production mode from manual to semi-mechanized,basic mechanized,and then to fully mechanized.In this period,the international competitiveness of American agriculture mainly relied on simple mechanization to maintain.(2)From 1945 to 2000,the international competitiveness of American agriculture has undergone major changes driven by economic and social development.After World War II,the U.S.formed an agricultural social structure with family farms as the mainstay.The regionalization and specialization of American agriculture became more obvious,and the scientificization of agriculture was realized.During this period,the international competitiveness of American agriculture mainly relied on agricultural technological innovation to improve.(3)Since 2000,American agriculture has entered a "new era economy".During this period,the American agricultural economy achieved unprecedented growth,the agricultural trade expanded rapidly and continued to maintain a trade surplus.During this period,the international competitiveness of American agriculture mainly relied on external market demand to support.The thesis establishes an analysis framework that includes evaluation indicators of agricultural international competitiveness,path selection of agricultural international competitiveness,and factors affecting agricultural international competitiveness,corresponding to three levels of competitiveness results,competitiveness dimensions,and sources of competitiveness.The first part measures and evaluates the international competitiveness of American agriculture from two aspects: revealing indicators and explanatory indicators.Evaluation based on revealing indicators: From the perspective of international market share,the U.S.has obvious advantages in agricultural exports,but there is a weakening trend.Among them,the comparative advantage of plant products is the most prominent,followed by live animals and animal products,food and beverages,etc.;from net exports In terms of the situation,the American agricultural international competitiveness does not have a clear competitive advantage,because the U.S.is also highly dependent on agricultural imports,of which cereal products,straw and feed have a strong net export capacity.Evaluation based on explanatory indicators: Judging from the empirical results of the established three-level evaluation index system of "foundation-formation process-results" of international competitiveness,the comprehensive score of American agricultural international competitiveness ranks among 18 observation objects First,the American agriculture has the best performance in the indicators of the formation of international competitiveness.It can be found that the U.S.has sufficient and high-quality scientific and technological talents and strong research and development funds to effectively transform existing American technology and natural resources into agricultural productivity.At the same time,the U.S.has significant advantages in the development of applicable agricultural technologies and patents,which has greatly enhanced the international competitiveness of American agriculture.The second part discusses the way to obtain the international competitive advantage of American agriculture from the two dimensions of cost advantage and differentiated advantage.Two conclusions can be drawn: First,the higher agricultural production costs in the U.S.are offset to a certain extent by its higher yields,while lower inland transportation costs and handling costs make up for its disadvantages in higher farm prices,prompting American agriculture gains cost advantages,thereby improving its international competitiveness;second,the U.S.is leading the world in terms of food supply safety,with good quality added value of various agricultural products,sound food safety management system and specialized agricultural marketing methods Promote the rapid formation of the differentiated advantages of American agriculture,and the international competitiveness of agriculture has increased significantly.The third part discusses the influencing factors of American agricultural international competitiveness from two aspects: basic factors and auxiliary factors according to the Michael Porter's "Diamond Model" theory.The basic factors include agricultural production factors,agricultural demand conditions,agricultural-related and supportive industries,and agricultural operations.The main body and auxiliary factors include historical opportunities and government factors.Through the analysis of the influencing factors of the international competitiveness of American agriculture,it can be seen that the acquisition of the international competitiveness of American agriculture is comprehensively determined by a number of aspects such as a certain agricultural operation scale,advanced agricultural science and technology,sound related supporting industries,and effective federal government actions.Nevertheless,American agriculture still faces the problems of long-term overcapacity,increased pressure on small and medium-sized farms,agricultural environmental protection and sustainable agricultural development.The experience and lessons of the U.S.in enhancing the international competitiveness of agriculture have brought important enlightenment to China's agricultural development.Compared with American agriculture,China's agriculture is still faced with many problems,such as high domestic inventory of agricultural products,large increase in imports from international markets,many deficiencies in agricultural science and technology promotion and innovation system,backward development of agricultural breeding and processing and cold chain social services,small scale of agricultural operation and low quality of agricultural workers.Based on the dilemma of China's agricultural development and the above-mentioned in-depth research on the international competitiveness of American agriculture,at this stage,China's improvement in the international competitiveness of agriculture can be achieved by continuing to deepen the advancement of agricultural science and technology innovation,accelerating the development of agricultural-related supporting industries,developing appropriate scale operations in agriculture in various forms,and enhancing the quality of agricultural laborers and capacity building.