Study On The Effect Of Participation In Production Chain Outsourcing On Agricultural Productivity Of Wheat Growers

At present,China’s agricultural production is facing the double pressure of rapidly rising production costs and continuous tightening of resource and environmental constraints.The development of moderate scale operation has become an important measure to promote highquality agricultural development.As the siphoning effect of cities and towns continues to increase,many agricultural laborers have moved to cities and towns,resulting in the problem of idle and abandoned arable land,which seriously endangers regional food security.So,is there a reasonable production and operation method that can ensure that the production of agricultural products will not be reduced,increase production and increase income,but also guarantee a continuous increase in household income? The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Guidance on Accelerating the Development of Agricultural Productive Services," pointing out that diversified,multi-level,and multi-type agricultural productive services should be vigorously developed to make them a new way to promote moderate scale operations.By participating in production outsourcing services,farmers can not only integrate into the social division of labor and collaboration network to improve the efficiency of agricultural resources utilization but also effectively make up for the lack of quantity,quality,and skills of family agricultural labor and improve the level of family production and operation.Due to the basic situation of small farmers in a large country and the regional heterogeneity of agricultural production,many empirical studies have shown that the paths and effects of production chain outsourcing vary significantly in different regions,crops,and chains.Wheat is the staple food in the Guanzhong region.In recent years,farmers have gradually participated in production outsourcing under the promotion of the government and the cultivation of social organizations,but what is the impact on the agricultural production efficiency of farmers? What is the impact mechanism?Is there an optimal way for different farmers to participate in the implementation process?What are the decision-making mechanisms that influence farmers’ choice to participate in different process stages? Answering the above questions is of great theoretical and practical significance for the government to formulate policies to promote farmers’ participation in production chain outsourcing services and improve farmers’ agricultural production and management.Guided by the theory of farmers’ behavior,division of labor,principal-agent theory,and transaction cost theory,and based on the microscopic survey data of 1,024 wheat growers in the Guanzhong Plain of Shaanxi Province,this paper analyzes the problems of wheat growers participating in the outsourcing process of production in the sample area.At the same time,to measure wheat growers’ agricultural production efficiency,we use the Tobit model,endogenous transformation model,SFA model,PSM model,quantile model,and other mathematical measurement models to test the participation in the outsourcing of production links empirically.We empirically test the effect of participating in the outsourcing of production links on the agricultural production efficiency of farmers,and also test the mechanism of participating in the outsourcing of production links on the agricultural production efficiency of farmers through factor allocation and economies of scale.We also discussed the differences in impact effects from farmers’ heterogeneity and link heterogeneity.We put forward specific suggestions to promote farmers’ participation in outsourcing production links,hoping to provide theoretical support for promoting the high-quality development of the agricultural industry.This paper draws the following research conclusions:(1)Analysis on the status quo of farmers participating in outsourcing production links,the study found that outsourcing production links can promote economic,yield,and environmental benefits.In the sample area,the new operating entities are essential in the supply of outsourcing services,while farmers participating in outsourcing services adopt the payment mode of "cash payment and pay-per-time payment,supplemented by personal payment." In addition,there are still a series of problems for farmers to participate in outsourcing production links.In the sample area,farmers believe that outsourcing is too high,and it is challenging to obtain outsourcing services.In outsourcing contract signing and operation,farmers’ awareness of outsourcing service contracts is relatively weak,and it is not easy to effectively supervise the quality of outsourcing service.(2)Using the SFA model to measure agricultural production efficiency,the study found that the average agricultural production efficiency of farmers in the sample area was 0.7005,and the agricultural production efficiency value of 59.01% of the farmers was more significant than 0.7.Technical inefficiency can be eliminated,and total output will have more excellent room for growth.For large and small-scale households,the average agricultural production efficiency of large-scale households is lower than that of small-scale households.As far as outsourcers participating and not participating in the production process are concerned,the average agricultural production efficiency of outsourcers participating in the production process is higher than that of outsourcers not participating in the production process.The average agricultural production efficiency of outsourcers participating in the harvesting process is the largest,while the average agricultural production efficiency of outsourcers participating in the plant protection process is the highest.The average value of agricultural production efficiency of outsourcers participating in labor-intensive production links is higher than that of outsourcers participating in technology-intensive production links.The mechanism test found that outsourcing of participation in the production chain can significantly contribute to the efficiency of agricultural production through factor allocation and economies of scale.(3)To empirically test the impact of participating in outsourcing production links on agricultural production efficiency,the study found that farmers’ participation in decisionmaking and the degree of outsourcing in production links can significantly improve efficiency.After omitting the bias problem,the conclusion remains robust.The analysis of link heterogeneity shows differences in the improvement effect of participating in different links and types of outsourcing on production efficiency.Compared with participating in technologyintensive production link outsourcing,participating in labor-intensive outsourcing has a more significant effect on improving production efficiency.The effect of improving production efficiency is: harvesting link > sowing link > soil preparation link > fertilization link > plant protection link.The heterogeneity analysis of farmers shows that participation in outsourcing of production links significantly improves the production efficiency of large and small-scale households but has a more significant effect on the production efficiency of large-scale households.Also,there is a noticeable threshold effect on the impact of outsourcing of participation links on production efficiency,and the impact on production efficiency shows a trend of increasing first and then decreasing at different quantiles.The mechanism test found that outsourcing of participation in the production chain can significantly contribute to the efficiency of agricultural production through factor allocation and economies of scale.(4)Empirically test the impact of participating in the outsourcing of production links on the factor allocation of farmers.The study found that: after solving the endogeneity and sample selection bias,the outsourcing of participation in the process significantly promotes farmers’ land transfer decision-making and transfer area,plot size,and planting.Structural adjustment has significantly reduced the number of agricultural labor,time,and short-term capital investment but improved household non-agricultural employment and long-term capital investment.Linked heterogeneity analysis found that participation in labor-intensive outsourcing has a higher promotion effect on land plot size,planting structure adjustment,and long-term capital investment than technology-intensive outsourcing and has a more significant effect on reducing the input of agricultural labor.However,technology-intensive Link outsourcing has a more significant role in promoting land transfer decision-making and nonagricultural employment and has a more significant role in reducing the time invested by the family agricultural labor force.In addition,in terms of participating in outsourcing in different links,there are apparent differences in the effect of factor allocation on farmers.The analysis of the heterogeneity of farmers found that the outsourcing of participation links has a more significant effect on improving the scale of small-scale households’ land transfer and nonagricultural employment and has a more significant effect on reducing agricultural labor input and short-term capital investment.Participation link outsourcing has a more significant effect on the improvement of large-scale farmers’ plot size,grain planting structure,and long-term capital investment and has a more significant effect on reducing agricultural labor time investment.In addition,the mechanism test found that participating in the outsourcing of production links can improve the agricultural production efficiency of farmers by improving the allocation of factors.(5)Empirically test the impact of participating in outsourcing production links on farmers’ agricultural economies of scale.The study finds that participating in outsourcing production links can significantly improve farmers’ economies of scale.After solving the endogeneity problem,adding regional dummy variables,changing the estimation method,and deleting some samples,the participation in the decision-making and degree of outsourcing in the production process still significantly improves the level of farmers’ agricultural scale economy verifies the robustness of the estimation results.The analysis of link heterogeneity found that participation in labor and technology-intensive link outsourcing significantly promoted the level of agricultural scale economy,while participation in technology-intensive production link outsourcing contributed more to the level of agricultural scale economy.The analysis of the heterogeneity of farmers found that the participation of large and small farmers in the outsourcing of production links significantly improved the level of agricultural economies of scale,and the participation in outsourcing of production links played a greater role in improving the level of agricultural economies of scale of small-scale farmers.In addition,the mechanism test found that participating in the outsourcing of production links can improve the agricultural production efficiency of farmers by realizing economies of scale.According to the above research conclusions,the following targeted countermeasures and suggestions are put forward: strengthen the policy support system,improve the outsourcing service system of agricultural production links;deepen the scope of outsourcing services,and promote the sustainable development of outsourcing services in the production link;optimize the service operation environment and effectively meet the needs of farmers in the production process.Outsourcing needs;to build a factor flow mechanism,vigorously promote farmers to carry out moderate-scale operations,innovate production and operation methods,and effectively improve farmers’ agricultural production and management capabilities.