A Study On The Impact Of Agricultural Farmland Transfer On Agricultural Total Factor Productivity

In recent years,China’s agricultural production has made remarkable achievements.In2020,China’s total grain output is 669.49 million tons(1339 billion catties),which reached the highest level in history,but the growth rate declined.In the period of economic new normal and agricultural transformation,how can China’s agriculture maintain sustained and stable growth? Theoretically speaking,it depends on the increase of agricultural factor input and total factor productivity(TFP).However,China’s rapid agricultural growth has relied on the input of production factors,which brings challenges to the sustainable development of agriculture.Academic field generally believes that improving total factor productivity and its contribution to agricultural economic growth is the guarantee for the rapid development of agriculture.Farmland transfer is a market and institutional choice for optimal allocation of resources under the background of urban-rural integration and rural population transfer to cities,which has been widely promoted in China.The total area of household contracted farmland transfer in China has increased from 4.4% in 2005 to 38.92% in 2018,and the contribution of China’s agricultural TFP to agricultural economic growth has maintained 1.58% in the same period.It is widely recognized that the large-scale operation of agricultural land transfer can promote agricultural economic growth by eliminating the "agricultural Involution" effect.However,according to the latest data of China rural operation and management statistical annual report,by the end of 2018,the proportion of small farmers with less than 10 mu of land has reached85.32%,So there is a lot of room to improve scale efficiency.Modern,mechanized,largescale and efficient agriculture still has a long way to go.Based on the urgency of practical problems,this paper focuses on the relationship between farmland transfer and agricultural total factor productivity,and follows the research paradigm of "raising problems,analyzing problems and solving problems" The purpose of this study is to answer the following questions:(1)What is the current situation of farmland transfer in China?(2)In recent years,what is the trend of agricultural total factor productivity?What efficiency is agricultural TFP driven by?(3)What is the impact mechanism of farmland transfer on agricultural TFP?(4)What is the impact of China’s farmland transfer on agricultural total factor productivity and whether there are regional differences of the impact?(5)What is the economic growth effect of farmland transfer? Does agricultural TFP play an intermediary role? Finally,based on the theoretical and empirical research results of the above questions,this paper puts forward the improvement measures of agricultural TFP from the perspective of farmland transfer.The research will be carried out from both theoretical and empirical aspects.Theory aspect,firstly,the related concepts are defined based on the existing literature.Secondly,this paper discusses the stage changes of China’s farmland transfer system since the reform and opening up.Thirdly,Based on the theories of property right institution,transaction cost,scale economy and induced technology,this paper analyzes the influence mechanism of farmland transfer on agricultural total factor productivity from the four decomposition indexes of technical progress rate,scale efficiency,allocation efficiency and technical efficiency.Empirical aspect,firstly,this paper uses R3.4.3 software and HMB index method to calculate and decompose China’s agricultural TFP.Secondly,empirically tests the impact of farmland transfer on the growth of agricultural TFP.Thirdly,empirically tests the regional differences of the impact of farmland transfer on the growth of agricultural TFP in eastern,Central and western regions.Finially,the impact of farmland transfer on agricultural total factor productivity is ultimately transmitted to agricultural economic growth.Based on the intermediary effect model,taking agricultural total factor productivity as the intermediary variable,this paper studies the direct effect of agricultural land transfer on agricultural economic growth and the indirect effect through agricultural total factor productivity.Based on the theoretical and empirical research,it is concluded that(1)The scope of China’s farmland transfer is increasing,but the growth rate is declining,the phenomenon of small and medium-sized farmers’ duplication is still obvious.(2)2005-2018,China’s agricultural TFP is generally in a positive growth state,showing a downward trend in fluctuations.Scale efficiency is the main driving force of agricultural TFP.The average growth rate of technical efficiency is only 0.62%,which has little contribution to agricultural TFP.The average change of agricultural technical progress rate and allocation efficiency are less than 1,which are the short boards of agricultural TFP.The results show that there are significant regional differences in agricultural TFP,there are no obvious δ convergence trends but there are significant absolute β convergence and conditional β convergence trends in total and sub efficiency of agricultural TFP.(3)Farmland transfer has a significant positive impact on agricultural total factor productivity.The quadratic model shows that there is a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between the two variables,and there is a marginal decreasing effect of farmland transfer on agricultural TFP.(4)In addition to the direct impact on agricultural economic growth,farmland transfer also has an indirect impact through agricultural total factor productivity,but the intermediary effect is low,impact proportion is only 3.6322%.The possible innovations of this paper are as follows:(1)Innovation of research perspective.This paper systematically analyzes the impact of agricultural land transfer on agricultural total factor productivity from both theoretical and empirical aspects,and advances the economic impact of agricultural land transfer to the field of agricultural total factor productivity and agricultural economic growth,which deepens the research on the economic effect of agricultural land transfer and expands the research perspective(2)Research theory innovation.From the scale efficiency,allocation efficiency,technology progress rate and technology efficiency decomposition index of agricultural total factor productivity,this paper establishes a theoretical analysis system of agricultural land transfer affecting agricultural TFP.It enriches the efficiency theory of farmland transfer.(3)Methods application innovation.Agricultural TFP was measured and decomposed by using nonparametric HMB productivity index method.This paper empirically tests the impact of agricultural land transfer on agricultural total factor productivity and decomposition efficiency in China.Considering that the endogeneity of the model may lead to biased estimation,the study uses generalized moment estimation to further estimate the impact,It expands the application of the existing methods.(4)The research conclusion is innovative.The results show that agricultural land transfer has a significant positive impact on agricultural TFP,and there is also a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between them.The conclusion of this study is a new understanding and examination of the impact of agricultural land transfer on agricultural total factor productivity.