Impacts Of Farm Size On Agricultural Production And Environment

Agricultural is facing great challenges in ensuring food security and protecting the environment.Although multiple approaches have been put forward by scientists to guarantee food production and protect the environment,such as optimizing fertilizer use,little study has focused on the significance of farm size.Farm size is an important factor determining agricultural inputs,outputs,and pollution to the environment,according to earlier studies.The use of fertilizers and pesticides can be efficiently decreased while maintaining agricultural output by moderately expanding farm size.There are few research examining the impacts and significance of farm size on food security and environmental protection at the regional level,and the mechanism by which farm size affects agricultural output and the environment is unclear.Based on the above research gaps,this study will analyze the mechanism of farm size,quantify the impacts of farm size on agricultural production and the environment from the perspectives of China and the world,explore effective paths to achieve a win-win situation for food security and environmental protection by managing farm size,and provide empirical support and policy suggestions for China and other nations that are facing comparable issues.This paper’s main body is separated into three tiers,going in the order of “mechanism analysis-effect quantification-path exploration”.The mechanism analysis,which includes Chapters 2,3,and 4,is the first level.This section provides a theoretical framework for the quantification of the impact of farm size.It primarily studies the underlying mechanism of farm size on agricultural productivity and the environment.The second level is impact quantification,which is covered in Chapters 5 and 6.It aims to quantify the impact of farm size on agricultural production and the environment at the regional scale from China’s and the global perspectives,combining,respectively,the aging of the rural population and climate change.The third level of analysis strives to offer workable options for food security and environmental protection by managing farm size,including Chapter 7.The primary findings of this study address the following topics:(1)The substitution effect can explain the mechanism by which farm size affects agricultural production and the environment.This study found that the share of fixed inputs(such as machinery,irrigation and technology)in total inputs will increase with the increase of farm size.For every 1% increase in farm size,the share of fixed inputs will increase by about 4%.This is mostly due to the lack of economies of scale experienced by small-scale farmers,who would instead opt to increase non-fixed inputs(such as fertilizers,herbicides,seeds,etc.)to make compensate for the lack of fixed inputs required to ensure output.A significant contributor to overfertilization and damage to the environment by small-scale farmers is the substitution of nonfixed inputs like fertilizer for fixed inputs like machinery and knowledge.Simultaneously,lower fixed inputs on small-scale farms might result in nutritional imbalances in fertilizer application,low fertilizer use efficiency,and decreased profitability for farmers.As a result,various farm sizes will have distinct output and environmental consequences on agriculture.(2)Small-scale farming in the context of China’s aging rural population will reduce agricultural output and exacerbate environmental pollution.Due to cropland abandonment and land transfers,China’s aging rural population reduced the average farm size by 4% in 2019 compared to the population structure in 1990.The smaller farm size also results in less use of agricultural inputs like machinery and fertilizers,which lowers agricultural productivity and farmers’ income by 15% and 5%,respectively,and increases fertilizer loss by 3%,which increases environmental pollution.However,this study indicated that compared to traditional small-scale farming,the new farming models(family farms,cooperative farms,and industrial farms)perform better.This is mainly because new farming models attract young farmers with higher education levels to operate large-scale farmland and effectively improve farm management.If China encourages the adoption of new farming models progressively in the future,by 2100,the average farm size in China will be 20% larger than it is today.This will lead to a win-win scenario of food security and environmental conservation by increasing agricultural productivity and farmers’ income by around 6% and 26%,respectively,and decreasing fertilizer loss by 4%.(3)The changes in farm size will exacerbate the global inequality in agricultural production and environmental pollution under climate change.Due to large-scale farming’s access to cuttingedge technology and scientific knowledge,farm size has a significant impact on how well agriculture adapts to climate change.Agriculture yield and nitrogen use efficiency had average yearly declines of 1.9% and 0.2%,respectively,from 1961 to 2018,as a result of global warming.However,the recent expansion of farm size has increased agricultural output and significantly enhanced nitrogen use efficiency,so improving both the environment and agricultural output.However,the consequences differ significantly between nations.Only 35% of nations increased farm size in 2018 compared to that in 1961,which resulted in increases in agricultural production and decreases in pollution in 28% and 53% of nations globally,respectively,while the remaining72% and 47% of nations suffered a decrease in production and an increase in pollution under climate change.Changes in farm size exacerbate the global inequality in agricultural production and environmental pollution under the climate change.Managing farm size can help countries adapt to climate change,benefiting food production and environmental protection.Global nitrogen use efficiency will rise to over 70% by 2100 due to changes in farm size,and according to various projections,agricultural output would rise by 42% to 96% over 2020 levels.Additionally,regulating farm size is crucial for lowering inequality in food production and agricultural pollution control between nations.(4)Under the rational economic man scenario,urban-rural income disparity drives an increase in the average household farmland size to 6.4 ha in China’s counties,with over 60% of counties having an average farm size of more than 2 ha.This change will enable agriculture to transition from being dominated by smallholders to being more industrialized and on a larger scale.To achieve this,it will cost around 0.20 trillion yuan in land consolidation expenses,including cropland ditching and road construction.The cost of agriculture will,however,go down as farm size rises,lowering overall national farming operation costs by 0.5 trillion yuan.Additionally,larger farms with scientific agricultural management will reduce agricultural ammonia emissions by 210,000 tonnes while saving RMB 2.1 billion in related mitigation expenses.The cost to increase farm size in more than half of China’s counties is less than the benefit,and the remaining counties can recover costs in 1.5 years.In China,expanding farm size is economical.Additionally,240 million rural residents must be relocated in order to expand farm size relative to the population of 2017,bringing the national urbanization rate to 72%.Achieving moderate-scale farming from the perspective of population mobility between urban and rural areas is also achievable given China’s ongoing urbanization trend and the prospective population carrying capacity of cities.This article is the first work that systematically explores the mechanism of farm size on agricultural production and environmental consequences.Quantifying the impacts of farm size on agricultural production and the environment from the perspectives of China and the world has important strategic significance to achieve food security and environmental protection.It also offers important insights into the inequality in global food production and environmental quality,and is crucial for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.