The Effect Of The Degree Of Fragmentation Of Forestland On Farmers' Input Intensity

Under the “ecological civilization strategy,the development of forestry is of vital importance and as an important component of forestry,collective forests play an important role in the development of forestry.The new round of collective forest reform beginning in 2003 aims to increase farmers' enthusiasm for forestry investment through empowerment,increase farmers' income and promote the development of forestry.However,farmers faced the degree of fragmentation was changed after forestlands were alloted to farmers.What is the direction of this change? Will it affect the input intensity of farmers? These issues have become a key issue in evaluating the success of the new round of collective forestry reform.The main purpose of this paper was to study the changes in the degree of fragmentation of forestland after collective forest reform and its impact on farmers' input in forestland.Based on large sample farmers collected by the Economic Research and Development Center of the State Forestry Administration in 18 counties 9 provinces,we used descriptive statistical methods to analyze the farmers' degree of forestland fragmentation and input intensity based on the theory of farmer behavior,property rights theory,and economies of scale.Then,we used propensity score matching(PSM)method to anlyze the effect of framers' degree of forestland fragmentation on their input intensity form overall framer and famers' endophytism including off-farm,forestland size,the structure of forestland,family income.Through empirical analysis,we comed to the following conclusions: most farmers' degree of forestland fragmetation was reduced after collective forest reform and this change had a significant positive effect on the forestry input intensity of farmers.In 2013,the treatment effect of reduced forestland fragmentation to improve the capital input per unit area of farmers was 35%-37%,and the treatment effect per unit area of labor input was 10%-11%.This positive effect becomed more and more obvious with the forest reform was speeding up,which was related to the uncertainty of the property rights of the farmers.From the input strcuture,the improvement of the degree of fragmentation of the forests had a significant difference in the intensity of the impact on labor input and capital input,and the impact on labor input was not as strong as capital.This kind of capital-labor factor substitution was related to the transfer of rural labor with rapid industrialization and urbanization.The positive treatment effect of reduced forestland fragmentation was significantly different among different types of farmers,this kind of effect was obvious for these farmers,who mainly take farming activities,manage more commercial forest and bigger forestland area,have medium-to-high income.According to the above conclusions that we drawed,some policy suggestion were put forward: the promotion of collective forest reform should focus on redcuing the degree of forsetland fragmentation.Publicize the forest reform policy to farmers to make farmers get and understand collective forest reform,which aim to promote the recognize of property security.The target groups for reform are mainly farmers who relying on farmland,and the relevant policies should be tilted to these farmers;Goverment should pay more attention to the development of ecological forests.At the same time,the forestland tranfer mechanism need to be improved,which can encourage farmers to manage large-scale forestry.Otherwise,to reduce farmers' capital constraints by improving the credit system.