Study On The Effect Of The Change Of Labor Structure On Chemical Fertilizer Use Efficiency In Grain Production

With the acceleration of the process of industrialization and urbanization,the structure of China's agricultural labor force has gradually changed,which is particularly manifested in the aging,feminization,and promotion of the cultural level.As the main body of agricultural production,the agricultural labor force is one of the important agricultural production factors.Will structural changes affect the utilization efficiency of agricultural production factors? In particular,will it affect the fertilizer use efficiency that the country is more concerned about? Just as the “Zero Growth Plan for Chemical Fertilizer Use by 2020” put forward by Ministry of Agriculture in 2015,it is clearly required to promote the reduction of chemical fertilizers and improve fertilizer use efficiency,and strive to achieve a fertilizer utilization rate of more than 40% by 2020.Under the background of the transformation of the agricultural labor force structure and the requirement of advancing fertilizer reduction and efficiency,this paper integrates the change of agricultural labor force structure and the efficiency of chemical fertilizer utilization into the same research framework to carry out further research.Specifically,it includes statistical analysis of the current status of the two;secondly,combining existing research and relevant theories to analyze the mechanism,explore ways in which changes in the structure of China's agricultural labor force may affect the efficiency of chemical fertilizer utilization;and then taking food production as an example,based on the panel data of China's 31 provinces from 2000 to 2016,the stochastic frontier production function is used to measure the efficiency of fertilizer using in grain production from a technical perspective;and then analyzes the spatio-temporal differences in fertilizer use efficiency;finally,using the Tobit model to empirically analyze the influencing factors of fertilizer use efficiency in China's grain production,the change of agricultural labor force structure is studied as the main factor.Based on this,the conclusions and recommendations are given.The main research conclusions are summarized as follows:(1)Research on the status quo of China's agricultural labor force structure,supply and use of chemical fertilizers shows that the structure of China's agricultural labor force has gradually changed,which is highlighted in the three aspects of the aging of the agricultural labor force,the feminization,and the improvement of the cultural level.Secondly,China's overproduction of chemical fertilizers greatly meets domestic agricultural production needs.In addition,the use of chemical fertilizers in China is extremely unreasonable,resulting in inefficient use of chemical fertilizers,which is particularly manifested in food production.(2)The results of chemical fertilizer use efficiency measurement in China's grain production show that although the utilization efficiency of chemical fertilizers in grain production is continuously improving,the overall level is still low,and there is room for improvement;in addition,the utilization efficiency of chemical fertilizers in different regions varies greatly.The way to increase the efficiency of chemical fertilizer utilization needs to be adapted to local conditions.(3)Research on the effect of changes in labor force structure on the efficiency of chemical fertilizer use in grain production shows that the impact is significant.Specifically,the aging and feminization of agricultural labor is conducive to improving the efficiency of chemical fertilizer use.On the contrary,the high level of agricultural labor force culture makes it more difficult to increase the efficiency of fertilizer use.Based on the above conclusions,in order to respond to the changes in the agricultural labor structure and improve the efficiency of fertilizer use,the following suggestions are proposed: rural public service systems and social security systems should be established and improved to provide services and guarantees of the basic life and agricultural production for older and female workers to make them more focused on agricultural production;the level of agricultural mechanization should be improved to provide older laborers with agricultural machinery and related supporting services that are easy to use and have great subsidies;agricultural technology research,development and promotion service system should be established and improved to promote the development and promotion of environmentally friendly agricultural technologies,and to constantly enrich older and female agricultural workers' fertilization experience;the level of basic and vocational education of farmers should be improved to allow farmers to receive education and technical training on scientific fertilization,in this way,the function of chemical fertilizers to increase production and efficiency can be fully exerted.