Research On The Impact Of Family Life Cycle On Agricultural Production Efficiency

Ensuring national food security has always been a top priority in governing the country.By optimizing the allocation of agricultural production factors,improving agricultural production efficiency is an effective way to achieve the effective supply of important agricultural products and the continuous increase of farmers' income.It is essential to reduce the amount of cultivated land input in agricultural production,thereby ensuring the sustainable use of water and land resources.Although China has achieved the food problem of 20%of the world 's population on 7%of the world 's cultivated land,with the advancement of industrialization and the accompanying acceleration of urbanization,the quantity and quality of cultivated land has decreased,so that it is an important issue to protect cultivated land and keep food security in our national livelihood.Furthermore,rational and effective use of cultivated land will be an effective guarantee for China's cultivated land resources and food security.Farmers in different family life cycle stages,the heterogeneity of agricultural production management capabilities determines their differentiated factor allocation decisions,which indirectly affect agricultural production efficiency.Based on the dynamic mechanism of family life cycle and the age structure of family members,the proportion of families that need to be maintained or maintained,this study divides farm households into young couple families(newly married without children),the growing nuclear families(while raising children and supporting the elderly),the mature nuclear family(to raise young children,no elderly need to be supported),the expanded family(while raising young children,and supporting the elderly)and the empty nest family(only two elderly).Relying on the farmer's behavior theory and resource allocation theory,the introduction of arable land circulation and non-agricultural employment to characterize the agricultural production factor allocation decision as an intermediary variable,constructed "family life cycle--agricultural production factor allocation--agricultural production efficiency "analysis framework.The article aims to reveal the impact path of household life cycle on agricultural production efficiency by the micro survey data of 515 rice farmers in Jiangxi Province in 2015.The descriptive results show that the decision-making behavior of cultivated land transfer and family non-agricultural employment are different in different stages of the family life cycle.(1)In terms of cultivated land transfer,the transferred households of young couples accounted for the highest proportion of the total number of households at this stage,accounting for 38.46%,while the transferred households of empty-nest families accounted for the lowest,accounting for 11.76%.(2)In non-agricultural employment,the proportion of non-agricultural employment with growing nuclear families and expanded families is the highest,with 61.96%and 63.39%respectively.The young couples,mature nuclear families and empty nest families have the majority of non-agricultural employment,the ratios were 80.77%?69.05%and 100%respectively.The quantitative analysis results show that:(1)The family life cycle stage has a significant impact on agricultural production efficiency.The agricultural production efficiency of the growing nuclear families,the mature nuclear families,and the expanding families are significantly higher than that of young couple families,which are consistent with the descriptive statistical results.The growing nuclear families are most productive in agricultural production,with the young couple families and the empty-nest families being smaller.(2)Families in different life cycle stages can improve agricultural production efficiency through farmland transfer behavior,that is,land transfer behavior has a mediating effect on agricultural production efficiency in growing nuclear families,mature nuclear families and expanding families.However,the proportion of off-farm employment does not affect agricultural production efficiency,that is,there is no mediating effect of off-farm employment behavior in the influence of households at different life cycle stages on agricultural production efficiency.Based on this,in the process of exploring the improvement of agricultural production efficiency,it is necessary to fully consider the impact of changes in farmer household characteristics and preferences based on life cycle on agricultural production efficiency and its dynamic development trend.Therefore,in terms of policy recommendations,we believe that a "one size fits all"agricultural policy cannot meet the practical needs of farmers.By studying the characteristics of farmer household life cycle and factor allocation,the laws and characteristics of improving agricultural production efficiency are explored.Differentiated policy incentives for the needs of farmers in different family life cycle stages can give full play to the advantages of families in different life cycles,while improving the agricultural production factor market is conducive to the optimal allocation of family resources.