Exploring a Moderate Operation Scale in China’s Grain Production: A Perspective on the Costs of Machinery Services

Abstract

Due to the indivisibility of agricultural machinery in production, limited farm sizes have reduced mechanization efficiency and increased the cost of grain production in China. As a result, the development of a moderate-scale farming system has been proposed by academic communities and policy makers. However, it is still hotly debated how to determine a moderate farm scale. We offer a new perspective on the costs of machinery services. This manuscript employs the threshold model and uses the nationally representative data from the 2015 China Rural Household Panel Survey (CRHPS) to investigate the role of farm size expansion relative to per area machinery services expenditures (PAMSE). The empirical results reveal that there is a nonlinear relation between the farm size and PAMSE. Specifically, farm size expansion can reduce the PAMSE by improving mechanization efficiency in all cases, while the magnitude of cost-saving is progressively reduced in the process of farm scale expansion. In particular, a 1 mu (1 mu = 1/15 ha) increase in the farm scale could only lead to a 0.3% decrease in the PAMSE when the farm size exceeded 50 mu, which indicates that 50 mu is a minimum efficient farm scale to achieve most economies of scale. Therefore, we suggest that persistent efforts should be devoted to improving farmland circulation efficiency and developing scale farms. More importantly, governmental supporting policies, such as agricultural subsidies, need to attach more importance to these large farms.

Cultivated Land Transfer, Management Scale, and Cultivated Land Green Utilization Efficiency in China: Based on Intermediary and Threshold Models

“…The ultra-small-scale operation of cultivated land especially occurs in the grain production core area, the research in Henan province has shown that the average number of plots per household is 4.13, and the average area of each cultivated land is lower than 0.1 hectares [22]. Compared with the requirements of agricultural modernization, these small plots seriously impede the widespread application of large farm machinery [53], and the excessively scattered agricultural ultra-small-scale management has shown remarkable inadaptability in China. CLT is the most important means to promote appropriate management scales of cultivated land in China [54].…”

Spatial differentiation of social security function of cultivated land assets: Comparison of different agricultural regions

“…地 理 科 学 进 展 第 39 卷 户耕地的资产价值。近年来山区坡耕地弃耕、 撂荒 和零租金流转等现象在全国范围内较为普遍 [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] 。 1992-2017 年， 全国范围内有耕地撂荒记录的县市 达到 165 个， 主要集中在湖北、 重庆、 甘肃、 云南、 四 川、 江西和安徽南部等地区 [11] ； 基于全国山区县的 抽样调查显示， 2014-2015 年， 78%的村庄出现了 耕地撂荒， 耕地撂荒率为 14.3% [11][12][13][14] 。与此同时， 山 区耕地零租金流转的比例已超过 70% [15,[17][18] [19][20] [3] [21] 。养老需求下限计算公式： [25] 。 华南农业大学 "土地适度规模经营" 课题组认为平 原地区户均最优面积为 88~117 亩 [24] ； 中国科学院的 研究发现， 若要降低农户机械成本， 最优的农场规 模最小应为 50 亩 [25] [27][28] Abstract: Under the background of a large population and scarce land resources and the dual structure of land property right, the cultivated land resources in China have been the lifeline of farmers, and their social security function is considered the stabilizer of society. But this view has been increasingly questioned in recent years.…”

Modeling the Impact of Climatological Factors and Technological Revolution on Soybean Yield: Evidence from 13-Major Provinces of China

“…In the persistence of small-scale farming size in China, many innovations from technology advancements, pathways of knowledge transfer to farmers, and new management skills are less effective due to high fixed costs of adoption [11,59]. Thus, Xu et al [60] proposed that increasing the size of farms effectively improves per-worker soybean productivity in China. However, as shown in Table 6, a negative relationship between agricultural credit and soybean yields can be seen.…”