加入合作社对种粮大户农机投资及服务供给行为的影响分析

农业机械化水平是衡量现代农业发展程度的重要指标。以种粮大户、合作社等为代表的新型农业经营主体逐渐成为农机投资和提供农机服务的主力军。基于2018年江苏省686个种粮大户的微观调查数据,本文选用了多重跨栏模型并采用控制函数法实证检验了加入合作社对种粮大户农机投资与提供农机服务的影响。研究发现:相较于未加入合作社的种粮大户,加入合作社的种粮大户购买农机和提供农机作业服务的动机更强,户均农机作业服务供给水平更高。具体而言,加入合作社的种粮大户,其农机投资和提供农机作业服务的概率分别上升10.5和12.5个百分点,户均农机作业服务收益约增加3.382万元。由此,本文提出三点政策建议:一是引导种粮大户兼具生产性和服务性的双重功能,并鼓励合作社将种粮大户组织起来,共同开展农机服务。二是发挥合作社的组织优势,引导种粮大户投资相对短缺的农机装备。三是农机补贴向服务供给短缺的农机品种倾斜。     

Agriculture–nutrition linkages in farmers’ communication networks

To date, little is known about how information flows within farmer groups and how extension interventions could be designed to deliver combined information on agriculture and nutrition. This study uses unique network data from 815 farm households in Kenya to investigate the structure and characteristics of agricultural and nutrition information networks within farmer groups. Dyadic regressions are used to analyze the factors influencing link formation for the exchange of agricultural and nutrition information. In addition, we apply fixed‐effects models to identify the characteristics of central persons driving information exchange in the two networks, as well as potentially isolated persons, who are excluded from information networks within their farmer groups. Our results show that nutrition information is exchanged within farmer groups, although to a limited extent, and mostly flows through the existing agricultural information links. Thus, diffusing nutrition information through agricultural extension systems may be a viable approach. Our findings further suggest that group leaders and persons living in central locations are important drivers in the diffusion of information in both networks and may thus serve as suitable entry points for nutrition‐sensitive extension programs. However, we also identify important heterogeneities in network characteristics. In particular, nutrition information is less often exchanged between men and women, and some group members are completely isolated from nutrition information exchange within their farmer groups. We derive recommendations on taking these differences in network structure and characteristics into account when designing nutrition‐sensitive extension programs.     

农业地理集聚对农业机械化技术进步的影响——基于丘陵山区的实证分析

[目的]通过分析农业地理集聚对丘陵山区农业机械化技术进步的影响,为促进丘陵山区农业机械化技术进步提供政策建议。[方法]采用区位商法对丘陵山区农业地理集聚度进行了测算,基于动态面板数据模型分析了农业地理集聚对丘陵山区农业机械化技术进步的影响。[结果]丘陵山区农业地理集聚度逐步提升,而农业机械化技术水平具有显著的跨期相关性,农业地理集聚是促进丘陵山区农业机械化技术进步的重要因素。[结论]要深入推进丘陵山区农业供给侧结构性改革,以市场需求为导向,不断调整种植业内部结构,扩大优势特色产业种植规模,进一步提升农业地理集聚度;要着力构建丘陵山区农业机械化投入的长效机制,不断加大对丘陵山区农业机械技术的研发推广和培训投入力度;要积极引导丘陵山区闲置土地向特色优势产业流转,积极鼓励丘陵山区受教育程度较高的农户从事农业机械化生产经营。     

Rural non‐farm diversification,agricultural feminisation and women's autonomy in the farm: evidence from India

This study contributes to the literature on the interlinkage between household non‐farm diversification (HND), agricultural feminisation and female autonomy in farming. The study uses unit‐level data from the Indian Human Development Survey for the years 2004 ‐ 2005 and 2011 ‐ 2012. The paper employs instrumental variable regression methods to study such interlinkages. The results show HND to be a significant factor contributing to the feminisation of agriculture. The study finds some evidence that the phenomenon is distress driven. Further, greater participation of women in agriculture, as well as women's access to land rights, significantly contributes to female autonomy in farm decision‐making. The results are robust to the use of alternative indicators of agricultural feminisation.     

农机社会化服务对农业劳动生产率的影响研究

目的 农业劳动生产率的提高是中国农业现代化的重要特征，进一步探讨农机社会化服务对农业劳动生产率的作用效果具有现实意义。方法 文章基于2019年全国13省份玉米种植户调查数据，采用OLS回归模型与倾向得分匹配法，分析了农机社会化服务对农业劳动生产率的影响效应，探讨影响效应在不同地形条件、兼业程度的组群差异，并考察了不同环节农机社会化服务对农业劳动生产率的影响差异。结果 （1）农机社会化服务正向显著影响农业劳动生产率，采纳农机社会化服务会促使农户农业劳动生产率显著提高18.8%。但农户采纳农机社会化服务的作用效果具有环节异质性。采纳耕整地、播种、灌溉排水和收获环节农机社会化服务会促使农户农业劳动生产率分别显著提高21.2%、17.4%、22.9%和18.3%；（2）而农户采纳植保环节农机社会化服务对农业劳动生产率并不具有显著影响。农户采纳农机社会化服务对劳动生产率的影响效应还存在禀赋差异，平地农户采纳农机社会化服务使其农业劳动生产率显著提高21.9%，而坡地山地农户采纳农机社会化服务对农业劳动生产率没有表现出显著的影响。（3）纯农业户与兼业农户采纳农机社会化服务都会对农业劳动生产率产生显著的正向影响效果，纯农业户的影响净效应平均值高于兼业农户的19.6%。结论 总体而言，在中国当前农村环境下，农户采纳农机社会化服务能够显著提高农业劳动生产率。农机社会化服务对农业劳动生产率的影响效应强度依次为：灌溉排水环节、耕整地环节、收获环节、播种环节。此外，耕地地形为平地的纯农业户采纳农机社会化服务对农业劳动生产率的影响效应更大。     

公私合作农地整理项目的博弈分析：一个分析框架

在界定公私合作农地整理项目模式的基础上,采用博弈分析法,分析公私合作农地整理项目参与主体的行为目标,探究公私合作农地整理项目中的政府与企业、企业与农村集体组织、企业与农户的博弈关系。研究结果表明,公私合作农地整理项目参与主体的行为目标存在差异;协调政府追求社会福利最大化与企业追求利润最大化的目标冲突可提高项目效率;协调企业与农村集体组织对促进合作有正向影响;农户参与对提高农户项目的满意度有显著意义;政府单一财政投资存在低效率现象,企业单独投资可能导致社会福利损失,政府和企业合作有利于提高农地整理项目的投资效率;政府和企业的合作均衡受各自保留效用的影响,企业与农村集体组织合作投资的初始投入成本对合作具有正向作用;超额收益分配是否合理,影响企业与农村集体组织双方的策略选择,而初始投入成本和违约赔偿金额对农户与企业的合作关系有正向影响。     

农机社会化服务对小麦生产技术效率的影响

目的 在中国土地规模经营和服务规模经营并重推进粮食作物效率提升背景下,进一步探讨农机社会化服务对小麦生产技术效率提升效应的规模异质性具有现实意义。方法 文章使用随机前沿分析和门限回归分析,利用2018年全国6省区小麦种植户经营情况,对农机社会化服务影响小麦生产技术效率及影响效果规模异质性进行研究。结果 农机社会化服务的采用有助于提升小麦生产技术效率;农机社会化服务对小麦生产技术效率存在门限效应,当农户经营规模低于门限值（0.293hm²）时,农机社会化服务对小麦生产技术效率不具有显著影响,跨越门限值后,农机社会化服务对小麦生产技术效率则具有正向影响效应。基于农户适度规模经营的情况下,农机社会化服务对中等规模（0.293hm²＜Area＜3.333hm²）农户的小麦生产技术效率具有显著正向影响。结论 农机社会化服务有助于提升中国小麦种植户技术效率,但受限于农户规模,推进农机社会化服务发展的同时仍然需要推动土地的适度规模经营。     

African Agricultural Development: Lessons and Challenges

This paper reviews what has been learned from experiences of African agriculture and hence what policy lessons may be. Views of African agriculture over the last 130 years have changed from optimism to pessimism and at least halfway back again as the performance of the sector has fluctuated. Fortunately it seems the deep pessimism about agricultural prospects expressed in the 1980s and 1990s has receded. The performance of African agriculture since 1990 suggests that neither those who doubt that any significant advances are taking place, nor those who see advances in some remarkable but perhaps isolated cases of rapid transformation of farming and agricultural supply chains, have sufficient evidence – either from national data or small‐scale studies – to support their positions. Hence policy has to rely largely on general principles and historic lessons, rather than more clearly proven propositions. Policy debates over African agricultural development may sharply divide on some topics, but there is little debate over the importance of basic conditions for agricultural development of an enabling investment climate and the provision of rural public goods. Beyond these basics, the challenge is to remedy the failings of markets that deny most smallholders access to inputs, financial services and insurance. Here opinion divides between whether to return to public provision, as with fertiliser subsidies, or whether private and collective institutional innovations will be sufficient. Recent initiatives to test and scale up the latter look promising, but most have yet to be evaluated. If agricultural development is first and foremost about establishing the basic conditions for growth, then most countries in Africa may be better placed than they have been in the past. Given the many examples that show African smallholders investing and innovating when they have the chance, then there are reasons to hope that the modest growth of production and productivity seen in the last two decades may accelerate in the future – thereby allowing African countries to make the transition from agrarian to urban economies.     

Measuring agricultural total factor productivity in China: pattern and drivers over the period of 1978‐2016

The Chinese agricultural sector has experienced a substantial increase in total output since dramatic reforms were introduced in 1978. This paper uses the index method to measure agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) for China’s crop and livestock industries, based on the gross output model from 1978 to 2016. We construct production accounts for the industries using input‐output relationships for the 26 main agricultural commodities and commodity groups, which account for over 90 per cent of the total agricultural inputs and outputs. The results show that China’s agricultural TFP grew at a rate of approximately 2.4 per cent a year before 2009, which is comparable to the main OECD countries and is double the world average. TFP growth accounts for approximately 40 per cent of output growth, suggesting that input growth was the main driver of output growth in the past. However, average productivity growth slowed down after 2009 though it has gradually recovered since 2012. The slowdown reflects the emerging challenges to existing farm production practices in Chinese agriculture, suggesting the need for further institutional reform.     

工商资本下乡对地方农业产业发展的影响——基于政企关系的视角

目的 在加快建设农业强国的关键时期,深入剖析工商资本下乡投资带动农业产业发展的影响因素,对促进农业产业高质量发展具有重要意义。方法 文章利用江苏省工商企业下乡投资调研数据,采用有序选择模型（Oprobit）,实证分析江苏省工商资本下乡促进地方农业产业发展的影响因素。结果 （1）研究结论表明,良好的政企关系显著促进了工商资本下乡带动地方农业产业发展。在进行替换被解释变量、更换关键解释变量、考虑内生性问题进行稳健性检验后,上述结论依然成立。（2）异质性分析表明,对处于基础设施完备地区和项目负责人为非当地户籍的下乡投资企业,政企关系对工商资本下乡带动地方农业产业发展的促进作用更大,而对处于政策环境更好地区的下乡投资企业而言,政企关系的促进作用有所减弱。（3）进一步分析表明,行业关联正向调节了政企关系对工商资本下乡带动地方农业产业发展水平的促进作用。结论 应推进工商资本与村集体形成利益共同体,充分利用农业关联企业的带动作用以及完善乡村配套基础设施以提升工商资本下乡促进地方农业产业发展的效能。     

The political economy of public research investment and commodity policies in agriculture: an empirical study

The paper tests a political economy theory of simultaneous government decision‐making on income redistribution through commodity policies and on public research investment in agriculture. We use data from 37 countries on agricultural protection and public agricultural research expenditures (PARI). The empirical results are consistent with the political economy hypotheses. The analysis suggest that structural changes in the economy have important effects on the political incentives for governments not only to subsidize or tax farmers, but also to invest in public agricultural research. Furthermore, the analysis supports the hypotheses that the impact of such structural changes on government decision‐making on PARI is non‐linear and conditional on other factors. Regarding the impact of political institutions, the results suggest that more democracy neither leads to more distortionary transfers (agricultural protection), nor to lower investment in public goods (PARI). ©2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.     

What role for cooperation in conservation tenders? Paying farmer groups in the High Andes

This paper sheds light on the potential of group-level tenders to enhance conservation where it depends on cooperation of small-scale farmers. We analyze data from two pilot payment for ecosystem service (PES) schemes focused on the conservation of agricultural biodiversity in the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes. Contracts were assigned to farming groups who could choose between different types of in-kind payments with varying degrees of divisibility between group members. Our main results indicate that: (1) stronger general patterns of collective action are positively related to the level of cooperation in group-bid making; (2) where collective action is robust, collective payments seem to provide stronger conservation incentives than individual payments; (3) collective payments could mitigate some potential rent-seeking behavior; (4) selecting bid offers based on both a ‘cooperation’ criterion and conservation land area offered does not overly compromise the cost-effectiveness of PES; and (5) group-level contracts may create strong incentives for contract compliance. Hence, combining farmer group-level contracts with collective in-kind payments can enhance the cost-effectiveness of conservation tenders, while generating co-benefits in terms of increased interaction and social capital among group members.     

European Agricultural Science Funding: Examining Trends and Prospects

Proper evaluation of the impact of agricultural research requires data on how much has been spent to achieve its desired effects on productivity, efficiency and environmental quality. However, official statistics on aggregate volumes of research expenditure, at both European and national levels, are intermittently available and most data collected for private research are not fully compatible with data for public research. This study in 20 European countries in 2014 defines the different concepts at international level, and assesses coverage across countries, using secondary data and key informant interviews. Coverage is unequal by country and type of measure, the lowest coverage being for agriculture as a socioeconomic objective. We depict recent trends in public agricultural research, which differ by country. We then formulate three policy options and recommendations for their implementation to improve the monitoring of agricultural research investment in Europe: 1) make compulsory in the EU statistical system the collection of statistics on agricultural research expenditure using the same metrics for all sectors of performance; 2) develop a specific survey in the Commission to obtain data directly from research organisations; 3) prepare annual reviews of agricultural research expenditures at Member State level, including both quantitative and qualitative information on agricultural research activities.     

How do producer organisations enhance farmers’ empowerment in the context of fair trade certification?

ABSTRACT

In the fair trade (FT) coffee sector, collective dynamics are viewed as a prerequisite for empowerment. The question of whether and how collective organisations empower farmers in the context of FT has yet to be fully explored. Using the concepts of collective agency and empowerment, this paper analyses the case of four farmers’ groups involved in two FT certified producer organisations in Peru. The results show that collective dynamics are drivers of change in this context oand help provide a ‘power to’ change coffee-related activities. They also generate a sense of ‘power with’, which improves group visibility and capacity to build new partnerships. Farmers gain the opportunity to develop their livelihood activities and women farmers develop ‘power from within’. TDespite that, collective action still focuses primarily on coffee and members-only projects. Inclusive rural development depends on extending ‘power with’ to other agricultural domains and to networks in the social and economic spheres.     

Rural–Urban Impacts of CAP Measures in Greece: An Inter‐regional SAM Approach

This paper evaluates the inter‐regional impacts of CAP measures implemented in the rural town of Archanes (Crete, Greece), an area which received considerable EU Agricultural Guarantee and rural development funds during the 1990s. A hybrid, three‐area Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) with three groups of households defined by income level is constructed to describe inter‐linkages between three rural–urban localities, namely the rural area of Archanes, the less‐developed, agriculturally dependent, neighbouring rural area of N. Kazantzakis, and the adjacent urban centre of Heraklion. Results are reported on the diffusion patterns of economic impacts generated by three types of CAP measure: farm income support; aids to increased agricultural productivity; aids to economic diversification. These show that the diffusion of policy‐induced economic impacts from Archanes is lower than might be expected for a small open local economy, and that benefits leak primarily to Heraklion and marginally to rural N. Kazantzakis. Finally, generated income benefits seem to accrue mostly in favour of high‐income households, especially in the case of Guarantee subsidies.     

把握重点 乘势而上 山西林业进入又好又快发展新阶段

山西省遵循科学发展思路,推进"身边增绿"工程发展,开创了集体林权制度改革新局面,森林资源保护方面取得新进展。为确保林业良好发展态势,还采取了党政领导高层推动、增加林业投资、创新运行机制、注重科技贡献、提升服务水平等措施,促进山西林业又好又快发展。     

Role of communication technologies in broadacre agriculture in Australia: an empirical analysis using panel data

This paper examines the role of communication technologies (CTs) in Australian broadacre agricultural production using data over the period of 1990–2013. Allowing for cross‐sectional independence in the data, the pooled mean group and augmented mean group techniques are applied to estimate dynamic relationships among variables. The empirical results demonstrate that CTs affect agricultural output positively in the long run. The estimated elasticity is 0.237. This result suggests that government policies that lift investment in telecommunication facilities are shown to contribute to an increase of output in Australia's broadacre agriculture in the long run.     

The nexus between gender,collective action for public goods and agriculture: evidence from Malawi

Across the developing world, public goods exert significant impacts on the local rural economy in general and agricultural productivity and welfare outcomes in particular. Economic and social‐cultural heterogeneity have, however, long been documented as detrimental to collective capacity to provide public goods. In particular, women are often underrepresented in local leadership and decision‐making processes, as are young adults and minority ethnic groups. While democratic principles dictate that broad civic engagement by women and other groups could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of local governance and increase public goods provision, the empirical evidence on these hypotheses is scant. This article develops a theoretical model highlighting the complexity of constructing a “fair” schedule of individual contributions, given heterogeneity in costs and benefits that accrue to people depending, for instance, on their gender, age, ethnicity, and education. The model demonstrates that representative leadership and broad participation in community organizations can mitigate the negative impacts of heterogeneity on collective capacity to provide public goods. Nationally representative household survey data from Malawi, combined with geospatial and administrative information, are used to test this hypothesis and to estimate the relationship between collective capacity for public good provision and community median estimates of maize yields and household consumption expenditures per capita. The analysis shows that similarities between the leadership and the general population in terms of gender and age, and active participation by women and young adult in community groups, alleviate the negative effects of heterogeneity and increase collective capacity, which in turn improves agriculture productivity and welfare.     

Promoting the role of farmer‐based organizations for value chain integration: the tension between a program's targeting and an organization's investment strategy

We use new data on 500 Farmer‐Based Organizations (FBOs) in Ghana and regression analysis to reveal determinants of collective investments and the case of the Millennium Development Authority's (MiDA) agricultural program in Ghana to demonstrate that development programs offering hard incentives may be counterproductive in promoting collective action. We show that when a program sets criteria for participation and offers in‐cash and in‐kind support to selected FBOs, it may promote rent‐seeking and crowd out equity capital formation. This is so because FBOs may have formed for the sole purpose of benefitting from incentives offered by the program and thus lack an economic justification, which is an important condition for progression through the cooperative life cycle. Further, by setting stringent participation criteria, the program may end up selecting younger organizations while it is the more consolidated organizations that are able to connect to business development services (BDS) and engage in more offensive collective action.     

我国农业生产“服务规模化”对“土地规模化”的影响——替代与互补关系解释

目的 推动农业规模化经营是我国农业现代化发展的基本要求。文章旨在厘清我国农业生产“服务规模化”与“土地规模化”二者之间的替代抑或互补关系，以实现粮食总产最大化的目标。方法 文章以农机服务为研究切入点，采用随机前沿生产函数模型和门槛效应模型，探讨农机服务对粮食总产、播种面积的影响，以及不同土地规模下农机服务对粮食总产的影响程度。结果 研究结果表明，增加农机服务投入会提高粮食单产以及播种面积，且农机服务与农户土地经营规模表现出阶段性的变化特征，农机服务对粮食生产的影响程度会随着土地经营规模的增加而先下降后扩大，即“服务规模化”的作用会受到“土地规模化”发展的约束，虽然“服务规模化”能够在一定时期内、一定程度上替代“土地规模化”的不足或相对滞后，但是“服务规模化”的生产效应又依赖于“土地规模化”程度的发展。结论 基于以上研究，该文建议，在推动我国农业规模化的过程中，应当阶段性的和差异性的采取“服务规模化”和“土地规模化”两种路径方式，充分利用二者互为补充以及相互替代的关系，以实现多种形式的适度规模经营。