Forty years of irrigation development and reform in China

This study reviews 40 years of irrigation development in China including the transformation of the institutional and incentive structures in irrigation management. After rural reforms in the 1970s, irrigation investments slowed until the late 1990s. In North China, farmers became major investors in groundwater irrigation, leading to property rights’ transfer of tube wells from collective to private ownership. Despite positive effects in cropping patterns, farmer income and development of groundwater markets, privatisation has accelerated groundwater table deterioration. Since the middle of 1990s, Water User Associations have replaced village collective management of surface irrigation. This approach was adopted by most provinces by early 2001 with mixed results; only institutions with water‐saving incentives realised efficient irrigation. The Government is reforming water price policies to provide water‐saving incentives to farmers while not hurting their income. While China has focused on water rights and markets, and despite regulations and pilot projects, full implementation of water rights has been slow. Research reveals greater policy scope for expanding irrigation technologies that generate real water saving to rural areas. Given pressure associated with water scarcity and concern for food security, further effective reforms in irrigation and policy incentives are expected. The Government has also initiated some pilot projects to resolve increasing water scarcity problems through adjusting agricultural production activities.     

The impact of grain self‐sufficiency regime on regional welfare and agricultural productivity in China

The nineties’ agricultural reforms in China that were aimed at deregulating the agricultural market eventually resulted in a huge drop in agricultural production and a high rate of inflation in agricultural input prices; this apparently motivated the government to introduce the grain self‐sufficiency regime in 1998. We examine how and to what extent this reform affected the productivity and welfare of grain farmers in China at the regional level. We find that the price regulations that destroyed the incentive to exert more effort adversely affected the growth in agricultural productivity but contributed to the growth in farmers’ welfare. Although the price regulations resulted in short‐term improvement in welfare across all the regions, in the long run such regulations can potentially result in larger drop in agricultural production because of its negative impact on the incentives to produce more.     

Assessing the Impact of the ‘Decoupling’ Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy on Irish Farmers’ Off‐farm Labour Market Participation Decisions

This paper assesses the impact of the ‘decoupling’ reform of the Common Agricultural Policy on the labour allocation decisions of Irish farmers. The agricultural household decision‐making model provides the conceptual and theoretical framework to examine the interaction between government subsidies and farmers’ time allocation decisions. The relationship postulated is that ‘decoupling’ of agricultural support from production would probably result in a decline in the return to farm labour but it would also lead to an increase in household wealth. The effect of these factors on how farmers allocate their time is tested empirically using labour participation and labour supply models. The models developed are sufficiently general for application elsewhere. The main findings for the Irish situation are that the decoupling of direct payments is likely to increase the probability of farmers participating in the off‐farm employment market and that the amount of time allocated to off‐farm work will increase.     

中国农村改革的未来方向

本文总结了我国农业农村发展新时代,深化改革,要准确把握农村未来方向,以土地制度改革为主线,聚焦土地制度、经营制度与产权制度三大问题。土地制度改革要在尊重农民意愿的基础上,推动土地经营权共享,通过土地经营权流转与不流转两种形式促进土地规模化、服务规模化;新型经营主体的培育要重点提升人力资本,注重职业农民的数量增长与质量提升,培养出一批真正有爱农情怀、工匠精神、创新意识、社会责任感的职业化农民;要充分理解农村集体产权制度改革的重大意义,把产权制度改革提升到第二次飞跃的高度来认识,并将改革与新产业新业态发展、农民就业增收、集体经济发展、乡村治理、党对基层基础工作领导等重大问题结合起来,充分发挥集体经济的优势,走出一条具有中国特色的现代农业发展道路,高质量完成全面建成小康社会的发展目标。     

Has China’s new round of collective forest reforms caused an increase in the use of productive forest inputs?

Forestland tenure and financial incentives are the most important policy issue to sustainable forest resource management. The new wave of reform of collective forestland tenure (NRCFT) has been launched since 2003 and the governmental matching reform measures (MRMs) for the NRCFT have been introduced since 2009. The objective of these reforms is to enhance sustainable forest resource management in Chinese collective regions by encouraging rural households’ productive forest inputs. We use a unique dataset of 1778 sample households in 18 counties of nine provinces with six years and employ a fixed effects model with clustered standard errors. Our empirical results indicate that: 1) the NRCFT has increased households’ forestland area of different tenure types, and the effects of the MRMs on rural households’ labor input and production expenditures for forestry purposes are generally positive, especially household used forestland as collateral for a loan and afforestation or reafforestation subsidy and reform of Annual Allowance Cut (AAC) have significantly contributed to increase in the use of productive forest inputs; 2) the NRCFT and the MRMs have different impacts on the use of productive forest inputs for different tenure forests, and these reforms have caused the most significant changes in rural households’ production decision changes for household responsibility forestland; 3) both the NRCFT and the MRMs have significant effects on rural households’ rent-in and rent-out forestland; and 4) forestland fragmentations have caused additional labor and investment inputs for rural households’ forest resource management and protection. And finally, market drivers and household and village characteristics factors also affect households’ decisions for productive inputs for their managing forests.     

新农村建设与农地使用制度改革

改革开放以来我国农地使用制度经历了丰富的变迁历程。农地使用制度是新农村建设的重要内容和制度保障，新农村建设将推动农地使用制度改革进一步深化。作为农地使用的主要方式，目前土地承包经营制度还不能适应新农村建设的需要，应从推进农地配置的市场化、使用方式多样化、促进农地流转、扩展农地使用权的权能、加强保护等方面改革现行土地承包经营制度。     

Can women's self‐help groups improve access to information,decision‐making,and agricultural practices? The Indian case

Effective agricultural extension is key to improving productivity, increasing farmers’ access to information, and promoting more diverse sets of crops and improved methods of cultivation. In India, however, the coverage of agricultural extension workers and the relevance of extension advice is poor. We investigate whether a women's self‐help group (SHG) platform could be an effective way of improving access to information, women's empowerment in agriculture, agricultural practices, and production diversity. We use cross‐sectional data on close to 1,000 women from five states in India and employ nearest‐neighbor matching models to match SHG and non‐SHG women along a range of observed characteristics. We find that participation in an SHG increases women's access to information and their participation in some agricultural decisions, but has limited impact on agricultural practices or outcomes, possibly due to financial constraints, social norms, and women's domestic responsibilities. SHGs need to go beyond provision of information to changing the dynamics around women's participation in agriculture to effectively translate knowledge into practice.     

农村集体产权结构开放性的历史演变与未来走向

[目的]改革开放40年来,为适应人口流动性提高、改进资源配置的需要,农村各类集体资产的产权结构发生了较大变化,但变化的方向和程度并不一致。面向未来,为促进乡村振兴,应重构农用地、集体经营性建设用地和集体非土地经营性资产等农村集体产权的权利结构,允许部分权能跨村流转和配置,提高乡村资源配置效率。[方法]在系统梳理文献、借鉴地方实践经验的基础上,阐述了农用地产权结构、集体经营性建设用地产权结构、集体非土地经营性资产产权结构开放性的历史演变与未来走向。[结果]随着农户的逐步分化,应以促进流转集中、扩大经营规模为目标,进一步扩大农用地产权结构的开放性;随着城乡统一的建设用地市场的发展,应以提高配置效率为目标,进一步扩大集体经营性建设用地产权结构的开放性;随着集体经济组织成员收入的多元化,应逐步扩大集体非土地经营性资产产权结构的开放性。[结论]必须在坚持农村集体所有制的前提下,逐步重构农村集体产权的权利结构,让稀缺的农用地不因集体经济组织成员的进城而荒芜,让进村创业和生活的非本集体经济组织成员能够获得必要的土地要素和居住空间,让村庄和集体资产治理结构能够更有效率。     

四川省农业水价综合改革的分析与思考

四川省推进农业水价综合改革以来,取得了一定成效。结合试点县实际情况,介绍在产权制度建设、工程设施配套、初始水权确定、水价形成机制、精准补贴和节水奖励机制建立等方面的改革现状,总结相关经验,分析存在的主要问题,提出相关建议,为推动西南地区农业水价综合改革提供一定的借鉴。     

Agriculture’s Inter‐industry Linkages,Aggregation Bias and Rural Policy Reforms

As agricultural policy reform and its effects have become increasingly territorialised, analyses that attempt to explain or predict impacts need to be both more localised and to identify spill‐over effects. Local and regional general equilibrium approaches have become increasingly popular because they can extend predictions of policy shocks obtainable from partial equilibrium sectoral models to identify the wider effects. However, agriculture is usually described as a single sector in input–output accounts, whereas policy shocks that affect constituent commodities with differential impacts will have inter‐industry effects that are different to those implied by average input–output coefficients. Regionalisation of aggregated input–output tables adds further to these difficulties. The objective of this study is to develop a practical method for dealing with these problems. It describes the theoretical basis of aggregation bias and shows how it can be measured, in two contrasting case study regions in the UK and Sweden. Having established that this is a significant issue, a simple but effective procedure is demonstrated, based on additional information on variable costs, which transforms policy shocks from a direct change in agricultural output to that transmitted to the suppliers of inputs. This method provides an impact close to that which could be calculated if the general equilibrium system had indeed been disaggregated, and supports use of this approach in impact studies where insufficient time or funding are available for complete disaggregation of an agricultural sector’s regional accounts.     

Implementing EU co-financed agri-environmental schemes: Effects on administrative transaction costs in a regional grassland extensification scheme

Implementing agri-environmental schemes that are co-financed by the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union require administrative compliance with several regulations. This affects the magnitude and composition of transaction costs incurred by agricultural administrations in terms of working time spent. Distinguishing between scheme-related tasks to achieve the environmental goals of the scheme and tasks necessary to obtain the EU reimbursement, this study investigates a possible trade-off in working time allocation with the help of a multi-task principal-agent conceptual framework. Agricultural county administrations of the German state of Hesse serve as case study. Results show that the highly specified reimbursement-related tasks require most of the administrations’ working time. However, several factors exist that enhance the provision of scheme-related tasks, foremost a higher share of professional farmers in the county and a certain level of staffing. Nonetheless, the study also reveals that part of the EU-related monitoring effort is fixed and thus increases per contract costs in counties with fewer participants. The findings suggest balancing the particular incentives to perform the required tasks. This is important as more standardised compliance duties are expected for the new funding period 2014–2020.     

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.     

两岸土地改革60年回顾、比较及启示

研究目的:比较分析两岸土地改革的历程和经验,增进对土地改革的理解和启示。研究方法:文献资料法和比较分析法。研究结果:(1)1949年以来,大陆历经5阶段、台湾历经3阶段的土地改革;(2)两岸土地改革动力、阻力、本质、演进路径等相同;(3)两岸土地改革的思想渊源、改革方式、衍生问题等有所不同。研究结论:(1)两岸土地改革积累了宝贵经验,可供相互参考和借鉴;(2)土地改革要与社会经济发展阶段相适应;(3)土地改革要协调各方利益,提供正确激励。     

Farmers’ Income and Production Responses to Rural Taxation Reform in Three Regions in China

The relationship between agricultural taxation and production efficiency has been thoroughly explored for many countries. Recently, China has taken various measures including the rural taxation reform (RTR) to promote grain production and to increase farmer incomes. In this study, we investigate whether the Chinese policy of abolishing rural taxation has improved farm households’ incomes and affected their production decisions. Using household survey data obtained from three regions in China, we estimate the effect of the RTR on farmers’ income. Results show that the RTR has significantly improved farmers’ post‐tax net income by 9.2% in Shandong, 16.9% in Shanxi and 16.8% in Zhejiang. These increments, mostly from farm income rather than from off‐farm income, are much higher than the direct income increase from the tax savings. In addition, we examine the dynamic impact of farmers’ net income, and find that the RTR has a sustained positive income effect in Shandong and Shanxi, whereas its positive effect in Zhejiang appears temporary. We also examine farmers’ production responses to the RTR. Results show that farmers in the three regions respond in different ways: farmers in Shandong significantly increase their labour input, farmers in Zhejiang increase intermediate inputs, whereas Shanxi farmers augment their intermediate inputs and enlarge their crop acreage. It appears that the farmers’ responses to the taxation reform vary due to the agronomic and economic factors in these three regions, suggesting that diverse post‐RTR supplemental policies should be implemented in different regions.     

Incentivising teachers? Evaluating the incentive effect of China’s teacher performance‐based compensation reform in rural China

In this paper, we evaluate the incentive role of a teacher performance‐based compensation reform in rural China. Using the value‐added model widely adopted in the education literature, we first estimated the teacher effects on student academic scores with panel data of a large number of students and teachers from rural and urban schools in one county in a south‐western province of China. The estimated teachers’ value‐add was then allowed us to examine the effectiveness of the 2009 teachers’ compensation reform. We find that despite the strong intent of the performance‐based compensation reform to improve student’s academic performance, teachers’ compensations are not closely tied to teachers’ value‐add to student academic achievement. This suggests that the performance‐based compensation reform is not able to provide strong incentives for teachers to raise students’ test scores and points towards the possible problems with the design and/or implementation of the reform.     

农业水价综合改革的推进困境及成因分析——基于小农户风险视角

农业水价综合改革在部分地区进展相对滞后。利用制度变迁及制度配置理论,分析了农业水价综合改革推进困境的特征及成因。结果表明,农业水价综合改革推进困境的主要特征是部分地区小农户对农业水价提高的接受意愿较低,客观上造成精准补贴和节水奖励难以发挥作用。该困境的核心成因是奖补政策无法缓解改革中的小农户风险,具体表现为:小农户对已有非正式农业用水制度的路径依赖,催生了对农业水价新制度的适应风险;农村社会保障制度等相关初级制度不够完善,加剧了农业水价提高后小农户的生产和生活风险。提出应因地制宜地设计农业水价改革的微观主体管理模式,将生存灌溉补贴和农业保险补贴纳入奖补政策,完善农村基础设施和社会保障体系。     

构建新型农业社会化服务体系初探

我国农业社会化服务体系经过多年来发展不断完善,组织载体"多层次"、服务内容"多元化"、服务机制"多形式"格局基本形成,但是农业社会化服务组织不健全、服务内容与农民的需求差距大、生产要素配置不合理矛盾凸显等问题仍然突出存在。新时期构建农业社会化服务体系,应确立"顶层设计指导、公共财政扶持、局部试点先行、适时稳步推进"的原则,着力在生产经营服务、农村金融服务、公共监管服务三个方面,力求在组织创新、制度创新、管理创新上实现十个新突破。     

关于开展小额林权抵押贷款的政策建议

开展小额林权抵押贷款是维护农村金融稳定、积极扩大内需、推动社会主义新农村建设的重要举措,意义重大。在调研、总结我国集体林权制度改革以来林区小额林权抵押贷款开展情况的基础上,针对目前存在的问题,提出了建立金融服务平台、创新金融产品、强化国家政策扶持等建议,并分别给出了具体的措施。     

Understanding New Cooperative Models: An Ownership–Control Rights Typology

This article examines new agricultural cooperative organizational models from an ownership rights perspective. The article adopts a definition of ownership rights comprising both residual claim and control rights. We argue that new cooperative organizational models differ in how ownership rights are assigned to the economic agents (members, patrons, and investors) tied contractually to the firm. The article proposes a typology of discrete organizational models, in which the traditional cooperative structure and the investor-oriented firm are characterized as polar forms. The typology also includes five nontraditional models that cooperatives may adopt to ameliorate perceived financial constraints.     

The Impact of the 2013 CAP Reform on the Decoupled Payments’ Capitalisation into Land Values

We assess the effects of the 2013 CAP reform on the capitalisation of decoupled payments in land rental values. Our estimates suggest that the reform leads to an increase in the capitalisation of decoupled payments by an additional 18 cents for each Euro of decoupled payments relative to the pre‐reform situation. However, there is an important variation in the reform effects between Member States (MS) particularly between Old Member States (OMS) and New MS (NMS). In NMS, the capitalisation rate slightly reduces from 83% in the pre‐reform period to 79% in the post‐reform period. Although, the rate is significantly lower in OMS, it doubles (from 21% to 43%) due to the reform. The main sources of the post‐reform capitalisation in the European Union (EU) are the pre‐reform capitalisation accounting for 69% of the total post‐reform capitalisation, followed by the entitlement stock change with 19%, by the internal convergence of payments with 18%, the budget change (including external convergence) with 1%, and the differentiation of payments (redistributive payment) with ?7%. Overall, our estimates suggest that on average in the EU, the non‐farming landowners’ policy gains are 27% of the total decoupled payments in the post‐reform period compared to 18% in the pre‐reform period.