Effects Of Farmer's Irrigation Behavior On Technical Efficiency In Rice Production

China is the largest rice producer in the world, ranking the top list in total rice output. However, the increasing demand for rice due to income and population growth needs to further increase rice output depending on the efforts in many fields under limited arable land.Input intensification has already reached the point where a further increase in input investment will not be profitable. Also, depending on new technologies to increase output is a long-term process. Hence, to improve the technical efficiency of rice production has been highly concerned after the global food crisis in 2007. Rice is the largest crop for water demand among all crops. However China's situation, such as lower occupying of water resources, huge amounts of population and rapid economic development, is exacerbating the contradiction of supply and demand of water resources. Thus, in conditions of limited irrigation water, to study the impact of farmers' irrigation behavior on technical efficiency of rice production is a very interesting topic.The goal of this paper is to increase the scientific understanding of the impact of farmers' irrigation behavior on technical efficiency of rice production and the effect on irrigation water use. That is, based on farmers choosing in the general behaviors of production by themselves, this study will provide policy implications of improving food safety in production.According to field survey, this study divided farmers' irrigation behaviors into three types: The first is collective water management by village group. One may consider this type as organized collective irrigation due to its unification management by the village committee. The second type is sub-group. To reduce irrigation cost and increase the utilization of water resources, and to protect rice production for water needs, this sub-group is spontaneously formed by three to five farmers. It may be considered as spontaneous collective irrigation. The third is individual irrigation. It described whether farmers adopt water-saving irrigation depends on farmers' production behavior choice. This is an irrigation behavior choice by farmers themselves.In this study, based on a group- and household-level data set collected in 2006-2007 in the Zhanghe Irrigation System, Hubei, empirical studies with stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) were conducted to analyze the impacts of the three irrigation behaviors on technology efficiency in rice production. Ordinary least squares (OLS) was applied in this paper to regress between the factors of collective water management and the factors of alternating wet and dry (AWD) water-saving irrigation techniques. Probit model was applied to analyze the factors affecting the sub-group formation. The results showed as followings:(1) High social capital in a water user group can enhance the probability of successful collective water management. The more closely people are related to each other, the less each of them try to do opportunistic behavior. This case helps to construct the rules and regulations related to water management, and also assist farmers to reduce the monitoring cost of implementing these rules and regulations.(2) The water user group with high homogeneity in crop varieties cultivated becomes easier to operate a successful collective water management. If some fanners cultivate different crops or leave their field fallow, it is more difficult to coordinate water distribution among farmers. Because different crops have different water demands in amounts and times, which make the measurements of the quantity of water irrigated difficult, and make the cost of collective water management increased. High homogeneity of cultivated crop varieties can lower transaction and communication costs among fanners on the use of irrigation water.(3) A water user group with high social capital tends not to form a sub-group. Higher social capital can prevent farmers from overusing irrigation water. In this case fanners need not to take the cost of sub-group formation. When the water sources in a water user group become more, farmers in the group tend not to form a sub-group. If many varieties of water sources exist in a group, it is difficult for the farmers to form a sub-group because some farmers in the group have higher possibility to get different water sources and many of local water sources are almost free. Hence, farmers with many varieties of water sources do not want to join a sub-group and share the cost of water fee. On the contrary, only farmers in a group have few types of water sources and with lower social capital tend to form a sub-group. Because the existences of many varieties of water sources physically make the formation of sub-group impossible regardless of the levels of social capital. A sub-group is only formed when farmers need to do so and can do so.(4) A successful collective water management in a water user group will result in higher technical efficiency in rice production because rice yield will be decreased if irrigation water is inadequate at the critical stages of rice cultivation. A successful collective water management enables farmers to obtain sufficient irrigation water at the proper time during rice growth. This study also shows that the farm-specific technical efficiency has got a mean of 80% and there is a scope for increasing rice production by 20%.(5) If farmers in the group of low social capital are physically constrained and thus fail to form a sub-group, overuse of water (low AWD score) is more likely. Such failure occurs when the existence of many water sources physically prevents these farmers to form a sub-group. We also found that when social capital is high, farmers adopt AWD practice even without forming a sub-group.(6) The formation of sup-group has a positive effect on technical efficiency of rice production.(7) The adoption of AWD practice can increase technical efficiency of rice production, showing that the water-saving irrigation is not only to achieve the purpose of water conservation, but also to improve the technical efficiency of rice production. As a result, it has played a very important role to increase rice output.According to the results of this study, the Government should actively accumulate social capital, to improve the ability of collective water management; the Government should encourage the suitable development of sub-group, to improve the ability of own organizations and governance by farmers; the Government should emphasis on research and development of water-saving irrigation technologies, and actively promote the technologies in rice production. It is an important way to improve the technical efficiency of rice production, to ensure food security, and to save irrigation water resources.