Research On The Grain Family Farms In Shandong Province: Formation, Operating Efficiency And Survival Ability

The family contract responsibility system stimulated the vitality of rural collective economy,mobilized the farmer's enthusiasm for producing grain and promoted the development of agricultural production.However,such factors as the land fragmentation caused by household contract responsibility system,the aging and weakening of farmers brought about by rural labor migration,and the concurrent industrialization of agriculture brought about by high cost and low income have hindered the development of agriculture.Under the background of new economic development,the main problems in the agricultural development are to increase farmers' income and ensure food security by changing the mode of agricultural development.In 2013,the No.1 Central Document proposed that we should encourage the transference of the right of contracting and managing the land to the large household farmers,family farms,farmers' cooperatives,agricultural enterprises in the open market,and develop various forms of moderate scale operation.As a new running entity,family farms can lower the cost of measuring and supervising the agricultural production and be advantageous for the farmer to arrange the production according to the reality.Shandong Province,which is a large agricultural province and major grain producing province in China,is an important representative of the development of family farms to achieve agricultural scale operation.Therefore,this paper takes Shandong Province as an example to discuss the development of grain family farms.Based on the review of domestic and foreign literature,this paper interviews experts,government staff and does field investigations,and establishes the research method in the line of how to promote the establishment of grain family farm,improve the operation of grain family farm,and realize the survival of the grain family farm.Theoretical analysis,mean value analysis,rosstab analysis,factor analysis,multiple linear regression analysis,binary logistic analysis,interpretative structural modeling,stochastic frontier analysis and survival analysis is adopted to systematically study the development of grain family farms in Shandong province.Firstly,this paper identifies the influencing factors of the establishment of grain family farms from the perspective of farmers and households.Through a questionnaire survey on grain family farms in Shandong Province,it uses regression analysis to identify the influencing factors of the establishment of grain family farms.The research finds that farmers and labor workers,funds and land are the key influencing factors of the establishment of grain family farms,the infrastructure has some influence on the establishment of grain family farms;the social service and industrialization have no obvious effect on the establishment of grain family farms.Then,from the perspective of households,the key factors affecting the establishment of grain family farms are further analyzed based on the farmers' willingness to transfer land,the farmers' willingness of scale-operation and the farmers' financing ability.The age of the working population,planting of grain,age of the householder,farming perception,government support and the price of transfer have a positive impact on the farmers' willingness to transfer land;the age of farming population,scale of land,planting of economic crops,the proportion of income from agriculture,famers' emotion towards the land,agricultural subsidies,income from farming and knowledge and skills have a negative impact on farmers' willingness to transfer land.The age of farming population,age of the householders,the degree of householder's education,farmland scale,proportion of agricultural income,agricultural subsidies,knowledge and skills,the stability of circulating farmland,mechanized farming conditions,emotion towards farmland and financing ability have a positive impact on the farmers' willingness of scale-operation;the age of the working population and conservative tendency have a negative impact on the farmers' willingness of scale-operation.Assets mortgage,agricultural operating conditions,knowledge of financing procedures and farmers' credit are the major influencing factors of farmers' financing ability,and financial supply has a significant impact on farmers' financing ability.Secondly,it analyzes the operating efficiency of grain family farm and its influencing factors by the one-step method of SFA.Through the analysis of the operation stituation of the grain family farms,we find that it has the following typical characteristics: firstly,the degree of modernization is not high,and the consciousness of brand and the consciousness of sustainable development have not been set up;secondly,the sources of farm owner are relatively concentrated,and agricultural operation has limited attraction to young people;Thirdly,the amount of work in land transfer negotiation is large and the circulation is difficult;fourthly,grain family farms need large investment,but the sources of funds are limited;fifthly,agricultural socialization service is satisfactory,but the number of cooperatives and leading enterprises is insufficient,and the driving effect of which is limited.Through one-step method of SFA,it is found that the loss of technical efficiency in grain yield is relatively small,and the loss of technical efficiency in net income is relatively large.This shows the advantage of small scale intensive and meticulous farming is gradually disappearing with the more and more common concurrent business;and the profitability of grain family farms is relatively inadequate because of the low grain prices and relatively high investment in agricultural production.Land input and substituting land input have a significant impact on production,land input,labor input,land rent input,substituting labor input and substituting land input have significant impact on net income.At the same time,the influencing factors of technical efficiency of grain family farm are analyzed,which provides effective support for the improvement of the operation of grain family farm.Thirdly,the Cox proportional risk model is used to analyze the influencing factors of the survival of the grain family farms.Since the beginning of 2016,great changes have taken place in the operating environment of grain family farms.In particular,the adjustment of the corn price mechanism in 2016 has a great impact on the survival of the grain family farms in Shandong province.Therefore,it is found through the production analysis that the form of the land renting,the amount of input funds,the joining of farm cooperation and the linking with agricultural enterprises have positive effects on the survival of grain family farms,and the amount of loan funds has a negative impact on the survival of grain family farms.Finally,the development countermeasures of grain family farms are put forward from different angles.On the basis of defining the modernized nature and the scale of grain family farms,the development countermeasures of grain family farms are put forward from 4 perspectives.Firstly,identify potential professional farmers to improve farmers' professional ability;Secondly,speed up the circulation of farmland to provide land guarantee for the scale management of grain family farms;thirdly,raise farmers' productive financing capacity to provide financial support for the development of grain family farms;fourthly,strengthen financial support to optimize the operation environment and promote the development of grain family farms.The innovation of this paper is embodied in three aspects: firstly,from the perspective of family farm's establishment,operation performance and survival ability,it studies the whole process of the development of grain family farms,overcoming the shortage of research from a certain stage of the development of grain family farms.Secondly,it studies the grain family farms from the perspective of farmers and households,which enhances the research depth of family farms.Thirdly,it trackes the survival situation of grain family farms,analyzes the survival viability and its influencing factors of grain family farms,which provides a theoretical basis for the long-term survival of grain family farms.