The Evolution, Driving Forces And Efficiency Of Farm Size Of Corn Planting Households In Hebei

Food security is extremely crucial for China owing to the huge amount of population (1.3billion). To secure food security, we have to focus carefully on the procedure of crop production and operation, in which farm size is a key factor. The farm size in China is decreasing in the long-term with an increasing trend in recent years; China’s farm size is the lowest in comparison with other countries, besides the crop planting area in China is north-moving and shrinking in terms of the drop of agricultural labors and the aggrandizement of part-time farming. It is meaningful to investigate the evolution, driving forces and efficiency of farm size.We limited our research scope into maize in Hebei based on two reasons, Firstly, Hebei plays an irreplaceable role in North China Plain (NCP), and the farm size in Hebei is closed to the average scale of China, so Hebei is more typical. Secondly, Maize is more versatile than other crops, it can be used as food, feed and industrial materials, so it is more important for food safety and farms’income.Results show that:Firstly, agricultural subsidy has a positive effect on both medium and large scale farms, but negative effect on small scale farms; Secondly, the release of farm size related policies can encourage farmers to expand maize planting scale, but such effect is limited in small scale farms; Thirdly, education of household head has a positive effect on small and large scale farms, but negative on medium farms; Fourthly, maize price has significant positive effect on maize planting scale, especially medium farms; Fifthly, prices of alternative crops such as soybean and cotton have negative effects on maize planting scale, and medium scale farms are more sensitive to such prices than large and small scale farms; last but not the least, temperature is not conducive to the expansion of farm scale, and medium scale farms are more sensitive than others.Farms with large scale have the highest technical efficiency and returns to scale (1.05). Large scale farms not only have the lowest planting cost per unit area, but also have the largest output and profit in terms of per unit cost and per labor input. Small scale farms have a relative lower technical efficiency and return to scale. Though small scale farms have a much higher cost per unit area than others, they have a highest income per unit area by planting maize, and a close profit per unit with large scale farms. The magnitudes of technical efficiency and return to scale of medium scale farms are between large and small scale farms. The experiences from Japan and Republic of Korea indicate that China should develop and adjust policies about farm size, specify legislation about land transfer, increase subsidies in terms of land transfer, and encourage innovative models of farm scale.According to the findings, this paper makes specific policy implications about maize planting scales in national level and Hebei province maize household level:In Hebei province level, firstly, the government should encourage medium size farmers transfer to large scales or rent their lands out; secondly, the government should give more subsidies to large scale farms, and less to medium and small scale farms; In national level, firstly, it is essential to strengthen climate detection and early warning; secondly, the government should introduce more specific measures to encourage land transfer and expand the planting scale moderately.