An Empirical Study On Development Mode, Evaluation And Influence Factors Of Zhejiang Modern Agriculture

The development of modern agriculture with Chinese characteristics is an inevitable choice of China's agriculture development. Choice of development models, establishment of evaluation system, and investigation of factors influencing the development of modern agriculture are key questions in hand. Therefore, many experts and scholars have done studies on these topics. Existing studies are mainly focused on "factors of modern production". Research on modern agriculture from the perspective of resource use efficiency is important supplement for the existed studies.Resource constraints are an important bottleneck in the current agricultural development, and study on modern agriculture from the perspective of resource use efficiency will help to solve this problem. There are four main issues we are going to study in this paper:(1) a theoretical framework of modern agriculture based on resource use efficiency; (2) the transition and modes of regional agricultural development; (3) the transition and law of Zhejiang Agriculture development levels; (4) factors influencing farmers' resource use efficiency.Specifically, the following four conclusions are reached:(1) From the microscopic point of view, farmers' resource use efficiency determines the production efficiency and management level, while from the macro perspective, farmers management level leads to the pattern of regional agriculture development and the achievement of four macro objectives, i.e. income, food security, employment and sustainable development. Besides, source use efficiency is a concentrated reflection of economic efficiency and ecological efficiency. Improvement the resource use efficiency is a core requirement of modern agriculture development and a basis on which sustainable development is based, as well as an significant basis of agricultural policies.(2) Efficient ecological agriculture is an important mode of sustainable agriculture development and a realistic choice of modern agriculture development in Zhejiang. The Agriculture development mode in Zhejiang, as a whole, should take the way of Land intensive and labor intensive efficient ecological agriculture. However, there are significant differences in the level of economic development and resources between various regions in Zhejiang, which implies alternative development modes in different parts, and so as the possible impacts and constraints.(3) Drawn from the overall assessment results, there is a "V" style shape comprised of a waving decrease and a following steady yearly increase in the overall economic benefits agriculture production during the period 1995-2006 in Zhejiang. The ecological benefits generally present a rising ladder-type pricture, whereas there is a falling tend within each "stair". Comprehensive benefits in general demonstrate a "U" shape developing route. On the whole, there is imbalance in the agriculture development between areas in Zhejiang and the gaps of economic profits, ecological benefits and comprehensive benefits between regions are expanding. Some areas probably sacrifice the environment for economic development.(4) Empirical results show that the factors constraints the resources efficiency of land, labor and capital are not the same, therefore, impact and constraints of different sub-models of agricultural development are not the same. The development of Zhejiang agricultural is still rely largely on such resources input as chemical fertilizers, pesticides, labor, and so on. It shows that,as to agricultural resource use efficiency, the effect of the quality of workers, investment in fixed assets which reflecting the level of modern technology is still very limited, and it does not meet the requirements of "resource-saving, environment-friendly, technology-intensive" development of efficient ecological agriculture.Overall, this paper analyses the intrinsic mechanism of modern agriculture development from the view of resource use efficiency through combination of theoretical and empirical studies. There some some contributions to current literature that the studies may produce. First, the paper link agriculture development theory with farmer theory, which has not been paid adequate attention in the literature. Second, farmer level data of Zhejiang province are used to carry out emprical studies. Finally, factors contributing to farmers'resource use efficiencies are systematically analysed, which enriches micro theory as well as emprical basis for studies on agriculture production efficiency.