Effectiveness Of Irrigation Supply From The Perspective Of Differential Farmers' Income

The effective supply of rural public products plays an important role in the rural economic development, farmers' living standards improvement and the urbanization promotion. As an agricultural country, agriculture is the foundation of the development of national economic, agriculture production plays an vital role in the economic development of China. As the lifeblood of agriculture production, the supply effect of irrigation facilities directly affects the efficiency of agricultural production. Review the development of irrigation facilities supply in China, it has flourished after twists and turns, the farmland irrigation area improves form 223 million mu in 1949 to 9.68 million mu in 2014. However, we still face many challenges with the remarkable achievement as well. The shortage of irrigation facilities supply scale, the imbalance of supply structure, the maintenance and management problem of irrigation facilities have become increasingly apparent. In practical research, we found that due to the lack of grass-roots management and the imperfect of management system, farmland irrigation to "the last kilometer" bottleneck problem still exists, although the water irrigation facilities is in good condition in some places. Moreover, during the process of irrigation supply, the “top-down” supply mechanism disconnects the demand of farmers, which caused serious dislocation between supply and demand, worsen the imbalance of supply structure. Therefore, the supply effect needs to be improved.The evaluation of irrigation facilities supply effect includes both the objective effect(the evaluation of irrigation facilities supply level) and the subjective effect, namely, the farmer's individual satisfaction evaluation which based on the combination of the current situation of irrigation facilities supply and their individual demand. Due to the heterogeneity of farmers' individual subjective judgment, with the expansion of their agricultural income disparity, there are obvious differences in objectives and psychological preferences between farmers with different agricultural income, which caused the evaluation of irrigation facilities supply effect from farmers by means of demand discrepancy posed the attributes of farmers' income difference. Therefore, from the perspective of farmers' agricultural income difference, focusing on the farmers' satisfaction, connecting with the objective supply level to study the effect evaluation of water irrigation facilities, which is not only conductive to the equalization of water irrigation facilities public service, but also a promotion for the transform of agricultural production. So, the main research questions of this dissertation include studying the effect evaluation of water irrigation facilities from the perspective of farmers' agricultural income difference, revealing the way to affect the supply effect of irrigation facilities from two levels of village and farmers, putting forward the policy suggestions to improve the supply effect of irrigation facilities.Guided by the theory of public goods, Pareto optimal theory, collective action theory and consumer behavior theory, based on the analysis of domestic and foreign literature about public goods supply such as irrigation facilities, by combining qualitative and quantitative analysis methodology, this dissertation make comprehensively research about the evaluation of irrigation facilities supply level, satisfaction of farmers to irrigation facilities with different agricultural income and evaluation of irrigation facilities supply effect. As for the evaluation of irrigation facilities supply level: construct the evaluation index system of irrigation facilities supply level, use factor analysis method to comprehensively evaluate the irrigation supply level in different provinces(autonomous regions); On this basis, use Tobit model to investigate the influencing factors that have impacts of irrigation facilities supply level. As for the satisfaction of farmers to irrigation facilities with different agricultural income: divide farmers into different group based on measuring agricultural income difference, use ordered Logit model to analysis the satisfaction of farmers to irrigation facilities in different agricultural income groups, investigate the satisfaction of farmers to irrigation facilities in different agricultural income groups and the influencing factors. As for the evaluation of irrigation facilities supply effect: construct the evaluation index of irrigation facilities supply effect from the two aspects of irrigation facilities supply level and farmers' satisfaction, use hierarchical linear model to investigate the effect of influencing factors on irrigation facilities supply effect from village level and farmer level, analysis the way of influencing factors to affect irrigation facilities supply effect, especially the farmers' agricultural income differences.Main research conclusions in this dissertation are as follows:(1). Since 1949, the supply of irrigation facilities in our country has experienced two historical stages : before the reform and opening up, after the reform and opening up; the two stages can be divided into six periods of development, recovery period, rapid development and consolidation period, trough period, adjustment period, deepening reform period and diversified supply period. Through analysis of each period we got the following result, the government is still the dominant force in the irrigation facilities supply, the period of stagnation and trough, even regression of the irrigation facilities' construction are all related to the lack of government supply; From the perspective of the development traces of the irrigation facilities supply method, the role of government in irrigation facilities supply is gradually weak, private supply is increasing. Due to the regional differences between natural resource endowment and economic development level, irrigation facilities supply in China has obvious regional differences. From the overall level of view, the irrigation facilities supply in the central and east regions is significantly better than the west region, and the central region is developing rapidly.(2). Water irrigation facilities supply level in our country is low and the regional difference is huge. Ningxia Province has the highest supply level of water irrigation facilities, followed by Shanxi Province, Henan Province has the lowest score. The channel construction, channel dredging and related matching facilities construction is develop rapidly in the area with high supply level of water irrigation facilities; on the contrary, the construction of new facilities, channel management and maintenance is insufficient in the area with low level of water irrigation supply. Through longitudinal comparison of three areas, the average score of basic supply capacity factor, affordable supply capacity factor and technical supply capacity factor were 0.003, 0.001 and 0.00002 respectively, above the average. However, the average score of social supply capacity factor is negative, which is lower than the average. Through horizontal comparison found that, the scores of each factor in the three regions was obviously different, the key factors that restrict the improvement of water irrigation facilities supply level were various. The farmers' agricultural income difference, the proportion of migrant workers, distance away from the county seat, whether as a demonstration base and the government support has a significant influence on the water irrigation facilities supply level; the wage of working out, the economic situation comparison with nearby villages, whether there is a key construction project of small scale peasant water don't have a significant influence on the water irrigation facilities supply level.(3). Generally speaking, farmers' satisfaction for water irrigation facilities supply belongs to middle level, the percentage of farmers who consider “good” and “very good” was only 45.33%. From the result of agricultural income difference grouping, compared with the improvement of agricultural income difference, farmers' satisfaction for water irrigation facilities supply improved. The ratio of farmers who consider water irrigation facilities supply “good” and “very good” in the group of no difference, low difference, medium difference and high difference was 37.64%, 48.28%, 42.08% and 50.72%, respectively, the ratio of farmers who consider “so-so” and “bad” reduced obviously. The empirical analysis of ordered Logit model suggests that, the management of water irrigation facilities, the changes of water irrigation facilities in recent five years, the maintenance of water irrigation facilities, comparison with nearby villages, convenience of irrigation and the satisfied degree of requirement were the common factors that have impacts on farmers' satisfaction for water irrigation facilities supply in each group of agricultural income difference, the influences of the other factors were different in each group. Agricultural income difference reflects the heterogeneity of the individual farmers in agricultural production, the greater of agricultural income difference, the higher heterogeneity degree of farmers, the evaluation of satisfaction for water irrigation facilities supply has obvious individual characteristic preference, meanwhile, there're more factors that have impacts on farmers' satisfaction for water irrigation facilities supply.(4). There are two indexes for the supply effect of water irrigation facilities, including farmers ' satisfaction and water irrigation facilities supply level. Overall, supply effect of water irrigation facilities is not in good situation in our country, water irrigation facilities supply level is low, the subjective perception(satisfaction) of farmers has not yet reached the rational expectation, there's still greater room for the water irrigation facilities supply effect to improve. The empirical analysis of Zero Model suggests that there exist difference in the irrigation facilities between different villages, the factors of villages and farmers affect the supply effect of water irrigation facilities jointly. Use random intercept model to analyze the influence degree and direction of factors of villages and farmers, from the factors of villages, the number of motor-pumped well, the length of channel and collection rate of water fee have a significant positive effect on water irrigation facilities supply effect. The effect of agricultural income difference is significant at 5% level, and present inverted “U”-type relationship, distance away from the county seat doesn't have a significant influence on the water irrigation facilities supply effect. From the factors of farmers, the emphasis of the government, the management of water irrigation facilities, the changes of water irrigation facilities in recent five years, comparison with nearby villages, convenience of irrigation and the satisfied degree of requirement have a significant positive influence on the supply effect of water irrigation facilities, whether children attend school has a significant negative influence on the supply effect of water irrigation facilities. Age, gender, education level, whether as village cadres, the maintenance of water irrigation facilities, supply mode and evaluation of water price don't have a significant influence on the supply effect of water irrigation facilities. Using Gene coefficient, Theil index and income shares of the richest 50% population to measure agricultural income difference, the relationship between agricultural income difference and water irrigation facilities supply effect is consistent. Under the condition of no change of the direction and significance of the other variables, agricultural income difference measured by three indicators all keep inverted “U”-type relationship with water irrigation facilities supply effect.