The Impact Of Factors Of Production On The Efficiency Of Land Productivity Of Grain With The Restraint Of Land Quality

The simultaneous increase in grain output,grain import volume and grain stocks,distinctly strengthen the capability to guarantee food security in China now.However,the hidden problems,particularly in grain production become increasingly serious.The overuse of cultivated land has deteriorated the quality of cultivated land and the ecological environment.In addition,the factor costs,especially labor cost and land cost are dramatically increasing,which directly reduce profit of grain production.Facing the new situation,the 13th Five Year Plan definitely proposes "implementation of grain reserves depending on land and science&technology" to guarantee food security.In the context of the adjustment to grain production in China,it is particularly important to answer the following questions.(i)What level of the function is cultivated land productivity of grain?(ii)It is the fact that increase in grain output and decrease in land quality.Whether or not does land quality influence grain production?If does,what is the mechanism?(iii)What are the impacts of fast-rising costs of labor and land on grain production?(iv)Which kind(s)of agricultural technology is(are)more inclined to be adopted in grain production?Although researchers have carried out lots of works,some gaps need to be filled as follows:evaluation of the productive function of cultivated land,mechanism of the impact of land quality on grain production,condition of the substitution of factors of production.Owing to referring to cross disciplines including ecology and economics,we built up an analytical framemork,which,to a certain extent,helps to avoid confusion and reach a consensus.Our research was conducted under the basic framework of energy flow in agricultural ecological system.Further,modern economic theory and method were used to investigate the imports of artificial supplemental energy in the grain production system,the kernel in which is the production decision under the minimization of cost.The paper’s contents are as follows:Content 1:definition of the efficiency of cultivated land productivity of grain(ECLPG)and evaluation of the ECLPG.Depends on the basic principle of energy flow in the ecology system,the ECLPG is defined as the ratio of crops productivity to its potential productivity in the cultivated land.Firstly,the calorific value was used as a uniform unit to calculate the production quantity of cultivated land(PQCL).The results show that production quantities of rice,whear and corn accountted for more than 60%of the PQCL.Then,the paper made a decomposition analysis of the change of the PQCL during 1998-2014 using Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index(LMDI).The results show that the contribution of the production quantities of three grain to the PQCL was close to 70%.Data on 1482(account for more than 69.32%)county-level units were used to calculate the province-level and nation-level light-temperature potential productivity of grain.Further,the ECLPG of the province-level and nation-level was calculated.The results show that the ECLPG in 2014 was about 25%after an increase of annual average 1.49 percent in China.The provinces with the higher ECLPG were mainly located in the southern China,especially in the Yangtze River region;the provinces with the lower ECLPG were concentrated mainly in the northern China,especially in the northwestern China.And provinces with a faster increase in the ECLPG were concentrated mainly in the middle of China.Content 2:analysis of the constrained substitution effect of land quality and factors of production on the ECLPG.Based on Hayami and Ruttan’s induced technological invovation model,the paper made a theoretical analysis of the substitution of agricultural machinery for labor constrained by land quality(the slope of terrain),and the adoption of improved seed technology induced by substitution of chemical fertilizer for land constrained by land quality(the condition of irrigation and drainage).The procince-level data during 2005-2014 were used to make a empirical analysis and the results supportted the theoretical hypotheses.Further,the paper made an estimate of the impact of fators such as agricultural mechanization,chemical fertilizer,seed technology,etc on the ECLPG.The results show that agricultural mechanization had a negative impact on the grain yield and the ECLPG,and chemical fertilizer and seed technology had positive impact on the grain yield and the ECLPG.The contribution of seed technology to the ECLPG is the largest.To improve the efficiency of the estimation,the paper used the Fixed Effect Estimator,the Feasible Generalized Least Squares Estimator(FGLS)with Seemingly Unrelated Regression(SUR)and the Three Stage Least Square(3SLS)with Simultaneous Equation in sequence.In addition,we carried out a robustness test.And we empirically confirmed that the induced technological invovation model in agriculture should involve the resource condition,that is the land quality in this paper.Content 3:analysis of the interaction effect of land quality and factors of production on the ECLPG.The paper made a theoretical analysis of the interaction effect of land quality(the slope of terrain)and agricultural mechanization on the ECLPG,land quality(soil fertility)and chemical fertilizer on the ECLPG.The interaction effect of the former is positive,and that of the latter is negative.The data from the results of the ranking of cultivated land quality in 2013 and statistical yearbook in 2013 and 2014 in Henan province were used to make a empirical analysis,using the spatial econometrics method,that is the Generalized Spatial Tow-stage Least Square(GS2SLS)estimator for Cliff-Ord models.The results show that the impact of agricultural mechanization on the ECLPG increased with the decrease in slope of terrain,the impact of slope of terrain on the ECLPG increased with increase in agricultural mechanization input.The impact of chemical fert:ilizer on the ECLPG decreased with the impro’vement of soil fertility,the impact of soil fertility on the ECLPG decreased with increased chemical fertilizer.In addition,the immediate impact of land quality on the ECLPG was relatively low.The result was agreed with the Ordinary Least Squares and Random Effect estimators using the province-level data.Content 4:construction of the capacity for improving the ECLPG.Based on the results,aiming to the three problem:(i)the role of land quality to the ECLPG is to influence the factors of production input,(ii)the roles of traditional factors of production are relatively low,and(iii)the roles of new factor of production(such as seed technology)are more higher,the construction of the capacity for improving the ECLPG was built up.The construction covered routes and supporting measures.The routes of the construction is to improve the land quality by engineering to optimize the factors of production,and to innovate and transfer technology to overcome and conform to the constraint of land quality.Different regions implement different strategies for grain production and improving the ECLPG.The practical routes include six aspects:improving soil for reducing chemical fertility,levelling land for promoting mechanization,constructing water conservancy for irrigation and drainage,innovating seed technology for reacting fertility and facilitating mechanization,developing mechanical technique for overcoming the condition of different terrain,reforming production technology for increasing new factors of production.The supporting measures of the construction is the government-leading and multi-channel financing to boost the engineering construction,specific relationship between leading and participation to improve the quality and efficiency,objective and third party assessments to ensure the agriculture policy practicable.The paper’s conclusions are as follows:(1)The ECLPG is about 25%with an annual growth rate of 1.49%from 2005-2014 in China.The provinces with higher values of the ECLPG are in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.(2)The substitution of factors of production is constrained by land quality.The substitution of agricultural machinery for labor is induced by the increase in labor cost.Flat terrain will facilitate the machinery-labor substitution.The substitution of chemical fertilizer for land is induced by the increase in land cost.Convenient conditions of irrigation and drainage contribute to adopt improved seed technology induced by fertilizer-land substitution.(3)The impacts of factors of production on the ECLPG are constrained by land quality.The improvement of soil fertility reduces the contribution of chemical fertilizer to the ECLPG.Flat terrain increases the contribution of agricultural machinery to the ECLPG.(4)Compared to land quality,factors of production,especially seed technology and production technology have bigger impacts on the ECLPG.Land quality’ impact on the ECLPG is mainly realized by influencing the factors of production.The paper’s main policy implications are that the improvement of land quality to optimize the factors of production,and technology innovation and transfer to overcome and conform to the constraint of land quality.Different regions implement different strategies for grain production and improving the ECLPG.The contribution of the paper is to build a more perfect analytical framework of impact of land quality and factors of production on the ECLPG.The land quality is introduced to the induced technological invovation model,which enriches the induced innovation in agriculture.In addition,the evaluation of the ECLPG from the perspective of potential productivity of crops is conducive to knowing the land productive function.Our conclusions offer the reference for the adjustment of grain production and the implementation of grain reserves depending on land and science&technology.