Study On The Economic Benefits Of Cultivated Land Output And Its Influencing Factors

The household contract responsibility system made agriculture get out of the difficult situations from the "egalitarian" and "collectivism", which greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of massive farmers for production and achieved the goal that China's grain production had a substantial increase for many years. However, while the reform of socialist market economy system is deepening constantly, the agricultural production system which had made outstanding contributions in sovling the principal problem of the society show many flaws gradually. The increase of income of the rural household became slower and slower since 1997, with the social problem of Widenning the gap between urban and rural areas more seriously.The issue of agriculture, rural areas and farmers are not only attracted greatly at all levels of government, but also studied by academic highly effectively. Most of the studies for this issue were taking in the view of agricultural investment. Firstly, there is a consensus that land quality had a positive influence on output efficiency, but peolple's views differ when facing the problem how the quantity of land influence the efficiency. In the present land allotment system of China, few scholars believe that the more the land is, the more the plots are, with the management of agricultural production become harder and harder, so that the output efficiency of farmland come to be lower and lower. Secondly, most studies agreed with the point that large-scale farmland had a positive impact on improving the farmers' income. But some scholars have questioned on it.They argued that, large-scale of farmland will not necessarily increase the output, the conditions of operating the large-scale farmland are not yet ripe now. What is more, most scholars argued that the current capital made a positive contribution to agricultural production, but there are different views on the performance of fixed capital. In addition, the impact of labor quantity and quality on output efficiency is still controversial, while most scholars believe that a phenomenon of labor surplus has occurred in agriculture at present.This paper studies the agricultural factors which have effect the output efficiency of land in the view of rural household investment. After analyzing the economic relationship between the output per unit area and the price of agricultural products, planting scale, average block size, labor force, average school-age, fixed capital investment and current capital investment, it establishes the agricultural product function of different areas and different types of crop.After the study on the indicators in different regions and different types of crops, the paper finally reached the following conclusions:(1) The economic benefits of grain crops differ between different areas. The high rate of cost-profit of grain crops in Jianghan Plain indicates the better economic benefit. As the substitution of machinery, labor showed a high productivity in Jianghan Plain. The much input on manure and suffered less from illness and pest of agriculture brings the hilly region with higher ratio of output value to current capital.(2) The economic benefits of cash crops differ between different areas too. In the production of cash crops, not only the ratio of output value to labor and capital in hilly regions is higher than plain region, but the output of cash crops per unit area in hilly region is also higher than Jianghan Plain. Without considering the cost of labor force, there is a positive rate of cost-profit in the production of cash crops both in the hilly region and Jianghan Plain, however, if we take the cost of labor power under consideration, the rate of cost-profit of cash crops in two areas change into negative.(3) Factors influencing the economic benefits of grain crops are different in different regions. The sown area of crops, the average block size, the labor force and current capital input, has a notable impact on economic benefit of grain crops in both hilly region and Jianghan Plain. The fixed capital input and the subsidy policy of grain production has a notable impact on economic benefit of grain crops in Jianghan Plain, for the hilly region, it has no influence.(4) Factors influencing the economic benefits of grain crops in different degree. In Jianghan Plain, the output elasticity of land is 0.768, which is the highest one; Secondly, the output elasticity of labor power is-0.220; the output elasticity of current capital is 0.105, which is next to labor power; the fixed capital, the average block size and the subsidy policy of grain production have low elasticity of output, the elasticity of them are 0.068,0.011 and 0.000, respectively. In Dabie Mountain, the output elasticity of current capital is 1.032, which is the highest one; Secondly, the output elasticity of the labor force is 0.053; the output elasticity of land is-0.052, which is next to labor force; the average block size have low elasticity of output, its elasticity is-0.022.(5) Factors influencing the economic benefits of cash crops are different in different regions. The sown area of cash crops per household, the labor force and current capital has a notable impact on economic benefit of cash crops in both hilly region and Jianghan Plain. The average age of agricultural labor force and fixed capital has a notable impact on economic benefit of cash crops in Jianghan Plain, for the hilly region, it has no influence.(6) Factors influencing the economic benefits of cash crops in different degree. In Jianghan Plain, the output elasticity of labor force is 1.306, which is the highest one; Secondly, the output elasticity of the sown area -0.463; the output elasticity of current capital is 0.265, which is next to the sown area; the fixed capital and the mean age of agricultural labor force have low output elasticity, the elasticity of them are 0.027 and-0.009, respectively. In northeast hilly region of Hubei, the output elasticity of current capital is 0.905, which is the highest one; Secondly, the output elasticity of labor force is 0.752; the output elasticity of sown area of cash crops is -0.565, which is next to the labor force.In the end, the writer proposed some meaningful policy suggestions according to the research conclusions of this paper.