The Impact Of Urban-rural Integration On The Development Of Planting Industry

In order to break the urban-rural dual pattern,China reformed the household registration system,lowered the physical and nonphysical barriers to the circulation of elements between urban and rural areas,and gradually improved the urban-rural integrated social security system,established the urban-rural planning system,which promoted the integration of urban and rural development in the past four decades.The urban-rural integration has an important impact on local planting industry development.The impact of urban-rural integration on local planting industry development is difficult to measure due to endogeneity.Turning county-level cities(counties)into districts is an administrative division reform aimed at promoting urban-rural integration.It can be regarded as an exogenous impact of urban-rural integration on county-scale planting industry.This article took the turning county-level city into district in Sanshui District and Shunde District,Foshan City,Guangdong Province in 2002 as a natural policy experiment,used synthetic control method to construct the synthetic control group with similar characteristics to the two regions,estimated the impact of urban-rural integration on the output value of local planting industry by comparing the difference of the output value of the planting industry between the two regions,and investigated the impact mechanisms.The research found that the urban-rural integration promoted by turning county-level cities into districts had only a short-term negative impact on the output value of the planting industry in Sanshui District,while in the long term,the output value did not lag behind the synthetic control group.However,the urban-rural integration caused the output value of Shande District to lag behind the synthetic control group in the long term.With regard to the impact mechanisms,the urban-rural integration was likely to impact the output value of local planting industry through 4 mechanisms,including the reduction of cultivated land area,the variation of agriculture-related expenditures,the transfer of agricultural labor force,and the adjustment of planting structure.This article also found the comparative advantage of local planting industry has moderation effect on the aforementioned mechanisms.For Shunde District whose planting industry without enough comparative advantage,the urban-rural integration was more likely to has negative effect on the output value of planting industry through the reduction of cultivated land area,the variation of agriculture-related expenditures,the transfer of agricultural labor force.On the contrast,for Sanshui District whose planting industry with enough comparative advantage,the urban-rural integration had less impact on the output value of planting industry.Based on the empirical research of Sanshui district and Shunde district,this article discussed the impact of urban-rural integration on the development of planting industry.According to the research findings,this article put forward the following suggestions.The governments at all levels should promote turning county-level cities(counties)into districts,monitor the impact of urban-rural integration promoted by turning county to city on the development of planting industry,and establish a platform for analyzing and predicting the impact of urban expansion on planting industry.The city governments should reasonably allocate land and financial funds to support the districts whose planting industries have comparative advantages;The county-level governments should support the development of local leading agricultural enterprises and agricultural industrial parks,and promote the large-scale and modern development of local planting industry.