| Food security is an important part of national security and the ballast stone to maintain social stability.In recent years,China's grain production has been growing steadily,and the capacity of food security has been increasing.However,under the environment of tighter resource and environmental constraints and a rigid increase in food demand,food security risks still exist.Under the background of the supply-side structural reform of agriculture with structural adjustment and transfer mode,it is necessary to change the mode of increasing production at the expense of high input and high consumption and improve the efficiency of grain production technology and promoting the advancement of grain production frontiers by optimizing the allocation and use efficiency of input factors for food production.That is the inevitable choice of increasing efficiency and increasing green in grain production.Labor is the only active element with subjective initiative as the input factor of food production.The quantity and quality of labor will not only affect the effective supply of its own factors,but also affect the promotion effect of peripheral factors such as science and technology,knowledge management and market information on food production.Therefore,the impact of labor factors on food production is the most extensive.Under the combined effect of “urban pull” and “rural thrust”,China's rural labor force has the characteristics of preferential transfer of high human capital such as youthful,masculine and highly educated,along with this transfer feature,the rural power structure has become aging,feminine,and parttime.Exploring the impact of these changes on the efficiency of food production technology has important theoretical and practical significance for ensuring comprehensive grain production capacity,promoting structural reform of agricultural supply side,and realizing rural revitalization.The analysis of comparative advantage theory shows that in the process of nonagricultural transfer of rural labor force,young labor force has comparative advantage in labor supply compared with the aged labor force,male labor force and female labor force,secondary and tertiary labor force has comparative advantage in income compared with the first industry,and higher education labor force has comparative advantage in job selection compared with the lower education labor force.These comparative advantages have caused the young,masculine and highly educated labor to take the lead from the primary industry to the secondary and tertiary industries.It is an endogenous driving force for the structural changes of rural labor to be characterized by aging,feminization and concurrent employment.The theory of human capital shows that the aging and feminization of the rural labor force will lead to the weakening of labor quality,reduce the effective supply of labor factors,hinder the improvement of the efficiency of grain production technology,and have a negative impact on food production;On the other hand,the accumulation of experience of the aging workforce,the concentration of the female labor force on food production,the sensitivity of the part-time workforce to the production technology information,and the improvement of the educational level will have a positive impact on food production and will promote the accumulation of human capital and increase the effective supply of labor.Theoretical analysis shows that the change of rural labor force structure has both promoting and hindering influence on grain production,and the improvement of education level can improve the technical efficiency of grain production.However,the influence of aging,feminization and part-time employment on the technical efficiency of grain production depends on the result of mutual offset of positive and negative influences.The specific impact direction needs further empirical research with the help of measurement tools.This paper uses the stochastic frontier analysis method to construct a frontier beyond logarithmic production,and studies the impact of structural changes in China's rural labor force on the technical efficiency of grain production from 2003 to 2017.The conclusion of the study shows that the changes in the structure of rural labor in China have a significant impact on the technical efficiency of grain production.The positive effects of aging and feminization of the rural labor force on the efficiency of food production technology can offset the negative effects and promote the improvement of the efficiency of food production technology,but it has been weakened over time.The concurrent employment of labor has hindered the improvement of China's grain production technology efficiency.Education level is an effective promoter of the efficiency of food production technology,and again infrastructure,natural disasters will hinder the improvement of food production technology efficiency.The technical efficiency of grain production in the eastern region is higher than the central and western regions and the national average.Based on the above conclusions,the following policy implications are expressed for promoting China's food production,ensuring food security,and promoting the supplyside structural reform of agriculture.The first is to improve the social service and security system to stabilize the food production of the aging labor force and the female labor force.The second is to improve the supporting household registration system,accelerate the thoroughness of rural labor transfer,and reduce the impact of part-time employment on the efficiency of food production technology.The third is to increase investment in education and human capital,and to increase the technical efficiency of food production by increasing the accumulation of human capital in rural labor forces.The fourth is to improve the supporting facilities and services for food production to facilitate food production and further improve the technical efficiency of food production. |
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