| With the rapid advancement of China’s urbanization process,a large number of young and middle-aged rural labor flow to cities and non-agricultural industries,the aging and hollowing of rural population is increasingly prominent,resulting in the weak quality of agricultural labor force and structural shortage of agricultural production has brought great pressure.The weak labor force structure directly causes the loss of labor force in the agricultural production process,further has a profound impact on the agricultural production mode and agricultural output,and brings about the structural reform of factor input,which causes people’s concern about the utilization efficiency of agricultural chemical fertilizer.Based on this,the following two research questions are proposed in this paper: Does the transformation of labor weakness into the factor endowment of rural labor negatively affect the utilization efficiency of agricultural chemical fertilizer? If the development of agricultural mechanization adjusts the negative impact of the weak labor force on the utilization efficiency of chemical fertilizer and improves the input efficiency of chemical fertilizer,how does it play its role? What is the theoretical logic?Academics on weak rural labor force quality,the technical efficiency of agricultural production and food security in China,the agricultural output,planting structure,the influence of the factors and ecological efficiency of utilization of research is more,but the weak labor quality how to affect the fertilizer use efficiency of agricultural production,and related indirectly affect the path of the research is still relatively rare.In view of this,based on the panel data of major wheat provinces in China from 2004 to 2018,the stochastic frontier production function model was used to deduce the function of chemical fertilizer use efficiency,and the value of chemical fertilizer use efficiency of major wheat provinces was calculated and analyzed.Then,from the perspective of factor endowment changes,the mechanism of the impact of labor weakness on the utilization efficiency of chemical fertilizer in agricultural production was analyzed.On this basis,the fertilizer use efficiency and the factors affecting function relationship,the empirical study on the chemical fertilizer use efficiency of wheat production labor constitute,and estimate the substitution effect of mechanization on labor feminization and part-time employment,investigate the regulatory effect of mechanization on fertilizer utilization efficiency,in response to the doubt that academia and the government.The main conclusions are as follows:Firstly,the overall level of fertilizer use efficiency in wheat production is low.The national average fertilizer use efficiency is only 0.3393,and there is at least66.07% room for improvement under the current yield level.At the same time,the fertilizer efficiency is higher in huang-Huai-hai region and lower in southwest China.Kernel density estimation showed that the utilization efficiency of wheat fertilizer in eastern China was significantly higher than that in central and western China.The results of K-means clustering showed that Shanxi Province,Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,Shaanxi Province and Ningxia were typical provinces and regions with high input intensity but low utilization efficiency of chemical fertilizer,and it was necessary to accelerate the process of chemical fertilizer reduction and efficiency improvement in these regions.Secondly,the weakness of labor force has no effect on fertilizer utilization efficiency.The model estimation results show that aging has a significant negative impact on fertilizer input,but the influence coefficient of feminization and part-time occupation on fertilizer use efficiency is positive,and the influence coefficient of agricultural mechanization level on fertilizer input efficiency is also positive.On the whole,the weak quality of rural labor force has a positive impact,so it is not necessary to worry too much about the negative impact of aging,feminization and part-time occupation on agricultural fertilizer input,but should conform to this trend.Thirdly,the use of agricultural machinery may compensate for the lack of feminization of the workforce.The results of mechanism test show that the effect of labor weakness on fertilizer use efficiency is regulated by mechanization level.There is a significant interaction between mechanization and feminization,which indicates that mechanical input has a substitution effect on labor force.The estimated coefficient of part-time employment was significantly positive,and there was a negative interaction effect between mechanization and part-time employment,indicating that the improvement of fertilizer utilization efficiency by migrant workers was not due to mechanization regulation.Finally,rural education significantly improves fertilizer utilization efficiency.Improving the education level of the rural labor force can improve the utilization rate of wheat fertilizer,and the agricultural labor force with higher education is often more efficient in applying fertilizer.In addition,the samples from main wheat producing areas were divided into three regions,namely eastern,central and western regions,and the random effects panel Tobit regression was performed on the samples respectively.It was found that there was regional heterogeneity in the effects of labor weakness and other factors on the fertilizer use efficiency of wheat production.Based on the above conclusions,in order to better guarantee national food security,improve fertilizer utilization efficiency,and mitigate the possible negative effects of feminization and aging of agricultural labor force,the following policy recommendations are put forward in this paper: Firstly,implementing the fertilizer reduction and efficiency enhancement plan.We should continue to pay more attention to soil ecological protection and fertilizer reduction,and promote the use of environmentally friendly fertilizers.Secondly,strengthening agricultural machinery social services to remedy the negative impact of feminization and aging of labor force at present;Accelerate land transfer to expand scale operation and reduce the negative impact of sideline business on fertilizer utilization efficiency.Thirdly,improving rural education and agricultural technology.Continuously increase the input of educational resources in rural areas,carry out scientific fertilization related technical training,reduce farmers’ high intensity,low efficiency and unscientific fertilization.Fourthly,improving the level of agricultural/village mechanization.It is necessary to speed up the application of field management machinery(such as fertilizer deep application machine),improve the technical level of fertilizer application,and make up for the deficiency of traditional fertilization methods.Finally,researching and developing suitable agricultural machinery.Small or micro fertilization machines should be developed to meet the needs of female and aging labor forces. |
