Study On The Impact Of Farmland Operation Scale On Grain Harvesting Losses

Food security is an important basis for promoting economic development,but also to maintain national security.In recent years,China’s grain production to achieve the "nineteen consecutive bumper",for eight consecutive years stood steady 1.3 trillion jin step,in the construction of a large domestic cycle as the main body,domestic and international double cycle to promote each other in the process of the new development pattern played an important ballast role.However,with the increasingly upgraded consumption structure,China’s grain demand is rigid growth,structural contradictions are highlighted,and the pattern of tight balance is difficult to change in the short term.In this context,the serious problem of food loss has laid a deep threat to achieve the goal of food security.Some scholars have shown that China loses more than 12 million tons of grain each year,with a comprehensive waste rate of about 20.02%,of which grain harvesting losses are particularly serious.More importantly,China’s more traditional,self-sufficient agricultural economy has led to a "large country with small farmers" agricultural development situation,with less than 1.5 mu of arable land per capita.The land fragmentation constraint brings inconvenience to farmers’ management and mechanization development,limits land production efficiency,and aggravates the loss of grain harvesting.Therefore,it is important to investigate the impact and mechanism of farmland management scale on grain harvesting losses to promote moderate scale management and ensure food security.This paper adopts a multidimensional theoretical framework including food security theory,economy of scale theory and farmers’ economic behavior theory,and analyzes the relationship between farmland management scale and grain harvesting losses based on research data from 386 households in 6 counties in Hebei and Shandong provinces.First,descriptive statistical analysis was used to clearly characterize the basic characteristics of farmland management scale,harvesting behavior,household situation and grain harvesting losses of farmers in the main grain-producing regions,and to test the differences in the basic characteristics of farmers under different management scales.Second,the least squares method was used to empirically test the effect of farmland operation scale on grain harvesting losses,and the mediating effect of farmers’ harvesting behavior was tested by stepwise method.On this basis,robustness tests were conducted using replacement of explanatory variables and Bootstrap method.Again,the non-linear relationship between farmland operation scale and grain harvesting losses was tested empirically using a threshold effect model with farmland operation scale and household disposable income as threshold variables.Finally,Policy recommendations are proposed to promote the reduction of grain harvesting link losses through moderate-scale operations,based on the study’s findings.The findings of this paper are as follows: First,the loss of grain harvesting in China’s main grain-producing areas is still high,with an average loss rate of 2.250% and an average loss of 30.316 pounds per mu,which poses a serious threat to ensuring food security in China.Secondly,the losses in grain harvesting are significantly different among farmers of different operation scales,especially for small-scale farming families.Third,the scale of farmland operation is an important factor affecting grain harvesting losses,and it can indirectly affect grain harvesting losses by influencing harvesting methods and agricultural inputs and other farming behaviors.Fourth,there are significant threshold effects of operation scale and household disposable income on grain harvesting losses,and a nonlinear relationship between farmland operation scale and grain harvesting losses is observed as operation scale and household disposable income cross the first and second thresholds.Four policy recommendations are proposed based on the information provided:first,continue to promote rural land transfer for moderate scale operation;second,increase scientific and technological innovation to reduce grain harvesting losses;third,enhance farmers’ awareness of grain loss reduction;and fourth,strengthen farmers’ loss reduction skills in grain harvesting.