Study On Seedling Selection Behavior And Its Impact On Income Of Strwberry Farmers In Jiangsu Province

No.1 central document of 2021 stresses that the modernization of agriculture should be accelerated by improving the ability to guarantee the supply of grain and other important agricultural products,and fighting a good turnaround in the seed industry.However,as the rural micro-subject,farmers usually face many difficulties,such as limited scale of operation,blocked information channels,high transaction costs,etc..The outsourcing of agricultural production reflects the connotation of the division of labor in today’s society,and is conducive to solving the problems of low level of specialization and labor shortage in agricultural production,as well as improving the welfare level of farmers.Consequently,outsourcing may be able to alleviate or resolve the contradiction between “Small farmers”and “Big market”.So,what choices do strawberry growers have in the seedling process?What factors affect farmers’ self-breeding or outsourcing of seedlings? Does the outsourcing of seedlings really play a role in increasing farmers’ income?Based on the theory of transaction cost,this paper takes the strawberry production in Jiangsu province as an example to analyze the decision-making behavior of seedling selection.Firstly,the current situation of strawberry production in Jiangsu province is analyzed from the macro and micro perspectives,and the current situation of strawberry seedling utilization in Jiangsu province introduced from the aspects of seedling input,seedling source and seedling survival rate according to the survey data.Secondly,the influence factors of farmers’ seedling selection are analyzed by Logit,Probit and OLS models,and then the incomeincreasing effect of the seedling selection is analyzed by endogenous conversion model and instrumental variable method.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:(1)In the 2020 survey sample,farmers purchasing seedlings accounted for 39.60%,an increase from 39.11% in the previous year.However,in general,relative to transplanting and planting,blossom and fruit thinning and other process,the proportion of seedling outsourcing is still not high,the promotion space is relatively large.(2)For strawberry growers’,seeding selection is the result of many factors.After controlling for the personal and family characteristics of the head of the household,nonagricultural farmers are more likely to purchase seedlings.The market distance reduces the uncertainty of seedlings’ quality and increases the willingness of farmers to purchase seedlings as well.At present,large-scale farmers are more inclined to breed their own seedlings.This may be due to the fact that strawberry planting has not reached the threshold of large-scale management.(3)Strawberry growers’ seedling selection decisions have an impact on farmers’ family income.On the whole,the purchase of seedlings reduces the income of farmers by 4.17%,but it does not mean that the purchase of seedlings will reduce the income of farmers.After grouping by business scale,it is found that the outsourcing of seedlings has heterogeneity in increasing the income of farmers.It has an inhibitory effect in small and medium-scale farmers,while the effect of increasing income on large-scale farmers reaches 0.4838.Finally,on the basis of the research conclusions,the following suggestions are put forward for farmers and relevant government departments:(1)For farmers,they should actively participate in technical training,improve their ability to identify or cultivate high-quality seeds and seedlings,expand the scale of operation if possible to form economies of scale,appropriately increase their social experience,broaden their social network,and increase their channels of acquiring information;(2)As for the government,it is necessary to strengthen the construction of relevant laws and regulations and quality supervision of the seedling market,standardize the varieties and prices,and improve the supervision system of the seedling market;the social service system of seedling industry should be perfected by providing training,subsidies and information services,and the function of government service should be fulfilled effectively.What’s more,experienced and well-funded strawberry growers should be encouraged to contract for scattered strawberry planting,so as to realize scale operation and increase overall income.