IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i10p1678-d112621.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Farmland Rental and Productivity of Wheat and Maize: An Empirical Study in Gansu, China

Author

Listed:
  • Ying Liu

    (College of Pastoral Agricultural Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
    State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China)

  • Chenggang Wang

    (Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA)

  • Zeng Tang

    (College of Pastoral Agricultural Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
    State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China)

  • Zhibiao Nan

    (College of Pastoral Agricultural Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
    State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China)

Abstract

The rapid growth of farmland rental markets in China raises questions about the association of farmland rental and agricultural productivity. Although this issue has been extensively studied, the majority of studies have focused on yields and technical efficiency, with input use and cost efficiency receiving little attention. This study aimed to determine the statistical association of wheat and maize farmers’ farmland rental behaviors (renting land, not renting land and renting out land) and input use, and the consequent association of farmers’ farmland rental behaviors and cost efficiency. For this purpose, the linear regression model and stochastic frontier model were employed, based on a survey data of 419 wheat and maize farmers in 25 villages in five counties of Gansu Province, China. The study found that farmland rental enhanced productivity and sustainability of agriculture through transferring farmland from households with less productivity to those with high productivity, and it was also helpful to reducing the consumption of fertilizers and chemicals in agricultural production. The results suggest that replacing labor with machines is an important way to reduce production costs, and households specializing in agricultural production use more rational amounts of fertilizers and chemicals than those with low productivity. Thus, the machinery purchase policy in China should continue to give great benefit to farmers. In addition, the machinery purchase subsidization policy has achieved satisfactory results in China, and it could be a good reference for other developing countries. However, some efficiency loss was found in households that rented out their land, and policy makers need to pay some attention to these households.

Suggested Citation

  • Ying Liu & Chenggang Wang & Zeng Tang & Zhibiao Nan, 2017. "Farmland Rental and Productivity of Wheat and Maize: An Empirical Study in Gansu, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-18, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:10:p:1678-:d:112621
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/10/1678/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/10/1678/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yonghong Zuo & Ling Ma & Hailong Cai & Tianlong Wu & Xian Xin, 2015. "China’s on-going debates over large-scale farming: what are the pros and cons?," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(3), pages 338-343, September.
    2. Shenggen Fan, 1991. "Effects of Technological Change and Institutional Reform on Production Growth in Chinese Agriculture," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 73(2), pages 266-275.
    3. Yang Yao, 2000. "The Development of the Land Lease Market in Rural China," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 76(2), pages 252-266.
    4. Klaus Deininger & Songqing Jin, 2008. "Land Sales and Rental Markets in Transition: Evidence from Rural Vietnam," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 70(1), pages 67-101, February.
    5. Jin, Songqing & Deininger, Klaus, 2009. "Land rental markets in the process of rural structural transformation: Productivity and equity impacts from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(4), pages 629-646, December.
    6. Fusuo Zhang & Xinping Chen & Peter Vitousek, 2013. "An experiment for the world," Nature, Nature, vol. 497(7447), pages 33-35, May.
    7. Klaus Deininger, 2003. "Land Markets in Developing and Transition Economies: Impact of Liberalization and Implications for Future Reform," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 85(5), pages 1217-1222.
    8. David Tilman & Kenneth G. Cassman & Pamela A. Matson & Rosamond Naylor & Stephen Polasky, 2002. "Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices," Nature, Nature, vol. 418(6898), pages 671-677, August.
    9. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    10. Rada, Nicholas & Wang, Chenggang & Qin, Lijian, 2015. "Subsidy or market reform? Rethinking China’s farm consolidation strategy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 93-103.
    11. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Evenson, Robert E., 1994. "Efficiency in agricultural production: The case of peasant farmers in eastern Paraguay," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 27-37, January.
    12. Boris E. Bravo‐Ureta & Robert E. Evenson, 1994. "Efficiency in agricultural production: the case of peasant farmers in eastern Paraguay," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 10(1), pages 27-37, January.
    13. Wang, Xiaolong & Chen, Yuanquan & Sui, Peng & Yan, Peng & Yang, Xiaolei & Gao, Wangsheng, 2017. "Preliminary analysis on economic and environmental consequences of grain production on different farm sizes in North China Plain," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 181-189.
    14. Liangliang Gao & Jikun Huang & Scott Rozelle, 2012. "Rental markets for cultivated land and agricultural investments in China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 43(4), pages 391-403, July.
    15. Lohmar, Bryan & Zhang, Zhaoxin & Somwaru, Agapi, 2001. "Land Rental Market Development And Agricultural Production In China," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20683, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    16. Yi Che, 2016. "Off-farm employments and land rental behavior: evidence from rural China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(1), pages 37-54, February.
    17. Xianlei Ma & Nico Heerink & Ekko van Ierland & Marrit van den Berg & Xiaoping Shi, 2013. "Land tenure security and land investments in Northwest China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 5(2), pages 281-307, June.
    18. Xiaohuan Yan & XUEXI HUO, 2016. "Drivers of household entry and intensity in land rental market in rural China: evidence from North Henan Province," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 8(2), pages 345-364, May.
    19. Xianlei Ma & Nico Heerink & Ekko van Ierland & Marrit van den Berg & Xiaoping Shi, 2013. "Land tenure security and land investments in Northwest China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 5(2), pages 281-307, May.
    20. Jikun Huang & Liangliang Gao & Scott Rozelle, 2012. "The effect of off‐farm employment on the decisions of households to rent out and rent in cultivated land in China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 4(1), pages 5-17, January.
    21. Jianying Wang & Kevin Z. Chen & Sunipa Das Gupta & Zuhui Huang, 2015. "Is small still beautiful? A comparative study of rice farm size and productivity in China and India," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 7(3), pages 484-509, September.
    22. Feng, Shuyi & Heerink, Nico & Ruben, Ruerd & Qu, Futian, 2010. "Land rental market, off-farm employment and agricultural production in Southeast China: A plot-level case study," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 598-606, December.
    23. Lin, Justin Yifu, 1992. "Rural Reforms and Agricultural Growth in China," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 82(1), pages 34-51, March.
    24. Ito, Junichi & Bao, Zongshun & Ni, Jing, 2016. "Land rental development via institutional innovation in rural Jiangsu, China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-11.
    25. Kung, James Kai-sing, 2002. "Off-Farm Labor Markets and the Emergence of Land Rental Markets in Rural China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 395-414, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zemin Zhang & Changhe Lu, 2020. "Clustering Analysis of Soybean Production to Understand its Spatiotemporal Dynamics in the North China Plain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(15), pages 1-15, July.
    2. Jialing Yu & Jian Wu, 2018. "The Sustainability of Agricultural Development in China: The Agriculture–Environment Nexus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Siyan Zeng & Fengwu Zhu & Fu Chen & Man Yu & Shaoliang Zhang & Yongjun Yang, 2018. "Assessing the Impacts of Land Consolidation on Agricultural Technical Efficiency of Producers: A Survey from Jiangsu Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-17, July.
    4. Xusen Zhu & Chaofu Wei & Fengtai Zhang & Junyi Zhang & Yuedong Xiao & Xingyu Yang, 2022. "Influencing Factors of Farmers’ Land Circulation in Mountainous Chongqing in China Based on A Multi-Class Logistic Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-16, June.
    5. Ying Liu & Chenggang Wang & Zeng Tang & Zhibiao Nan, 2019. "Does Farmland Rental Contribute to Reduction of Agrochemical Use? A Case of Grain Production in Gansu Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-15, April.
    6. Zemin Zhang & Changhe Lu, 2019. "Spatio-Temporal Pattern Change of Winter Wheat Production and Its Implications in the North China Plain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-14, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ying Liu & Chenggang Wang & Zeng Tang & Zhibiao Nan, 2019. "Does Farmland Rental Contribute to Reduction of Agrochemical Use? A Case of Grain Production in Gansu Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-15, April.
    2. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Ma, Xianlei, 2023. "Mechanism of Chinese farmers’ land rental participation: The role of invisible markets and public intervention," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    3. Qiu, Tongwei & Boris Choy, S.T. & Li, Shangpu & He, Qinying & Luo, Biliang, 2020. "Does land renting-in reduce grain production? Evidence from rural China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Hirsch, Stefan, 2021. "Market-oriented agriculture and farm performance: Evidence from rural China," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    5. Zhang, Jian & Mishra, Ashok K. & Zhu, Peixin & Li, Xiaoshun, 2020. "Land rental market and agricultural labor productivity in rural China: A mediation analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    6. Jia, Lili, 2012. "Land fragmentation and off-farm labor supply in China," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 66, number 66.
    7. Kai Huang & Xin Deng & Yi Liu & Zhuolin Yong & Dingde Xu, 2020. "Does off-Farm Migration of Female Laborers Inhibit Land Transfer? Evidence from Sichuan Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, January.
    8. Wenjing Han & Zhengfeng Zhang & Xiaoling Zhang & Li He, 2021. "Farmland Rental Participation, Agricultural Productivity, and Household Income: Evidence from Rural China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, August.
    9. Han Zhang & Jari Kuuluvainen & Youliang Ning & Wenmei Liao & Can Liu, 2017. "Institutional Regime, Off-Farm Employment, and the Interaction Effect: What are the Determinants of Households’ Forestland Transfer in China?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-15, October.
    10. Hengzhou Xu & Yihang Zhao & Ronghui Tan & Hongchun Yin, 2017. "Does the Policy of Rural Land Rights Confirmation Promote the Transfer of Farmland in China?," Acta Oeconomica, Akadémiai Kiadó, Hungary, vol. 67(4), pages 643-672, December.
    11. Han Zhang & Jari Kuuluvainen & Hongqiang Yang & Yi Xie & Can Liu, 2017. "The Effect of Off-Farm Employment on Forestland Transfers in China: A Simultaneous-Equation Tobit Model Estimation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-14, September.
    12. Jianying Wang & Yumei Xu & Lilin Zou & Ying Wang, 2021. "Does Culture Affect Farmer Willingness to Transfer Rural Land? Evidence from Southern Fujian, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-19, June.
    13. Ma, Xianlei & Heerink, Nico & van Ierland, Ekko & Lang, Hairu & Shi, Xiaoping, 2020. "Decisions by Chinese households regarding renting in arable land—The impact of tenure security perceptions and trust," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    14. Zou, Baoling & Mishra, Ashok K. & Luo, Biliang, 2020. "Grain subsidy, off-farm labor supply and farmland leasing: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    15. Li, Xinyi & Ito, Junichi, 2021. "An empirical study of land rental development in rural Gansu, China: The role of agricultural cooperatives and transaction costs," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    16. Wang, Yahui & Li, Xiubin & Li, Wei & Tan, Minghong, 2018. "Land titling program and farmland rental market participation in China: Evidence from pilot provinces," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 281-290.
    17. Tian, Qing & Holland, John H. & Brown, Daniel G., 2016. "Social and economic impacts of subsidy policies on rural development in the Poyang Lake Region, China: Insights from an agent-based model," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 12-27.
    18. Khor, Ling Yee & Zeller, Manfred, 2012. "Doubts on input quality: The effect of inaccurate fertilizer content on the estimation of production functions and technical efficiency," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126212, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Che, Yi, 2009. "Mismatch: land reallocations, recovery land rental and land rental market development in rural China," MPRA Paper 39794, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Song, Donghui & Chen, Tong Zhang Po & Chen, Fengbo, 2021. "Heterogeneous Effects of Off-farm Employment on Production Choices of Rice Farmers in China," 2021 ASAE 10th International Conference (Virtual), January 11-13, Beijing, China 329415, Asian Society of Agricultural Economists (ASAE).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:10:p:1678-:d:112621. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.