IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v13y2024i3p284-d1345442.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How Does Land Fragmentation Affect Agricultural Technical Efficiency? Based on Mediation Effects Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Chunfang Zhou

    (School of Geography and Environmental Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550025, China)

  • Yuluan Zhao

    (School of Geography and Environmental Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550025, China)

  • Mingshun Long

    (School of Geography and Environmental Science, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang 550025, China)

  • Xiubin Li

    (Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China)

Abstract

The scientific revelation of the mechanism underlying land fragmentation’s influence on agricultural technical efficiency is extremely important. This study utilized survey data from 305 villages across 12 provinces in Southern China in 2020 to assess technical efficiency through the application of the stochastic frontier production function. Moreover, we investigated the direct impact of land fragmentation on technical efficiency and the indirect impact transmitted through crop diversification and part-time farming by employing Tobit and mediating effect models, respectively. The key findings are as follows: (1) The sampled farmers, on average, operated 0.614 hectares of land with 17.395 plots, and the mean of their technical efficiency was 0.630. (2) The overall effect of land fragmentation on technical efficiency demonstrated a “U”-shaped relationship. (3) Crop diversification and part-time farming were mediating factors in the impact of land fragmentation on technical efficiency. Specifically, an “inverted U”-shaped relationship existed between land fragmentation and crop diversification, whereas a negative linear relationship was observed between land fragmentation and part-time farming. Conversely, crop diversification presented a positive linear relationship with technical efficiency, and part-time farming had an “inverted U”-shaped relationship with technical efficiency. (4) The impact of land fragmentation on technical efficiency varied across altitude zones. It is recommended to control land fragmentation based on local conditions, encourage crop diversification, and strengthen employment guidance and skills training for farmers to ensure the orderly transfer of land.

Suggested Citation

  • Chunfang Zhou & Yuluan Zhao & Mingshun Long & Xiubin Li, 2024. "How Does Land Fragmentation Affect Agricultural Technical Efficiency? Based on Mediation Effects Analysis," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-19, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:3:p:284-:d:1345442
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/3/284/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/3/284/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lili Jia & Martin Petrick, 2014. "How does land fragmentation affect off-farm labor supply: panel data evidence from China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(3), pages 369-380, May.
    2. Ciaian, Pavel & Rajcaniova, Miroslava & Guri, Fatmir & Zhllima, Edvin & Shahu, Edmira, 2018. "The impact of crop rotation and land fragmentation on farm productivity in Albania," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 120(3), December.
    3. Looga, J. & Jürgenson, E. & Sikk, K. & Matveev, E. & Maasikamäe, S., 2018. "Land fragmentation and other determinants of agricultural farm productivity: The case of Estonia," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 285-292.
    4. Chaozheng Zhang & Danling Chen, 2021. "Fragmentation Reduction through Farmer-Led Land Transfer and Consolidation? Experiences of Rice Farmers in Wuhan Metropolitan Area, China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-14, July.
    5. Wang, Yahui & Li, Xiubin & Lu, Dan & Yan, Jianzhong, 2020. "Evaluating the impact of land fragmentation on the cost of agricultural operation in the southwest mountainous areas of China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    6. Hong, Yu & Heerink, Nico & Zhao, Minjuan & van der Werf, Wopke, 2019. "Intercropping contributes to a higher technical efficiency in smallholder farming: Evidence from a case study in Gaotai County, China," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 317-324.
    7. Sherlund, Shane M. & Barrett, Christopher B. & Adesina, Akinwumi A., 2002. "Smallholder technical efficiency controlling for environmental production conditions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 85-101, October.
    8. Heider, Katharina & Rodriguez Lopez, Juan Miguel & García Avilés, José María & Balbo, Andrea L., 2018. "Land fragmentation index for drip-irrigated field systems in the Mediterranean: A case study from Ricote (Murcia, SE Spain)," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 48-56.
    9. Tan, Shuhao & Heerink, Nico & Kruseman, Gideon & Qu, Futian, 2008. "Do fragmented landholdings have higher production costs? Evidence from rice farmers in Northeastern Jiangxi province, P.R. China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 347-358, September.
    10. Nguyen, Huy Quynh, 2017. "Analyzing the economies of crop diversification in rural Vietnam using an input distance function," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 148-156.
    11. Wang, Xiaobing & Yamauchi, Futoshi & Huang, Jikun & Rozelle, Scott, 2020. "What constrains mechanization in Chinese agriculture? Role of farm size and fragmentation," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    12. Lu, Hua & Xie, Hualin & He, Yafen & Wu, Zhilong & Zhang, Xinmin, 2018. "Assessing the impacts of land fragmentation and plot size on yields and costs: A translog production model and cost function approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 81-88.
    13. Mehrabi, Zia & Delzeit, Ruth & Ignaciuk, Adriana & Levers, Christian & Braich, Ginni & Bajaj, Kushank & Amo-Aidoo, Araba & Anderson, Weston & Balgah, Roland A. & Benton, Tim G. & Chari, Martin M. & El, 2022. "Research priorities for global food security under extreme events," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 5(7), pages 756-766.
    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. Duangbootsee, Uchook, 2024. "Mitigating Farmland Fragmentation through Land Rental Markets: Evidence from Rural Households in Northeast and Central Thailand," Asian Journal of Applied Economics, Kasetsart University, Center for Applied Economics Research, vol. 31(2), December.

    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. Shukun Wang & Dengwang Li & Tingting Li & Changquan Liu, 2021. "Land Use Transitions and Farm Performance in China: A Perspective of Land Fragmentation," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-22, July.
    2. Xianhui Hu & Xiaxia Lin & Gaohui Wen & Yi Zhou & Hao Zhou & Siqi Lin & Dongyang Yue, 2024. "The Impact of Cultivated Land Fragmentation on Farmers’ Ecological Efficiency of Cultivated Land Use Based on the Moderating and Mediating Effects of the Cultivated Land Management Scale," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Yishao Shi & Qianqian Yang & Liangliang Zhou & Shouzheng Shi, 2022. "Can Moderate Agricultural Scale Operations Be Developed against the Background of Plot Fragmentation and Land Dispersion? Evidence from the Suburbs of Shanghai," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-22, July.
    4. Gatterer, Markus & Leonhardt, Heidi & Salhofer, Klaus & Morawetz, Ulrich, 2024. "The legacy of partible inheritance on farmland fragmentation: Evidence from Austria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    5. Huy Quynh Nguyen & Peter Warr, 2018. "Land consolidation as technical change: impacts on-farm and off-farm in rural Vietnam," Departmental Working Papers 2018-25, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.
    6. Janus, Jarosław & Ertunç, Ela, 2021. "Differences in the effectiveness of land consolidation projects in various countries and their causes: Examples of Poland and Turkey," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    7. Meng Wang & Qingchen Xu & Zemeng Fan & Xiaofang Sun, 2021. "The Imprint of Built-Up Land Expansion on Cropland Distribution and Productivity in Shandong Province," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-12, June.
    8. Pierre Damien Ntihinyurwa & Walter Timo de Vries, 2021. "Farmland Fragmentation, Farmland Consolidation and Food Security: Relationships, Research Lapses and Future Perspectives," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-39, January.
    9. Nguyen-Anh, Tuan & Hoang-Duc, Chinh & Tiet, Tuyen & Nguyen-Van, Phu & To-The, Nguyen, 2022. "Composite effects of human, natural and social capitals on sustainable food-crop farming in Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    10. Daniel Ayalew Ali & Klaus Deininger & Loraine Ronchi, 2019. "Costs and Benefits of Land Fragmentation: Evidence from Rwanda," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 33(3), pages 750-771.
    11. Jinna Yu & Yiming Wei & Wei Fang & Zhen Liu & Yujie Zhang & Jing Lan, 2021. "New Round of Collective Forest Rights Reform, Forestland Transfer and Household Production Efficiency," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, September.
    12. Heinrichs, J. & Kuhn, T. & Pahmeyer, C. & Britz, W., 2021. "Economic effects of plot sizes and farm-plot distances in organic and conventional farming systems: A farm-level analysis for Germany," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    13. Dongjie Wang & Hao Yang & Yueming Hu & A-Xing Zhu & Xiaoyun Mao, 2022. "Analyzing Spatio-Temporal Characteristics of Cultivated Land Fragmentation and Their Influencing Factors in a Rapidly Developing Region: A Case Study in Guangdong Province, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    14. Zhang, Mingxue & Li, Dongqing, 2025. "Grassland Property Rights and the Size-Productivity Relationship: Evidence from Pastoral China," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 0(Preprint), July.
    15. Hongyun Zheng & Wanglin Ma, 2021. "The role of resource reallocation in promoting total factor productivity growth: Insights from China’s agricultural sector," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(4), pages 2350-2371, November.
    16. Janus, Jaroslaw & Markuszewska, Iwona, 2019. "Forty years later: Assessment of the long-lasting effectiveness of land consolidation projects," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 22-31.
    17. Nguyen, Huy Quynh & Warr, Peter, 2020. "Land consolidation as technical change: Economic impacts in rural Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    18. Nanyan Hu & Yonghao Hu & Yi Luo & Laping Wu, 2024. "The Effect of High-Standard Farmland Construction Policy on Grain Harvest Losses in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, July.
    19. Zang, Liangzhen & Araral, Eduardo & Wang, Yahua, 2019. "Effects of land fragmentation on the governance of the commons: Theory and evidence from 284 villages and 17 provinces in China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 518-527.
    20. Xu, Weiyi & Jin, Xiaobin & Liu, Jing & Zhou, Yinkang, 2021. "Analysis of influencing factors of cultivated land fragmentation based on hierarchical linear model: A case study of Jiangsu Province, China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:3:p:284-:d:1345442. 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.