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• Food traceability system exerts a significant inhibitory effect on the overuse of antibiotics by farmers; • Inhibitory effects of food traceability system on over-the-counter and broad-spectrum antibiotics are more significant than those on prescription and narrow-spectrum antibiotics. • Inhibition effect of food traceability system on the overuse of antibiotics by different scale farmers exhibits an approximately inverse-U curvilinear relationship. • Intervention mechanism of the FTS on the overuse of antibiotics by farmers mainly consists of social reputation maintenance, liability traceability for antibiotic residues, and biosafety enhancement. The use of animal antibiotics is a double-edged sword. It can be used for disease treatment, health protection, and growth promoters. It also creates antibiotic residues and resistance, poses risks, and damages food safety, ecosystems, and public health. Under the pressure of disease risk and expected losses, farmers' overuse of animal antibiotics exacerbates this dual objective incompatibility. In this study, we employ the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model and the mediating effect method to empirically analyze the inhibitory effect and intervention mechanism of the food traceability system (FTS) on reducing farmers' overuse of antibiotics by using the survey data of hog farmers from China. This paper measures the "dose" unit of antibiotics farmers use regarding cost and the active ingredients of antibiotics per kilogram of treated infected hogs. The study finds evidence that the FTS exerts a significant inhibitory effect on the overuse of antibiotics by farmers. The counterfactual hypothesis unveils that non-participation in the FTS by the involved farmers will increase the cost of antibiotics overuse by 0.080 yuan/kg, while if the farmers currently not participating are to engage with the FTS, the price will decrease by 0.126 yuan/kg. This effect persists across control variables controlled in turn and the unit doses of active ingredients of tetracycline, sulfonamides, β -lactam, chloramphenicol, and macrolide antibiotics. Moreover, our results reveal that the inhibitory effects of the FTS on over-the-counter and broad-spectrum antibiotics are more significant than on prescription and narrow-spectrum antibiotics. The results show that the inhibition effect of the FTS on the overuse of antibiotics by free-range, professional, and large-scale farmers exhibits an approximately inverse-U curvilinear relationship. Besides, the intervention mechanism of the FTS on the overuse of antibiotics by farmers mainly consists of social reputation maintenance, liability traceability for antibiotic residues, and biosafety enhancement, and the proportion of their mediating effects in the total impact are 24.22%, 21.84%, and 10.87%, respectively. Our empirical study has yielded several implications, such as strengthening the FTS construction, improving farmers' antibiotic use skills, promoting standardized breeding levels, and increasing the market premium for food products that adhere to antibiotic residue standards. These outcomes not only contribute to the improvement of livestock production safety but also reduce the problem of antibiotic overuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an understanding of the widely-documented retirement-consumption puzzle from the perspective of food consumption. Exploiting the mandatory retirement age cut-off for public-sector male employees in urban China to obtain a source of exogenous variation in their retirement status, this paper identifies the causal impacts of retirement on four major aspects of their food consumption: food expenditure, time spent in food acquisition, the quantity and quality of food consumed. Based on data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey, our fuzzy regression-discontinuity analysis finds that, consistent with the retirement-consumption puzzle, retirement reduces elderly males’ total food expenditure by 49–55%. However, retirement barely changes the quantity of food they consume (measured by total calorie intakes). Further analysis suggests that elderly males substitute time for money in food acquisition upon retirement, which helps to reconcile the differential impacts of retirement on food expenditure and food consumption. Finally, retirement greatly changes elderly males’ diet structure. They consume significantly less food with animal origins (and thus less fat and protein) and more grains (and thus more carbohydrate) upon retirement, which undermines their diet balance by the standards provided by the Chinese Nutrition Association. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Reducing factor misallocation can increase agricultural productivity and farmer income. • A theoretical framework shows how farmland leasing affects aggregated TFP. • Efficient factor reallocation could theoretically result in a 23.6% increase in TFP. • An 1% increase in farmland leasing leads to a 1.087% gain in aggregate TFP. • An 1% increase in farmland leasing results in a 0.267% reduction in misallocation. Reducing factor misallocation is crucial for enhancing agricultural aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas in China. This paper presents a theoretical framework illustrating how farmland leasing affects aggregated TFP via the reduction of misallocation. Utilizing a comprehensive dataset of cost and benefit survey for Jiangsu rice farmers, monthly surface climatological data, and soil characteristic information from FAO, this study finds that efficient factor reallocation could theoretically result in a 23.6% increase in aggregate TFP. In practice, a 1% increase in farmland leasing leads to a 1.087% gain in aggregate TFP and a 0.267% reduction in misallocation using IV regression. These effects become larger after the Three Rights Separation (TRS) reform compared to prior conditions. The mediation effects of farmland leasing on TFP through misallocation reduction are only observed in Southern Jiangsu, possibly due to farmland concentration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In company with rapid economic growth, Chinese consumers have seen a remarkable nutrition improvement and a dramatic dietary change. This article investigates the driving forces behind these changes with use of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data. This paper first proposes 10 different indices to measure nutrition improvement and dietary change from different perspectives, and then adopts semiparametric panel data models to capture the complicated nonlinear relationship between these nutrition indices and income growth, while controlling for other variables parametrically. This enables us to directly predict the nutrition improvement and dietary change at different income levels from different aspects. This paper particularly finds that nutrition improvement and dietary change will continue in China but will slow down in the future with further income growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This paper finds a significant increase in agri-food firms' exports with the adoption of ISO 9001 quality certification. • We find that ISO 9001 quality certification promotes firms' exports by improving their innovation activities. • The positive effects are more significant for food (vs. non-food) manufacturing firms, non-SOEs (vs. SOEs) firms. • This study provides evidence and important implications for China's food and agricultural development strategy, which emphasises the transition from quantity expansion to quality enhancement. The adoption of ISO 9001 quality certification for agri-food products may promote China's relatively weak competitiveness in agri-food exports compared with industrial sectors. To explore this, we construct a panel data set of Chinese listed firms in agri-food sectors from 2000 to 2016 and use staggered Difference-in-Difference (DID) method to investigate the causal relationship between the adoption of ISO 9001 quality certification and agri-food exports. Three main findings are obtained in this study. First, we find that the adoption of ISO 9001 certification is positively associated with exports for agri-food listed firms. Second, we find that ISO 9001 certification promotes firms' exports by increasing their innovation activities. Third, the export effects are greater for food (vs. non-food) manufacturing firms and non-SOEs (vs. SOEs). Identification problems are addressed by utilizing randomly generated certification status, two-part fractional regression model, controlling and excluding other quality certifications, etc. This study provides important implications for China's food and agricultural development strategy, which emphasises the transition from quantity expansion to quality enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: During the summer of 2008 China’s biggest food crisis struck when it was discovered that milk suppliers were adding melamine, a colorless crystalline compound, to artificially boost the protein readings of their milk. While there was a lot of attention on the criminal investigations and post scandal industrial shake up, less is known about the impact of the Milk Scandal and policy response on the dairy farmer. The main objectives of this study are to describe the policies that were implemented by the government in response to the Milk Scandal and analyze the effect of the policies on dairy producers. To meet the objectives of the study, the paper uses a primary data set collected by the authors in 25 dairy producing villages, including 231 households, in the Greater Beijing area. The data set documents the policies that were implemented by the government as well as the response of the dairy farmers—both their participation in the dairy sector (stay in or drop out) and their herd size. Using descriptive and multivariate analyses on the changes in dairy production in the sample villages, the paper finds that, although dairy participation fell and herd sizes were reduced after the Milk Scandal, government policies did matter. Specifically, Marketing Management Policies were shown to have limited the fall in both participation and herd size. Production Management Policies had less of an effect in keeping dairy producers participating in the production of milk. The implementation of Crisis Income Management was correlated with a stronger decline in participation and herd size. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Following reforms to the market, China’s hog industry has developed rapidly, however, with social and economic transitions, China’s hog industry is facing challenges which might restrict long-term growth in production. This paper analyzes the changes in regional scale, organization, input factors, and technological progress for China’s hog production over the last few decades. The paper seeks to reveal the sources of hog production growth and provide some suggestions for future development of the hog industry. To achieve these aims, the paper uses stochastic frontier production functions and the Malmquist index to measure total factor productivity (TFP) in the hog industry and decompose TFP into technical efficiency; technological progress; scale efficiency; and allocative efficiency using data for 25 provinces from 1980 to 2008. The results show firstly that; the TFP of hog production increased by 64.3% from 1980 to 2008, and allocative efficiency and scale efficiency improvements played a key role in this TFP growth. In contrast, technical efficiency and technical progress have changed little over this period. Secondly, TFP’s contribution to output was 39.7%, it being less than that of factor inputs to output. Thirdly, the results suggest that the growth of China’s pork production depends mostly on the increase in the quantity of factor inputs, especially feed. As a consequence, the key to ensuring long-term and stable development of China’s hog production would seem to involve focusing on enhancing total factor productivity and changing the pattern of production growth. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The overall goal of our paper is to understand the impact that irrigation in China has had on grain production and incomes, in general, and income and poverty alleviation in poor areas, in particular. The paper seeks to meet three objectives. First, we describe the relationship among irrigation status, yields and household crop revenue. Second, we seek to understand the magnitude and nature of the effect that irrigation has on yields and crop revenue. Finally, we seek to understand the impact that irrigation has on incomes in poor areas. Our analysis shows that irrigation contributes to increases in yields for almost all crops and in income for farmers in all areas. The importance of crop income in poor areas and the strong relationship between crop revenue and irrigation provides evidence of the importance of irrigation in past and future poverty alleviation in China. We also show that in the majority of the villages that invested in new irrigation, returns are positive even after accounting for increases in capital and production costs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Food safety concerns have escalated in China as they have elsewhere, especially in relation to meats. Beef production and consumption has increased proportionately faster than all other meats over the last two decades. Yet the slaughtering, processing and marketing of beef remains, for the most part, extremely primitive when compared with Western beef supply chains. By comparing the economics of household slaughtering with that of various types of abattoirs, this paper explains why household slaughtering and wet markets still dominate beef processing and distribution in China. The negative economic, social and industry development implications of enforcing more stringent food safety regulations are highlighted. The willingness/capacity of consumers to pay the added cost of better inspection and other services to guarantee food safety is investigated. In this context, the paper also evaluates the market opportunities for both domestic and imported “Green Beef”. The paper questions the merit of policy initiatives aimed at modernising Chinese beef supply chains for the mass market along Western lines. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• The land rental price had increased significantly until the middle 2010s and then started to fall thereafter in China. • Eliminating agricultural tax based on cultivated land and implementing price support policy through government procurement program have significantly raised land rental price, but the effect of agricultural subsidy to contract holder/owner on land rental price is insignificant. • The impacts of agricultural subsidy and price support policies on land rental price in China differ from the previous findings in developed countries. • This study provides strong empirical evidence that the recipient of subsidy (owner or operator/tenant) matters. Agricultural incentive policies affects not only agricultural production, but also land rental price. This paper extends the theoretical framework of the effect of agricultural incentive policies on land rental prices by simultaneously considering agricultural tax, agricultural subsidy and output price support policies and methods to implement these policies. The empirical analyses are based on a unique dataset from several rounds of representative rural household surveys that recorded the land rental prices of 7122 plots in 276 villages across 11 provinces during 1999–2018 in China. The survey results show that land rental price had increased significantly until the middle 2010s and then started to fall thereafter. Eliminating agricultural tax based on cultivated land and implementing price support policy through government procurement program have significantly raised land rental price, but the effect of agricultural subsidy to contract holder/owner on land rental price is insignificant. While the econometric results are consistent with the theoretical expectations, this study provides strong empirical evidence that the recipient of subsidy (owner or operator/tenant) matters, and finds the impacts of agricultural subsidy and output price support policies on land rental price in China differ significantly from the previous findings in developed countries due to different ways to implement subsidy and price support policies. The paper concludes with policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is both theoretically and socially imperative to understand what drives citizens’ concerns over food safety, as outbreaks of food related health hazards have become increasingly rampant in developing countries like China. In this paper we combine recent national survey data and media reports to quantitatively examine the effects of food scandals and media exposure on food safety risk. We find that media reported food scandals are not significantly related to public concern about food safety risk, suggesting that food risk perceptions may be nationwide rather than region specific. We also find out that more educated citizens with more media exposure are more concerned about food safety risk, and the amplification effect of food scandals is more prominent among residents with higher levels of education. In contrast to our expectation, family income is not significantly related to food safety concern. We also find that females, the elderly, and urban dwellers perceive higher levels of food risk than males, youngsters, and rural residents. The government should pay more attention to public perceptions of food safety, and strengthen its risk communication capacity to mitigate media amplification effects of food safety concern. The regulatory authorities can work with other entities (e.g., food industry and NGOs) to advance food safety education to equip the public with essential knowledge to mitigate the framing and spillover effects of food scandals and rumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of cooperative membership on farm performance indicators such as apple yields, net returns and household income, using cross-sectional data from a survey of farmers in China. An endogenous switching regression model that accounts for selection bias is employed in the analysis. The empirical results reveal that cooperative membership exerts a positive and statistically significant impact on apple yields, farm net returns and household income. A disaggregated analysis also reveals that small-scale farms tend to benefit more from cooperatives than medium and large farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing concerns with the application of highly toxic pesticides and the growing world demands for food direct our attentions to the food safety as well as to the global arrangement of food production. In China, expansion of its vegetable exports brought the attention of policy planners to the international food safety regulations. This paper reported the findings from the investigation about a relationship between trades of food and food safety, by focusing on the relationship between Chinese vegetable exports and the maximum residue limits of pesticides (MRLs) regulation set by the importing countries and exporting country. The revealed trade’s behavior showed that impacts of MRLs should be seen through two types of information, one was the extent of coverage of regulation measured by the number of pesticides placed under the control, and the other was the regulated residue levels. Probably because the achieved vegetable production growth was supported by the extensive use of many kinds of pesticides, the expanding of the number of regulated pesticides in importing markets, was more likely to act as a barrier to China’s vegetable exports compared to the effect of stringency increase of MRLs level. Importing countries’ GDP reflecting the market potential showed significantly positive effects on Chinese vegetable exports, while the effects of vegetable production and tariff rate on exports were weakened after years of improvement of productivity and worldwide policy environment. Our results verified the export promoting effect of stringent regulations in exporting country on its trade. These findings strongly suggested that Chinese authorities need to move fast to catch-up to the growing concerns of international importers both from relevant policy planning and implementing, to capture economic growth in the medium-long term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The study is based on sales data from 164,000 agricultural products e-commerce stores of two major Chinese e-commerce platforms in 120 cities. • The difference-in-difference (DID) results show that the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significant growth of online sale of agricultural products. • The micro e-stores experienced the largest growth in online sale than larger scale e-stores. • Fresh agricultural products with high repurchase frequency and high degree of perishability experienced a larger growth in online sale. • We also find a significant drop in the number of new e-stores, and a sharp rise in the number of e-stores closed. • The increase in the quantity of customer orders and quantity of the customer unit order are the main drivers for the growth of online sales of agricultural products. We investigated the operation of e-stores specializing in food and agricultural products before and after the occurrence of COVID-19. A difference-in-difference (DID) method was employed to estimate the relationship between COVID-19 and the online sales of agricultural products using data from 164,002 food and agricultural product e-commerce stores (in short, e-stores) of two major Chinese e-commerce platforms in 120 prefectural-level or above cities. The results demonstrated that while COVID-19 and its control measures were associated with a substantial growth in the monthly sales of food and agricultural product e-stores, the growth varies considerably across store scales and with the type of food and agricultural product in which an e-store is specialized. Micro stores experienced much larger growth and played a more important role in maintaining the resilience of the supply chain of food and agricultural products than larger-scale stores; stores selling more essential food items experienced larger growth than those selling leisure food items. A mechanism analysis further revealed that the growth of online sales of agricultural products was mainly driven by changes in consumers' food purchase behaviors from offline channels to online channels (i.e., an increase in the number of online customer orders and price per online order) starting with the onset of COVID-19. The results of this paper underscore the importance of e-commerce in maintaining the resilience of the agri-food supply chain and call for public support of the development of micro- and small-scale e-stores to meet consumers' increasing demand for food supply from those types of stores during the pandemic period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Small and relatively equal farm sizes are prevalent in the studied area. • Land and capital, however, are found not to be largely misallocated across farms. • Hired machinery services may explain why local resource misallocation is low. • Reducing capital market frictions can be more plausible for agricultural productivity policies. The egalitarian allocation of agricultural land and small operational farm sizes in rural China raise questions about the implications for overall productivity given that there exists potentially large heterogeneity in farm-level productivities. This paper examines to what extent land and capital are misallocated in a region in the North China Plain that is characterized by small and relatively equally distributed farm sizes. Using a survey data set collected from wheat-maize double-cropping farms, we find that the dispersion in farm-level total factor productivities is small, and the quantified gains in aggregate agricultural output (productivity) by reallocating factors from less productive to more productive farms are moderate compared to the findings in the previous literature. The estimated output (productivity) gains range from 7% for within-village reallocation to 10% for between-village reallocation in the region. We argue that these findings are largely explained by the high-level use of hired machinery services among smallholders in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The processed food sector in low- and middle-income countries has grown rapidly. Little is understood about its effect on obesity. Using data from 14,976 participants aged two and older in the 2011 China Health and Nutrition Survey, this paper examines patterns of processed food consumption and their impacts on obesity while considering the endogeneity of those who purchase processed foods. A major assumption of our analysis of the impact of processed foods on overweight and obesity was that the consumption of processed foods is endogenous due to their accessibility and urbanicity levels. The results show that 74.5% of participants consumed processed foods, excluding edible oils and other condiments; 28.5% of participants’ total daily energy intake (EI) was from processed foods. Children and teenagers in megacities had the highest proportion of EI (40.2%) from processed foods. People who lived in megacities or highly urbanized neighborhoods with higher incomes and educational achievement consumed more processed foods. When controlling for endogeneity, only the body mass index (BMI) and risk of being overweight of children ages two to eighteen are adversely associated with processed foods (+4.97 BMI units, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.66–8.28; odds ratio (OR) = 3.63, 95% CI: 1.45–9.13). Processed food purchases represent less than a third of current Chinese food purchases. However, processed food purchases are growing at the rate of 50% per year, and we must begin to understand the implications for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, we media, i.e., micro-blogs, have drawn increasing attention to their roles by exposing food safety scandals in China. In this paper, a typical case of a scandal concerning “set-style yogurt and jelly event” reported by a micro-blog was studied and analyzed in terms of its dissemination mode and the mechanism of how a micro-blog from “opinion leaders” affected public attention. Related sales data of set-style yogurt and jelly products were obtained after the event from a supermarket corporation in Beijing and used to analyze trends affected by the scandal. The results indicate that in the new media age, we media has greatly increased dissemination of the voices of “opinion leaders” and triggered large-scale communication of food safety messages to the public. In this serious information asymmetry situation between public and food manufacturer, food-safety scandals revealed by we media could easily be noticed by consumers and further affect their judgments of expected utility and their purchasing behavior. Sales volume decreases and negative influence on brand reputation might contribute to correcting food manufacturers’ behavior. We media could be an effective tool to improve the food-safety status of the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to increasing water scarcity, accelerating industrialization and urbanization, efficiency of irrigation water use in Northern China needs urgent improvement. Based on a sample of 347 wheat growers in the Guanzhong Plain, this paper simultaneously estimates a production function, and its corresponding first-order conditions for cost minimization, to analyze efficiency of irrigation water use. The main findings are that average technical, allocative, and overall economic efficiency are 0.35, 0.86 and 0.80, respectively. In a second stage analysis, we find that farmers’ perception of water scarcity, water price and irrigation infrastructure increase irrigation water allocative efficiency, while land fragmentation decreases it. We also show that farmers’ income loss due to higher water prices can be offset by increasing irrigation water use efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the canonical consumer demand problem, an agent makes a decision about quantities to consume, under the assumption that all varieties can be accessed at zero cost. In reality, the cost of accessing variety may not be zero. In this paper we study the effect of variety access cost on the consumption of food variety and its role in explaining regional differences in dietary diversity in China. We find that a higher cost of access negatively affects the individual’s ability to diversify her diet in terms of both the total counts and the balancing of varieties consumed. The primary policy implication of this research is that attempts to create a healthy food environment in China must be differentiated along rural and urban lines. In rural communities where consumers have been limited in their ability to diversify food baskets by high electricity and transportation costs, infrastructure development and modernization may effectively improve nutritional balance. For more urbanized communities where the cost of consuming additional food variety is relatively low, food policies might instead focus on interventions that promote healthy eating to mitigate the burden of over-nutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Improving dietary knowledge has the potential to prevent obesity and overweight and, if effective, is a highly feasible policy measure. This paper proposes a new framework to examine the effects of dietary knowledge on nutrient intake and diet quality. The framework allows the effects to differ by one’s expectation about food availability (EFA). Using data from China, we find that dietary knowledge affects mainly the quantity of diet (e.g., lowering total calorie intake) when EFA is increasing, while it affects mainly the quality of diet (e.g., lowering the share of calories from oils) when EFA is decreasing. The effect on the quantity is larger among overweight adults, while the effect on the quality is more significant among non-overweight adults. Without distinguishing the direction of changes in EFA as in previous studies, the estimated effects of dietary knowledge tend to be smaller. Thus, as an anti-obesity measure, dietary education may be more effective than indicated by previous studies under the situations where EFA increases (e.g., introducing food coupons), while only marginally effective under the situations where EFA decreases (e.g., increasing real food prices). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper examines the treatment effects of the agricultural cooperative and publicly funded extension services on individual household economy, using data collected by the author from watermelon-producing farm households in rural Nanjing. The cooperative addressed in this study restricts the participation of small-scale farmers, implying that selection into the program must be taken into consideration for an accurate assessment of the treatment effect. The econometric analysis revealed that government extension services have a modest effect on farm income. In contrast, the treatment effect of the agricultural cooperative is robust and substantially large, accounting for nearly 70% of the pre-matching difference. This suggests that the agricultural cooperative system is an important avenue for farmers to improve their economic status. The treatment effect of the agricultural cooperative is highly heterogeneous; the economic benefits arising from the cooperative are significant only for small-scale farms. We can argue that a coexistence of smallholder exclusion and the treatment effect in favor of small-scale farms poses serious challenges to pro-poor agricultural growth in China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Using the melamine contamination incident in China as an exogenous shock, this paper studies how the investors respond to corporate social responsibilities (CSRs) of listed firms in food industry. We find that investors’ or consumers’ concerns for CSR in the food industry could be significantly influenced by the mounting attention given to CSR-related events. This study offers important policy implications. First, the government, as well as supervisors, should release appropriate policies to improve various firms’ activities on CSR, especially in the food industry. Second, firms, particularly those in the food industry, can obtain long-term benefits by strengthening their CSR-related activities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Limited agricultural land potential, poorly integrated markets and low rural incomes are all interrelated problems for agricultural households in western China. Within the wide range of development options available, this paper focuses on the impact of forage-growing subsidies and reducing livestock feed trade barriers on agricultural household incomes and enterprise mixes in the Qingyang Prefecture of Gansu Province, China. A heterogeneous-agent model is used to assess the local consequences of these two policies. Data from a survey conducted in 2009 are used as inputs into the model. The results indicate that a simultaneous reduction in livestock feed trade barriers and an introduction of forage-growing subsidies lifts net household incomes by approximately 10%. Different scenarios have different impacts on incomes, land allocation decisions and grain purchases, with heterogeneity also found among household income responses. Livestock-development policies have the potential to lift household incomes however there are tradeoffs between income and grain self-sufficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Food safety issues often arise from asymmetric information between consumers and suppliers with regards to product-specific attributes. Severe food safety scandals were observed recently in China. These events not only caused direct economic and life losses, but also created distrust in the Chinese food system domestically, as well as internationally. While much attention has focused on the problems plaguing the Chinese government’s food inspection system, little research has been dedicated to analyzing Chinese consumers’ concerns surrounding food safety. In this paper, we measure consumer preferences for select food safety attributes in pork and take food safety risk perceptions into account. Several choice experiment models, including latent class and random parameters logit, are constructed to capture heterogeneity in consumer preferences. Our results suggest that Chinese consumers have the highest willingness-to-pay for a government certification program, followed by third-party certification, a traceability system, and a product-specific information label. The results of this study call for the direct involvement of the Chinese government in the food safety system. A stricter monitoring system will not only improve consumer well-being in the short-run, but also restore consumers’ trust leading to a social welfare increase in the long run. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The rapid economic growth in China is accompanied by a large scale rural-to-urban migration, but over time more children are left behind rural areas. This paper studies how the overweight and underweight status of the rural children is associated with the out migration of others in their household. We find that migration is related to different nutritional outcomes for the left-behind children. The older children (aged 7–12) are more likely to be underweight; the younger (aged 2–6) are less likely to be overweight if left behind without the care of a grandparent. We also find evidence that the remaining adult household members spent less time preparing meals, whereas older children take up more household chores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: China has embarked on an agricultural modernisation program with far-reaching implications for rural development, food safety and trade. A major focus of China’s agricultural modernisation program has been to build high-value supply chains and large, modern agro-industrial enterprises. This paper provides a critique of these efforts in the case of the high-value beef supply chain. It finds that interventionist policies to fast-track the development of high-value supply chains have perverse outcomes and that a more incremental and facilitative approach to modernisation should be pursued based around the development of mid-value supply chains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper assesses the implications of China’s trade and domestic policies for incentives to producers in China. It uses a price comparison methodology (nominal rates of assistance—at the border and the farmgate), with adjustments for exchange rate distortions in the first part of the sample period (1981–1994). On average, distortions to agricultural incentives have been reduced. In the early 1980s, on average, China’s domestic prices were far below international prices. There were substantial variations, however, between imported (which were being protected) and exported goods. During the 1980s and 1990s the gap between domestic and international prices for both imports and exports narrowed initially mainly due to the elimination of domestic policy distortions. Between the mid-1990s and 2004, trade liberalization policy furthered narrowed the gap between world and China farmgate prices. By the mid-2000s, China’s agriculture was operating with only small price distortions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We study the effects of agricultural insurance on pesticide application in China. • Purchasing agricultural insurance helps to encourage farmers to apply biological pesticides. • Purchasing agricultural insurance reduce the use of chemical pesticides. • Agricultural insurance can reduce the risk of applying biological pesticides. • Moral hazard is an important factor in encouraging farmers to apply biological pesticides. Based on the survey data from farmers in Hubei, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang provinces, this paper constructs a theoretical model of the impact of agricultural insurance on farmers' biopesticide application behavior. Furthermore, it adopts the endogenous switching probit model to empirically analyze the effect of agricultural insurance on farmers' biopesticide application behavior. We also estimate the probability that farmers will buy agricultural insurance and apply biological pesticides under the counterfactual framework. The results show that, first, 59.12% of the farmers in the sample area have purchased agricultural insurance and that 62.45% of the farmers have used biological pesticides. Second, the overall average treatment effect is 0.082. This indicates that, if all farmers buy agricultural insurance, the probability that farmers will apply biological pesticides increases by 8.2%. It can be seen that purchasing agricultural insurance encourages farmers to apply biological pesticides. Third, purchasing agricultural insurance can encourage farmers to increase the use of biological pesticides and reduce the use of chemical pesticides. In addition, purchasing agricultural insurance increases the ratio of the amount of biological pesticides to chemical pesticides. This finding shows that agricultural insurance can increase the relative importance of biological pesticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• China's evolving food safety regulations generally restrict trade. • Regulations have a larger trade impeding effect on exporters with lower food safety standards compared to exporters with higher-food safety standards. • The size of the negative trade growth effect depends critically on the importing firms' ownership structure and the type of import refusals. • SOE import purchases in China are more affected by import refusal measures due to safety and hygiene reasons, whereas SOE imports are little impacted by refusals for non-safety and hygiene reasons. Recent food safety incidents, such as melamine in infant milk powder, have contributed to Chinese consumers' growing food safety concerns. Spurred by these challenges, the Chinese government passed a series of laws and regulations to enhance food safety, which have the potential to impact China's food imports. In this paper, we provide a detailed overview and quantification of the impact of China's evolving food safety regulations on food imports. Specifically, we document the landscape of non-tariff measures driven by changes in China's food safety regulations and demonstrate that China has been building a more comprehensive regulatory system with food safety legislations becoming more stringent and cohesive. We then quantify the impact of food safety regulations on China's food imports using a novel dataset of China's import refusals. Our results show that China's evolving food safety regulations generally restrict trade, reducing imports by 2.24%, on average, for countries with low food safety regulations compared to 0.78% for countries with higher food safety standards. Further, the asymmetry between countries with lower food safety standards and China's evolving food safety standards is growing over time. At the firm level, China's border rejections have also had a significant and negative impact on the growth rate of import value. A 1% increase in the number of import refusals caused by safety and hygiene reasons decreases the average growth rate of import value by 4.51%. Importantly, because state-owned enterprises (SOEs) assume more social responsibilities and value their reputation within the context of Chinese policy, they are more affected by China's import refusal measures than non-SOEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper empirically investigates the relationship between contractual arrangements and their enforcement in Chinese agriculture. Based on an analysis of a survey of 100 agribusiness firms engaged in contract farming in Zhejiang province of China, we find that private contract enforcement mechanisms play an important role in influencing smallholders’ decisions to breach or fulfill contracts. Contract arrangements such as floor pricing, or requiring smallholders to make specific investments facilitate self-enforcement and significantly improve the smallholder’s contract fulfillment rate. This is particularly important in Chinese agriculture since the business environment is characterized by an absence of effective public enforcement institutions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper synthesizes recent research and new empirical findings to build a more comprehensive understanding of developments in China’s dairy sector. China’s tremendous rise in dairy demand has been driven by several mutually reinforcing factors: including rapid income growth, promotion by the government and dairy industry, changes in urban lifestyles, and the development of new, more sophisticated marketing channels. Domestic milk output has grown to satisfy rising demand largely by increasing the dairy herd. Substantial increases in productivity have been achieved through technology adoption, but there is evidence that the torrid growth has created inefficiencies because adaptations to marketing rules, infrastructure, and institutions have not kept pace with the changing environment. These results suggest there is ample room for future growth in both domestic milk production and dairy demand, but multinational firms and imported products will likely play and increasing role as China’s dairy market continues to develop. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As the world’s most populous nation, China has taken various measures to increase grain production output in the past several decades. However, many of the policy interventions to promote grain production are not in conformity with WTO rules and also lead to misallocation of resources and loss of production efficiency. While adequately steady growth of grain output may still be a policy goal for the world’s most populous nation with continuous population growth and economic development, it is crucial that the country moves away from many of its past measures and explores alternative policy tools to strengthen domestic grain production. By using agricultural research and irrigation as a proxy, this paper examines the effects of public investment in irrigation and agricultural research on the output increase of grain production in China in a crop-specific manner. The research finds that increasing public investment in agricultural research will bring about higher output in a cost effective manner. Increasing public investment in agricultural R&D, etc., should be considered with high priority in the future to be utilized as a policy tool to enhance long-term food security. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper tests for regional agricultural labour productivity (ALP) convergence in China. The analysis indicates that ALP diverges between 1985 and 1992, but converges between 1992 and 2000. Further analysis shows that these findings can be explained by the different rates of agricultural out-migration in these two periods. We argue that these different rates of regional agricultural out-migration can be attributed to the different government policies and economic conditions before and after 1992. In particular, migrants from rural to urban areas found it easier to obtain both food and work in the post-1992 era. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper investigates the effects of Chinese market policy on crop production in the reform process. After a brief review of the policy changes due to the reform, the theoretical significance of Chinese market policies for crop production is demonstrated diagrammatically. It is shown that under the current market system the production of main crops is significantly influenced by both market and quota prices. While relatively high quota reduces the influence of market prices on production, relative price changes between competing crops will lead to shifting farmers’ cultivation preferences if inputs are constant. Empirical analysis, based on cross-section data for the period 1985–1997 from the province of Zhejiang, confirms these hypotheses. The effects of policy variables, however, prove to be crop-specific. If the potential of crop production in China is to be better used, an even more market-oriented agricultural policy is required. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• We analyze the impact of Internet use on technical efficiency of banana production. • PSM and selectivity-corrected SFA model are used to address selectivity bias issues. • We use farm household survey data of 625 banana farmers in China. • Internet use significantly increases TE of banana production. • Internet users at the lower TE quantiles receive higher TE. Although many studies have analyzed the Internet use effects on farm performance and rural development, little is known about the relationship between Internet use and technical efficiency (TE) of crop production. This paper fills the gap by analyzing the impact of Internet use on the TE of banana production in China, using an innovative approach that combines a propensity score matching technique with Greene's (2010) selectivity-corrected stochastic frontier model to address selectivity bias. We employ both the fractional regression (FR) model and the unconditional quantile regression (UQR) model to, respectively, investigate the homogeneous and heterogeneous TE effects of Internet use and other control variables. After correcting for selectivity bias stemming from both observed and unobserved factors, we show that the TE scores of Internet users and nonusers are 0.571 and 0.537, respectively. The results of the FR model show that Internet use exerts a homogeneous positive impact on TE of banana production. In contrast, the UQR results reveal that TE effects of Internet use are heterogeneous, and the Internet users at the lower TE quantiles receive higher TE than their counterparts at higher TE quantiles. Our findings underscore the importance of promoting Internet use in rural areas to boost farm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We investigate the determinants of MOFs' activities and their impact on farm performance. • The study uses a nationally representative rural Chinese household survey data. • Renting in land increased farm profits by about 47%, but it decreased crop yields by about 51% • Cash cropping increased both profits and yield by about 64% and 100%, respectively. • Joint participation in land renting and cash cropping increased farm profits by 158%; increased farm costs by about 41% Part-time and small-scale farming used to be an essential factor in ensuring food security for small Chinese farmers. However, evidence shows that market-oriented farming (MOF) activities, such as renting-in land and cash cropping, are becoming more popular among farmers. This paper investigates the factors affecting farmers' engagement in MOF and its impact on farm performance (profits, yields and costs). The study uses nationally representative data from a rural household survey and a multinomial endogenous switching treatment regression (MESTR) technique. Findings reveal that socioeconomic attributes, natural and physical assets, and institutions affect farmers' participation in MOF activities. Renting-in land has allowed rural households to increase their farm profits by about 40%. However, despite increasing farm size, crop yields fell by about 47% due to land renting-in activities. Cash cropping increased both profits and yields by about 64% and 100%, respectively. Finally, the joint participation in renting-in land and cash cropping increased profits by nearly 158% and farm costs rose by about 41%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]