Search

Agricultural mechanization and custom machine services have developed rapidly in China, which can influence rice production efficiency in the future. We calculate technical efficiency, allocative efficiency, and scale efficiency using data collected in 2015 from a face-to-face interview survey of 450 households that cultivated 3096 plots located in the five major rice-producing provinces of China. We use a one-step stochastic frontier model to calculate technical efficiency and regress the efficiency scores on socio-demographic and physical land characteristics to find the influencing variables. Variables influencing technical efficiency are compared at three different phases of rice cultivation. We also calculate technical efficiency by using the Heckman Selection Model, which addresses technological heterogeneity and self-selection bias. Results indicate that: (1) the average value of technical efficiency using a one-step stochastic frontier model was found to be 0.74. When self-selection bias is accounted for using the Heckman Selection Model, the average value of the technical efficiency increases to 0.80; (2) mechanization at the chemical application phase has a positive effect on technical efficiency, but mechanization does not affect efficiency at the plowing and harvesting phases; (3) machines are overused relative to both land and labor, and high machine input use on the small size of landholding has resulted in allocative inefficiency; (4) rice farmers are overwhelmingly operating at a sub-optimal scale. Future policies should focus on encouraging farmland transfer in rural areas to achieve scale efficiency and allocative efficiency while promoting mechanization at the chemical application phase of rice cultivation to improve technical efficiency.

The influence of household demographic composition on rural migration in China has received limited attention. With data from a household survey in China's Sichuan and Hubei Provinces, this paper uses Probit models to explore the influence of household structure on migration decisions. It suggests that the three-generation household encourages out-migration, with the elderly playing an important role in supporting the migration of younger members by caring for their children. In contrast with earlier findings, the serious illness of an elderly member did not encourage the return of young migrants or discourage migration decisions unless the household included young children.

The shift from double-season rice (DSR) to single-season rice (SSR) in the Yangtze River Valley in China has led to a decrease in the area of rice sown since the early 1980s and a decline in output since 1997. In this paper, changes in rice cropping patterns are described and a neoclassical household model is used to analyse differences in rice cropping patterns. The authors use the Probit model to analyse the impact on rice cropping patterns in the physical characteristics of plots, household economic characteristics and regional factors. They find that, in addition to the physical characteristics of plots, non-farm wage rates, land/labour ratios and ownership of labour-saving machinery all have significant impacts on rice cropping. Higher non-farm wages and higher land/labour ratios are associated with SSR; conversely, ownership of labour-saving machinery is associated with DSR. The policy implications are discussed.