An Inverse Relationship between Farm Size and Rice Harvest Loss: Evidence from China

Abstract

Reducing food losses has become an important means of conserving resources and protecting food security. Based on nationwide survey data from 1526 households in 17 provinces in China, we evaluated Chinese rice harvest losses and used a fractional logit model to analyze the impact of farm size on these losses. The results show that, on average, 3.45% of total rice was lost during the harvest stage, representing a serious waste of resources. In addition, farm size was significantly negatively correlated with rice harvest losses, indicating an inverse relationship between farm size and rice harvest losses. As farms expand in size, farmers are more likely to adopt agricultural machinery services, which have been proven to reduce harvest losses. Our findings show that the government should encourage farm size expansion and promote better agricultural machinery services to reduce harvest losses.

Keywords

• farm size
• harvest loss
• rice
• food security
• China