Ziyuan Kexue (Jul 2024)
The effect of farmland suitability for agricultural machinery operation on non-grain conversion in hilly and mountain areas of China
Abstract
[Objective] In the background of the increasing trend of non-grain production in hilly and mountainous areas of China, it is of great practical significance to explore the mechanism of the farmland suitability for agricultural machinery operation (FSAM) on the mitigation of non-grain production and empirically measure its specific impact degree. [Methods] This paper constructed farmer’s production decision-making model, which based on profit maximization constraints, and derived the influence mechanism. This paper used the national agricultural mechanization survey data organized by the Agricultural Mechanization Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs from May to July 2020, measured the degree of FSAM from three perspectives of plot size, plot flatness and plot accessibility, to empirically measure the mitigation degree of FSAM to non-grain production in hilly and mountainous areas of China. [Results] It is found that: (1) Against the backdrop of rapidly rising labor costs, mature mechanization technology for grain crops, and lagging mechanization technology for non-grain crops, enhancing FSAM can effectively reduce the degree of non-grain farming among farmers. (2) The transmission path for reducing the degree of non-grain farming through improving FSAM is as follows: Enhanced FSAM lowers the price of agricultural machinery factors, prompting farmers to increase the level of agricultural mechanization for replacing labor with cheaper agricultural machinery factors. Given the immaturity of mechanization technology for non-grain crops, farmers opt to plant more grain crops, thereby reducing the degree of non-grain farming. (3) There exists scale heterogeneity in the impact of FSAM on non-grain farming, meaning that compared to small-scale farmers, the degree of farmland suitability for mechanization has a more significant impact on the degree of non-grain farming among large-scale farmers. [Conclusion] On the whole, the high degree of FSAM operations can effectively reduces the cost of agricultural machinery in grain production, promotes labor substitution and cost reduction in grain production, and helps to alleviate the problem of non-grain production in hill and mountain areas of China, and thus ensures food security.
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