Ziyuan Kexue (Jul 2024)
The impact of Maize-Soybean strip intercropping on farmers’ production efficiency: Empirical analysis based on the Huang-Huai-Hai and Southwest planting areas
Abstract
[Objective] Soybean-corn strip intercropping is an important way to solve the conflict between corn and soybean plantings for land and maintain national food security. This study aimed to examine the impact of strip intercropping on production efficiency and its mechanism, to provide a theoretical basis and reference for the yield-enhancing effect of strip intercropping technology. [Methods] This study was based on the survey data from the soybean and corn strip intercropping areas in the Huang-Huai-Hai (Shandong and Henan Provinces) and southwest (Sichuan and Yunnan Provinces) regions. The impact of strip intercropping on production efficiency was quantitatively calculated using the stochastic frontier production function (SFA) and endogenous transformation model (ESR). [Results] (1) The implementation of strip intercropping technology had a significant negative impact on the value of production efficiency loss, indicating that strip intercropping significantly improved agricultural production efficiency. (2) In the higher row ratio areas, southwestern planting areas, and among large-scale operators, the strip intercropping technology had a higher effect in promoting production efficiency. (3) Strip intercropping promotes total output growth by maintaining corn yields while achieving an extra harvest of beans, and it reduces fertilizer inputs and increases labor and machinery outsourcing services, inducing factor allocation changes. (4) Participation in strip intercropping significantly affected the production efficiency of neighboring farmers in the same village, that is, there was a significant spatial spillover effect of strip intercropping at the village scale. [Conclusion] Starting from establishing a fiscal subsidy system, providing scientific and technological guidance, ensuring the supply of agricultural inputs and agricultural production services, and leveraging demonstration effects, we can promote the strip intercropping of soybean and corn, and improve production efficiency under the constraints of limited water and soil resources.
Keywords
