Barriers to the Development of Agricultural Mechanization in the North and Northeast China Plains: A Farmer Survey

Yuewen Huo, Songlin Ye, Zhou Wu, Fusuo Zhang and Guohua Mi
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Yuewen Huo: National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing 100193, China
Songlin Ye: National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing 100193, China
Zhou Wu: National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing 100193, China
Fusuo Zhang: National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing 100193, China
Guohua Mi: National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing 100193, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: Agricultural mechanization is essential to increase farmers’ income in modern agriculture. However, the use of machinery for crop production in China is quite inefficient. To understand the obstacles limiting farmers’ use of machinery, we conducted face-to-face interview surveys with 1023 farmers (including cooperative directors, machine operators, and farmers without machines) in two major cereal-producing regions with large differences in farming scale: the North China Plain (2.7 ha per capita) and the Northeast China Plain (12.8 ha per capita). The results revealed that farmers in both regions had strong will to use machines. The obstacle preventing farmers from buying machines was the lack of machinery training in the Northeast China Plain and land fragmentation in the North China Plain. Among different farmer groups, land fragmentation was the main barrier for cooperative directors. Farmers without machines thought that there was lack of machinery training and that the cost of machinery purchase was high. Machine operators believed that machine maintenance was too expensive. The income and age also had an effect on the different groups of farmer. It is concluded that, to improve mechanization efficiency and stimulate farmers’ intention to use machinery, the government should make policies to encourage the merge of fragmented farmlands, provide targeted subsidies for agricultural machinery, and organize machinery training in an efficient way.

Keywords: agricultural machinery; theory of planned behavior; farmers’ intention; control barriers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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