Does Farmland Rental Contribute to Reduction of Agrochemical Use? A Case of Grain Production in Gansu Province, China
Ying Liu,
Chenggang Wang,
Zeng Tang and
Zhibiao Nan
Additional contact information
Ying Liu: School of Management, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
Chenggang Wang: Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA
Zeng Tang: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
Zhibiao Nan: State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730020, China
Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 8, 1-15
Abstract:
As a consequence of the new strategy to boost productivity capacity and ensure food security, China’s farmland rental market is developing rapidly, and its impacts on agricultural productivity have been extensively studied. However, the impacts of farmland rental on food safety have not been considered. The aim of this study was to determine the causal effects of farmland rental on fertilizer and pesticide use in wheat and maize production and evaluate the potential effects of this activity on food safety. Survey data obtained from 900 households in eight counties in Gansu province were used in this study, and the propensity score matching (PSM) method was employed to solve selection bias problems with the data. The results showed that farmland rental significantly reduced fertilizer and pesticide use in wheat and maize production, implying a potential reduction in heavy metal contamination of food and drinking water as well as less pesticide residues-remaining in food and contamination of environment. Also, households renting land were more likely to adopt new agricultural technologies and management methods and to acquire more agricultural acknowledges and information than those not renting land and renting out land. Thus, farmland rental is a benefit to the application of new agricultural technologies and management methods, to rational use of agrochemicals, and finally to food safety and environmental conservation. Policies such as encouraging farmland rental, enhancing education of farmers, improving technological innovation, and providing better information transfer should help ensure not only “enough food” but also “safe food”.
Keywords: farmland rental; land consolidation; food security; food safety; fertilizer use; pesticide use; environmental conservation; propensity score matching (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/8/2402/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/8/2402/ (text/html)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:8:p:2402-:d:225156
Access Statistics for this article
Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu
More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().