Factors Affecting Smallholder Farmers’ Marketing Channel Choice in China with Multivariate Logit Model

Mengshuai Zhu, Chen Shen (), Yajun Tian, Jianzhai Wu and Yueying Mu ()
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Mengshuai Zhu: Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Chen Shen: Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Yajun Tian: Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Jianzhai Wu: Agricultural Information Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Yueying Mu: College of Economics and Management, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-11

Abstract: Facing the changes in China’s agricultural products marketing channel, smallholder farmers with different characteristics choose various strategies to obtain more benefits. To analyze factors affecting smallholder farmers’ marketing channel choice, we classify four types of channels—Broker Channel, Farmers’ Retailing Channel, Wholesale Market Channel, and Cooperative Channel—and inspect 14 variables based on the survey data of 317 households from four provinces. We use a principal components analysis (PCA) to simplify these 14 variables into seven common factors and a multivariate logit model to study how the factors influence smallholder farmers’ choices. We find that compared with the Broker Channel, the Farmers’ Retailing Channel is mainly affected by the logistics factor, skill factor, risk factor, and size factor; the Wholesale Market Channel is influenced by the logistics factor and age factor; and the Cooperative Channel is mainly influenced by the age factor, logistics factor, and price factor. In conclusion, the logistics factor has a significant positive effect on each channel choice, and the improvement of the market and transportation conditions has a general promoting effect.

Keywords: smallholder farmer; marketing; channel; choice (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 (4)

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