The Impact of Migration on Farm Performance: Evidence from Rice Farmers in China

Guangcheng Ren, Xueqin Zhu and Shuyi Feng ()
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Guangcheng Ren: College of Public Administration, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Xueqin Zhu: Section Economics, Wageningen University, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands
Shuyi Feng: China Resources & Environment and Development Academy, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Developing economies face challenges in improving the overall performance of farms. An essential challenge could be a substantial shift in the agricultural labor force to off-farm sectors during the process of economic transition. This paper estimates the causal impact of migration on the economic and environmental performance of rice farms, measured using technical efficiency and fertilizer use efficiency. A stochastic frontier analysis, based on the survey data collected in four regions of China, is applied, finding an average technical efficiency of 0.92, while the average fertilizer use efficiency is only 0.22. The results of propensity score matching suggest that migration has a marginally negative impact on both technical efficiency and fertilizer use efficiency of their rice production, while the impact is amplified for farmers who participated in migration more intensively. This would imply that the government policy on the migration of rural households might also need to consider this impact.

Keywords: migration; stochastic frontier analysis; technical efficiency; fertilizer use efficiency; China (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: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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