Assessing the Impacts of Land Consolidation on Agricultural Technical Efficiency of Producers: A Survey from Jiangsu Province, China

Siyan Zeng, Fengwu Zhu, Fu Chen, Man Yu, Shaoliang Zhang and Yongjun Yang
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Siyan Zeng: School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221043, China
Fengwu Zhu: Key Laboratory of Coastal Zone Exploitation and Protection, Ministry of Land and Resource, Institute of Land Surveying and Planning of Jiangsu, Nanjing 210096, China
Fu Chen: School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221043, China
Man Yu: School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221043, China
Shaoliang Zhang: School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221043, China
Yongjun Yang: School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221043, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: Since the year 2000, China has implemented large-scale land consolidation, which was used to reduce land fragmentation, enhance grain yield capability, facilitate land tenure transfer, and promote agricultural operational scale. However, the impacts of land consolidation on agricultural technical efficiency of producers in practice is not yet clear. A field survey was executed at two points of time during July 2010 and July 2016. A total of 900 producers were chosen from 30 land consolidation projects at random in the Jiangsu Province. The agricultural technical efficiency caused by land consolidation was calculated by using a stochastic frontier analysis method. The results of a stochastic frontier production function reveal that land tenure transfer, land fragmentation, non-agricultural income, and crop diversity has undergone significant changes after land consolidation. The overall agricultural technical efficiency of producers had also increased considerably and the average technical efficiency was estimated at 0.924 after land consolidation. Land consolidation directly promotes land tenure transfer while indirectly encouraging non-agricultural employment, which could improve agricultural technical efficiency of producers. Non-agricultural income and crop diversity had a significant correlation with agricultural technical efficiency, but land fragmentation after land consolidation does not significantly improve technical efficiency. These conclusions are helpful in understanding the impacts of land consolidation, which enriches the academic literature in related fields and improves the policy of land consolidation in China and other developing countries.

Keywords: land tenure transfer; land fragmentation; crop diversity; stochastic frontier analysis; rural development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

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