A macro perspective on the relationship between farm size and agrochemicals use in China
Agrochemicals are overused in China. One strategy to reduce agrochemical use is to increase farm size because of the potential effect of economy of scale. Existing studies at a micro scale present mixed and often conflicting results on the relationship between agrochemical use and farm size. This st...
| Autores principales: | , , , |
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| Formato: | Journal Article |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
MDPI
2020
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142912 |
| _version_ | 1855531188249165824 |
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| author | Xie, Lin Qiu, Zeyuan You, Liangzhi Kang, Yang |
| author_browse | Kang, Yang Qiu, Zeyuan Xie, Lin You, Liangzhi |
| author_facet | Xie, Lin Qiu, Zeyuan You, Liangzhi Kang, Yang |
| author_sort | Xie, Lin |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Agrochemicals are overused in China. One strategy to reduce agrochemical use is to increase farm size because of the potential effect of economy of scale. Existing studies at a micro scale present mixed and often conflicting results on the relationship between agrochemical use and farm size. This study aimed to assess that relationship from a macro perspective using an aggregated panel dataset in 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2016. The empirical results confirm the existence of both economy and diseconomy of scale effects on agrochemical use in China. The agrochemical application rates decreased as the proportion of farms between 0.667 and 2 ha increased. The diseconomy of scale existed when significantly larger farms, such as the farms larger than 3.34 ha, continued to emerge. Given the fact that 78.6% of farms are under 0.667 ha in China, our results suggest that the reduction strategy based on only expanding farm size might achieve some initial success in reducing agrochemical use, but the effect would fade away and be reversed as significantly large farms continue to emerge. These results have significant policy implications as China is proactively developing and implementing various policies and strategies to modernize its agriculture toward achieving its sustainability goals. |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | CGSpace142912 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publishDateRange | 2020 |
| publishDateSort | 2020 |
| publisher | MDPI |
| publisherStr | MDPI |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1429122024-10-25T07:59:29Z A macro perspective on the relationship between farm size and agrochemicals use in China Xie, Lin Qiu, Zeyuan You, Liangzhi Kang, Yang models fertilizers scale capacity development agriculture smallholders agrochemicals pesticides farm size Agrochemicals are overused in China. One strategy to reduce agrochemical use is to increase farm size because of the potential effect of economy of scale. Existing studies at a micro scale present mixed and often conflicting results on the relationship between agrochemical use and farm size. This study aimed to assess that relationship from a macro perspective using an aggregated panel dataset in 30 provinces in China from 2009 to 2016. The empirical results confirm the existence of both economy and diseconomy of scale effects on agrochemical use in China. The agrochemical application rates decreased as the proportion of farms between 0.667 and 2 ha increased. The diseconomy of scale existed when significantly larger farms, such as the farms larger than 3.34 ha, continued to emerge. Given the fact that 78.6% of farms are under 0.667 ha in China, our results suggest that the reduction strategy based on only expanding farm size might achieve some initial success in reducing agrochemical use, but the effect would fade away and be reversed as significantly large farms continue to emerge. These results have significant policy implications as China is proactively developing and implementing various policies and strategies to modernize its agriculture toward achieving its sustainability goals. 2020-11-01 2024-05-22T12:11:18Z 2024-05-22T12:11:18Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142912 en Open Access MDPI Xie, Lin; Qiu, Zeyuan; You, Liangzhi; and Kang, Yang. 2020. A macro perspective on the relationship between farm size and agrochemicals use in China. Sustainability 12(21): 9299. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12219299 |
| spellingShingle | models fertilizers scale capacity development agriculture smallholders agrochemicals pesticides farm size Xie, Lin Qiu, Zeyuan You, Liangzhi Kang, Yang A macro perspective on the relationship between farm size and agrochemicals use in China |
| title | A macro perspective on the relationship between farm size and agrochemicals use in China |
| title_full | A macro perspective on the relationship between farm size and agrochemicals use in China |
| title_fullStr | A macro perspective on the relationship between farm size and agrochemicals use in China |
| title_full_unstemmed | A macro perspective on the relationship between farm size and agrochemicals use in China |
| title_short | A macro perspective on the relationship between farm size and agrochemicals use in China |
| title_sort | macro perspective on the relationship between farm size and agrochemicals use in china |
| topic | models fertilizers scale capacity development agriculture smallholders agrochemicals pesticides farm size |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/142912 |
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