Agricultural Productivity Changes Induced by the Sloping Land Conversion Program: An Analysis of Wuqi County in the Loess Plateau Region
Agricultural Productivity Changes Induced by the Sloping Land Conversion Program: An Analysis of Wuqi County in the Loess Plateau Region
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DOI：
10.1007/s00267-009-9416-3
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发表时间：
2010-03
影响因子：
3.5
通讯作者：
Shunbo Yao;Hua Li
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Shunbo Yao;Hua Li
本文采用Malmquist指数方法，结合吴起市农户数据，分析了坡地改造对农业生产力的影响。研究发现，1998-2004年，全要素生产率（TFP）增长15.8%。虽然许多家庭的全要素生产率下降，但大多数家庭的全要素生产率却大幅上升。通过对全要素生产率的分解，我们进一步表明，全要素生产率的提高完全是由于技术效率的提高，而不是由于技术变革。为了验证这些发现并正确看待它们，我们还用县级汇总数据估计了全要素生产率的变化。结果表明，在技术变革和规模效率的驱动下，1992-1998年全要素生产率略有增长。由于实施SLCP导致大量耕地减少和生产方式转变，TFP在该计划实施的前三年大幅下降；由于技术效率的不断提高；然而，后来它的增长加速了。总之，我们的证据一致表明，实施SLCP有助于农业全要素生产率的长期增长，效率的提高主要来自于推广服务和技术知识传播的公共支出的增加。吴起的经验证明，即使面临减田和生产方式的转变，也可以同时实现环境保护和生产力的提高。
This paper examines the agricultural productivity change induced by the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) using the Malmquist index method and household data collected from Wuqi. We find that during the period of 1998–2004, the total factor productivity (TFP) grew by 15.8%. While numerous households suffered a TFP decline, the majority of them experienced a large gain. By decomposing the TFP, we further show that its increase is due exclusively to the improvement of technical efficiency rather than to technological change. To validate these findings and put them in perspective, we also estimated the TFP change with county-level aggregate data. It is revealed that driven by technological change and scale efficiency, the TFP grew slightly during the period of 1992–1998. Because of the tremendous cropland reduction and production mode shift caused by implementing the SLCP, the TFP declined substantially during the first three years of the program; due to continued improvement of technical efficiency; however, its growth accelerated later. Altogether, our evidence consistently suggests that implementing the SLCP has contributed to the agricultural TFP growth in the longer term and that the efficiency improvement has resulted mainly from the increased public expenditures for extension services and diffusion of technical knowledge. Wuqi’s experience proves that it is possible to achieve environmental conservation and increase productivity simultaneously, even when facing a cropland reduction and production mode alternation.