South African agricultural farming systems are characterised by a duality in which there exists large-scale commercial farmers and small-scale farmers. Large-scale commercial farmers, historically identified as capita...South African agricultural farming systems are characterised by a duality in which there exists large-scale commercial farmers and small-scale farmers. Large-scale commercial farmers, historically identified as capital intensive and characterized by the size of the landholdings, are considered as the main drivers of national food security. Small-scale farmers on the other hand are viewed as important drivers of food security at the household level. These two main farming systems can be found within the Vhembe district municipality of the Limpopo Province and are characterised differently according to land descriptors. The study used an analysis of primary data obtained from in-depth interviews and secondary data obtained from an agricultural database to identify and characterize large- and small-scale farming systems within the Vhembe district. The study examined the land resource namely farm size and land ownership, topography and soil description, rainfall and its variability and threats and hazards used under three different high value crop (HVC) commodities, macadamia nuts, mangos and avocado pears. The study further examined yield and income from farming as drivers of production that would ensure the sustainability of long-term food security at both national and household level. The study revealed that gender of farmers within the farming systems was predominantly (79%) male across all commodities. Age distribution results showed an aging population of farmers mostly (90%) above the age of 51. Communal land ownership was the dominant (74%) land ownership amongst participants. Yield is not solely dependent on farm size and requires consideration of a broader array of land management aspects. There was a strong, significant correlation between income and farm size. These factors have implications for sustainability of the two farming systems and illustrate how certain aspects of land as a driver of production such as land ownership, rainfall variability, yield and income from farming can impact sustainability.展开更多
Inefficient use of fertilizer has caused serious environmental problems and unsustainable development of agriculture in China.To meet the increasing food demand in the future without damaging the ecological environmen...Inefficient use of fertilizer has caused serious environmental problems and unsustainable development of agriculture in China.To meet the increasing food demand in the future without damaging the ecological environment,Chinese government officially launched the Action Plan for the Zero Growth of Fertilizer Use in 2015.At the same time,China released a series of policies aiming explicitly at expanding farm size and a great number of large scale farmers emerged recently.However,whether the expansion of farm size will be beneficial for the increase of fertilizer use efficiency still remains to be investigated.In this study,we comprehensively explored the relationship between fertilizer use efficiency and farm size.Based on the 4281 farm households’survey data collected by the National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC)of China from 2004 to 2016 in Jiangsu Province,China,this paper applies a stochastic frontier production function to estimate fertilizer use efficiency across farm size and uses a regression model to analyze the influence of farm size on fertilizer use efficiency.The results show that:(1)the average fertilizer use efficiency of whole samples was only 0.60,much lower than the average technical efficiency,indicating that on average half of the fertilizer utilized are excessive in China;and(2)the smallest farm size group get the highest fertilizer use efficiency score.We also provide some possible explanations for the inverse relationship between farm size and fertilizer use efficiency.展开更多
文摘South African agricultural farming systems are characterised by a duality in which there exists large-scale commercial farmers and small-scale farmers. Large-scale commercial farmers, historically identified as capital intensive and characterized by the size of the landholdings, are considered as the main drivers of national food security. Small-scale farmers on the other hand are viewed as important drivers of food security at the household level. These two main farming systems can be found within the Vhembe district municipality of the Limpopo Province and are characterised differently according to land descriptors. The study used an analysis of primary data obtained from in-depth interviews and secondary data obtained from an agricultural database to identify and characterize large- and small-scale farming systems within the Vhembe district. The study examined the land resource namely farm size and land ownership, topography and soil description, rainfall and its variability and threats and hazards used under three different high value crop (HVC) commodities, macadamia nuts, mangos and avocado pears. The study further examined yield and income from farming as drivers of production that would ensure the sustainability of long-term food security at both national and household level. The study revealed that gender of farmers within the farming systems was predominantly (79%) male across all commodities. Age distribution results showed an aging population of farmers mostly (90%) above the age of 51. Communal land ownership was the dominant (74%) land ownership amongst participants. Yield is not solely dependent on farm size and requires consideration of a broader array of land management aspects. There was a strong, significant correlation between income and farm size. These factors have implications for sustainability of the two farming systems and illustrate how certain aspects of land as a driver of production such as land ownership, rainfall variability, yield and income from farming can impact sustainability.
基金supported by the National Social Science Fund of China (14ZDA037)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71333008)+1 种基金the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (2018M631508)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University, China (2662018QD008)
文摘Inefficient use of fertilizer has caused serious environmental problems and unsustainable development of agriculture in China.To meet the increasing food demand in the future without damaging the ecological environment,Chinese government officially launched the Action Plan for the Zero Growth of Fertilizer Use in 2015.At the same time,China released a series of policies aiming explicitly at expanding farm size and a great number of large scale farmers emerged recently.However,whether the expansion of farm size will be beneficial for the increase of fertilizer use efficiency still remains to be investigated.In this study,we comprehensively explored the relationship between fertilizer use efficiency and farm size.Based on the 4281 farm households’survey data collected by the National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC)of China from 2004 to 2016 in Jiangsu Province,China,this paper applies a stochastic frontier production function to estimate fertilizer use efficiency across farm size and uses a regression model to analyze the influence of farm size on fertilizer use efficiency.The results show that:(1)the average fertilizer use efficiency of whole samples was only 0.60,much lower than the average technical efficiency,indicating that on average half of the fertilizer utilized are excessive in China;and(2)the smallest farm size group get the highest fertilizer use efficiency score.We also provide some possible explanations for the inverse relationship between farm size and fertilizer use efficiency.
