Short supply chain participation, and agrochemicals' use intensity and efficiency: evidence from vegetable farms in China
China Agricultural Economic Review
ISSN: 1756-137X
Article publication date: 15 June 2021
Issue publication date: 19 October 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is a major policy concern for many countries. Chinese government has adopted many technologies and management practices to reduce their use. However, little is known about the effects of social-economic method such as short supply chain (SSC) participation. SSC is an important organizational innovation in fresh food supply chains aiming at directly connecting farmers and consumers. Closer relationships between farmers and consumers may result in production behavioral changes. Thus the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of SSC participation on agrochemicals application.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the household level data collected from Jiangsu province in China, this paper employs an instrumental variable (IV) method to address the self-selection bias when we evaluate the effects of SSC participation on use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. In addition, this paper also distinguishes between growth inputs and facilitating inputs in the production function when we calculate the marginal production values of chemical fertilizer and pesticides.
Findings
The empirical results show that SSC participation significantly reduces chemical fertilizer use by 351 kg and pesticides costs by 1659 Yuan (RMB) per hectare, accounting for 43.4% of the average chemical fertilizer use and 49.4% of the average pesticide costs, respectively for Chinese vegetable farms. However, SSC participation still cannot improve the use efficiency of agrochemicals.
Originality/value
This paper uses both application quantities and allocation efficiencies of chemical fertilizer and pesticides to comprehensively evaluate the effects of SSC participations. The results will reveal the core role of SSC played in promoting sustainable development of Chinese agricultural sector dominated by small-scale farmers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are very grateful to the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, which helped to improve the paper. The funding support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project ID: 72003074; 71633005; 71873051), the Key Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research, Ministry of Education [Project ID: 20JZD015], the Philosophy and Social Sciences Project of Ministry of Education [Project ID: 19YJC630191] and the project from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics [1009-YAH21051] are acknowledged by the authors.
Citation
Zhang, X. and Yu, X. (2021), "Short supply chain participation, and agrochemicals' use intensity and efficiency: evidence from vegetable farms in China", China Agricultural Economic Review, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 721-735. https://doi.org/10.1108/CAER-05-2020-0108
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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