IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/asieco/v64y2019ic5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Family farms plus cooperatives in China: Technical efficiency in crop production

Author

Listed:
  • Gong, Tianchen (Charles)
  • Battese, George E.
  • Villano, Renato A.

Abstract

With the aim of improving rural living standards and strengthening the security of crop production, China has adopted “family farms plus cooperatives” as the preferred mode of organization in agriculture. We investigate technical efficiency in crop production comparing family farms that are members of cooperatives, either as core members who have taken investment stakes or common members who have not, with their nonmember counterparts. To allow for heterogeneity in production technology among nonmembers, core members, and common members, we adopt a metafrontier estimation technique. Our data sample consists of 384 family farms in Anhui province for the year 2015. Heterogeneity among family farms, whether members of cooperatives or not, is found to be highly significant. Nonmember farms show the lowest technical efficiency and the widest gap between observed and potential production. By contrast, core members of cooperatives show the highest technical efficiency and the narrowest gap between observed and potential production. We infer that cooperative membership may allow farmers to learn more advanced technology and take advantage of productivity-enhancing practices. We further find that age and education of farm heads contribute to greater technical efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Gong, Tianchen (Charles) & Battese, George E. & Villano, Renato A., 2019. "Family farms plus cooperatives in China: Technical efficiency in crop production," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-1.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:asieco:v:64:y:2019:i:c:5
    DOI: 10.1016/j.asieco.2019.07.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1049007818302276
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.asieco.2019.07.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kostas Karantininis & Angelo Zago, 2001. "Endogenous Membership in Mixed Duopsonies," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 83(5), pages 1266-1272.
    2. George E. Battese & Greg S. Corra, 1977. "Estimation Of A Production Frontier Model: With Application To The Pastoral Zone Of Eastern Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 21(3), pages 169-179, December.
    3. George Battese & D. Rao & Christopher O'Donnell, 2004. "A Metafrontier Production Function for Estimation of Technical Efficiencies and Technology Gaps for Firms Operating Under Different Technologies," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 91-103, January.
    4. Olga Murova & Benaissa Chidmi, 2013. "Technical efficiency of US dairy farms and federal government programs," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(7), pages 839-847, March.
    5. Tianchen (Charles) Gong & George E. Battese & Renato A. Villano, 2019. "Should Smallholder Farming In China Be Discouraged? Panel Evidence from Anhui Province," Journal of Developing Areas, Tennessee State University, College of Business, vol. 53(1), pages 33-49, January-M.
    6. Villano, Renato & Fleming, Euan & Fleming, Pauline, 2010. "Evidence of farm-level synergies in mixed-farming systems in the Australian Wheat-Sheep Zone," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 146-152, March.
    7. Renato Villano & Euan Fleming, 2006. "Technical Inefficiency and Production Risk in Rice Farming: Evidence from Central Luzon Philippines," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 20(1), pages 29-46, March.
    8. Cliff Huang & Tai-Hsin Huang & Nan-Hung Liu, 2014. "A new approach to estimating the metafrontier production function based on a stochastic frontier framework," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 241-254, December.
    9. Kodde, David A & Palm, Franz C, 1986. "Wald Criteria for Jointly Testing Equality and Inequality Restriction s," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(5), pages 1243-1248, September.
    10. Battese, George E. & Corra, Greg S., 1977. "Estimation Of A Production Frontier Model: With Application To The Pastoral Zone Of Eastern Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 21(3), pages 1-11, December.
    11. George Battese & Sumiter Broca, 1997. "Functional Forms of Stochastic Frontier Production Functions and Models for Technical Inefficiency Effects: A Comparative Study for Wheat Farmers in Pakistan," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 8(4), pages 395-414, November.
    12. Laure Latruffe & Boris E. Bravo-Ureta & Alain Carpentier & Yann Desjeux & Víctor H. Moreira, 2017. "Subsidies and Technical Efficiency in Agriculture: Evidence from European Dairy Farms," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(3), pages 783-799.
    13. Hellin, Jon & Lundy, Mark & Meijer, Madelon, 2009. "Farmer organization, collective action and market access in Meso-America," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 16-22, February.
    14. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    15. Christopher O’Donnell & D. Rao & George Battese, 2008. "Metafrontier frameworks for the study of firm-level efficiencies and technology ratios," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 231-255, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wen Xiang & Jianzhong Gao, 2023. "Do Not Be Anticlimactic: Farmers’ Behavior in the Sustainable Application of Green Agricultural Technology—A Perceived Value and Government Support Perspective," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-24, January.
    2. Haolong Liu, 2022. "The Tripartite Evolutionary Game of Green Agro-Product Supply in an Agricultural Industrialization Consortium," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-19, September.
    3. Samal Kaliyeva & Francisco Jose Areal & Yiorgos Gadanakis, 2020. "Attitudes of Kazakh Rural Households towards Joining and Creating Cooperatives," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, November.
    4. Wanglin Ma & Marco A. Marini & Dil B. Rahut, 2023. "Farmers’ organizations and sustainable development: An introduction," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 683-700, September.
    5. Li, Xinyi & Ito, Junichi, 2023. "Determinants of technical efficiency and farmers’ crop choice rationality: A case study of rural Gansu, China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    6. Zhiping Huang & Tianran Wang & Na Li, 2022. "Reciprocal and Symbiotic: Family Farms’ Operational Performance and Long-Term Cooperation of Entities in the Agricultural Industrial Chain—From the Evidence of Xinjiang in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Menglu Li & Shemei Zhang & Nawab Khan, 2024. "Do farmers' professional cooperatives improve agricultural technical efficiency? Evidence using a national‐level dataset of China," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 363-383, June.
    8. Gao, Jia & Song, Ge & Sun, Xueqing, 2020. "Does labor migration affect rural land transfer? Evidence from China," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    9. Linwei Wang & Yixin Hu & Rong Kong, 2023. "The Impact of Bancassurance Interaction on the Adoption Behavior of Green Production Technology in Family Farms: Evidence from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-26, April.
    10. Hongyu Wang & Apurbo Sarkar & Lu Qian, 2021. "Evaluations of the Roles of Organizational Support, Organizational Norms and Organizational Learning for Adopting Environmentally Friendly Technologies: A Case of Kiwifruit Farmers’ Cooperatives of Me," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, March.
    11. Da Fang & Yan Guo, 2021. "Induced Agricultural Production Organizations under the Transition of Rural Land Market: Evidence from China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-24, September.
    12. Fang Wu & Xibao Guo & Xia Guo, 2023. "Cooperative membership and new technology adoption of family farms: Evidence from China," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 719-739, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Phuc Trong Ho & Pham Xuan Hung & Nguyen Duc Tien, 2023. "Effects of varieties and seasons on cost efficiency in rice farming: A stochastic metafrontier approach," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 13(2), pages 120-129.
    2. Subal C. Kumbhakar & Christopher F. Parmeter & Valentin Zelenyuk, 2022. "Stochastic Frontier Analysis: Foundations and Advances I," Springer Books, in: Subhash C. Ray & Robert G. Chambers & Subal C. Kumbhakar (ed.), Handbook of Production Economics, chapter 8, pages 331-370, Springer.
    3. Edward Ebo ONUMAH & Bernhard BRÜMMER & Gabriele HÖRSTGEN-SCHWARK, 2010. "Productivity of the hired and family labour and determinants of technical inefficiency in Ghana's fish farms," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 56(2), pages 79-88.
    4. Richard Adjei Dwumfour & Eric Fosu Oteng-Abayie & Emmanuel Kwasi Mensah, 2022. "Bank efficiency and the bank lending channel: new evidence," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(3), pages 1489-1542, September.
    5. Xiangfei Xin & Yi Zhang & Jimin Wang & John Alexander Nuetah, 2016. "Effects of Farm Size on Technical Efficiency in China's Broiler Sector: A Stochastic Meta-Frontier Approach," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 64(3), pages 493-516, September.
    6. Nguyen, Hoa-Thi-Minh & Do, Huong & Kompas, Tom, 2021. "Economic efficiency versus social equity: The productivity challenge for rice production in a ‘greying’ rural Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    7. Wirat Krasachat, 2023. "The Effect of Good Agricultural Practices on the Technical Efficiency of Chili Production in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-25, January.
    8. Kuhle Prudence Mnisi & Abdul Latif Alhassan, 2021. "Financial structure and cooperative efficiency: A pecking‐order evidence from sugarcane farmers in Eswatini," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 92(2), pages 261-281, June.
    9. Richard T. Yao & Gerald E. Shively, 2007. "Technical Change and Productive Efficiency: Irrigated Rice in the Philippines," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 21(2), pages 155-168, June.
    10. Khanal, Uttam & Wilson, Clevo & Shankar, Sriram & Hoang, Viet-Ngu & Lee, Boon, 2018. "Farm performance analysis: Technical efficiencies and technology gaps of Nepalese farmers in different agro-ecological regions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 645-653.
    11. Hansen, Rebecca & Hess, Sebastian, 2023. "The Pricing Efficiency of German Wine Cooperatives: A Hedonic Metafrontier Approach," GEWISOLA 63rd Annual Conference, Goettingen, Germany, September 20-22, 2023 344240, GEWISOLA.
    12. Gauri Khanna, 2006. "Technical Efficiency in Production and Resource Use in Sugar Cane: A Stochastic Frontier Production Function Analysis," IHEID Working Papers 15-2006, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    13. Nchinda, Valentine P. & Villano, Renato A. & Hadley, David & Morales, Emilio L., 2016. "Performance of smallholder minisett seed yam farm enterprises in Cameroon," African Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, African Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 11(4), pages 1-15, December.
    14. Toba Stephen Olasehinde & Fangbin Qiao & Shiping Mao, 2022. "Performance of Nigerian Rice Farms from 2010 to 2019: A Stochastic Metafrontier Approach," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-13, July.
    15. Otieno, David Jakinda & Hubbard, Lionel J. & Ruto, Eric, 2011. "Technical efficiency and technology gaps in beef cattle production systems in Kenya: A stochastic metafrontier analysis," 85th Annual Conference, April 18-20, 2011, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 108947, Agricultural Economics Society.
    16. Hasan Dudu & Erol H. Cakmak & Nadir Ocal, 2015. "Drivers of Farm Efficiency in Turkey: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis," World Journal of Applied Economics, WERI-World Economic Research Institute, vol. 1(1), pages 45-63, June.
    17. Bahta, Sirak & Baker, Derek & Malope, Patrick & Katijuongua, Hikuepi, 2015. "A metafronteir analysis of determinants of technical efficiency in beef farm types: an application to Botswana," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 211194, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. Tom Kompas & Tuong Nhu Che & R. Quentin Grafton, 2004. "Technical efficiency effects of input controls: evidence from Australia's banana prawn fishery," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(15), pages 1631-1641.
    19. Roy, Manish & Mazumder, Ritwik, 2016. "Technical Efficiency of Fish Catch in Traditional Fishing: A Study in Southern Assam," Journal of Regional Development and Planning, Rajarshi Majumder, vol. 5(1), pages 55-68.
    20. Roberto Furesi & Fabio Madau & Pietro Pulina, 2013. "Technical efficiency in the sheep dairy industry: an application on the Sardinian (Italy) sector," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 1(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Family farms; Cooperatives; Crop production; Metafrontier; Technical efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C01 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - General - - - Econometrics
    • E23 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Production
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • N55 - Economic History - - Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Extractive Industries - - - Asia including Middle East

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:asieco:v:64:y:2019:i:c:5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/asieco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.