Abstract
The Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy (abbreviated as GECP), which aims to realize the ecological protection by reducing the stock-carrying capacity of pastures and promote the transformation of pasture animal husbandry by improving the herders' breeding methods, has been a major project in China's grassland pastoral areas and grassland ecological construction. This study, thus, sought to measure the breeding efficiency of herders before and after the implementation of GECP. Moreover, the study also thought to analyze the effect and the effecting path of the implementation of GECP on the efficiency of herders' livestock breeding. GECP enables herders to obtain financial subsidies while minimizing the utilization of grassland, which brings challenges and opportunities to herders' traditional livestock production. This study used the two-stage data obtained from a randomly selected sample of 449 herders in the Inner Mongolia grassland area of China in 2018. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) and parallel mediating effect (PME) models were used to analyze the data. The results show that the general effect of GECP on the breeding efficiency of herders in the Inner Mongolia is positive (P < 0.01), and the change of breeding methods (direct effect) is the main influence path. Specifically, the grassland circulation behavior (P < 0.01) and the scale of breeding (P < 0.01) are part of the mediating effect. While the mediating effect of the breeding structure is not significant (P > 0.1). This study also shows that the non-agricultural and animal husbandry income of herders has a negative impact on the breeding efficiency (P < 0.01), and herders' age and breeding scale have a positive effect on the breeding efficiency (P<0.01). This study has not only answered the question whether the GECP can improve the efficiency of husbandry, but also focused on the analysis of the impacting mechanism of policies on efficiency. It is of great significance to further improve GECP and the related supporting policies and promote the transformation of China's grassland animal husbandry.
Highlights
In recent decades, the ecological environment of grassland has been deteriorating in china
The results show that the general effect of GECP on the breeding efficiency of herders in the Inner Mongolia is positive (P < 0.01), and the change of breeding methods is the main influence path
The results of Model 4 showed that the direct effect of GECP on livestock breeding technical efficiency was significantly positive at P < 0.01(1%), and the scale effect and grassland circulation effect were both positive and the symbol was the same as the direct effect (3.750, P < 0.01), indicating that the grassland circulation and scale of cultivation were partial mediating effects in the impact of GECP on the technical efficiency of livestock breeding, that is, GECP was directly positive by changing the breeding mode of herders to promote the efficiency of livestock breeding technology
Summary
The ecological environment of grassland has been deteriorating in china. This has been influenced by the natural factors such as climate change and the human factors such as overloading and overgrazing [1]. Most grassland in China are located in arid and semiarid areas where the natural environment is relatively bad [3]. Extreme climatic conditions such as drought, sandstorm and snow disaster occur frequently. The grassland ecological service function in some areas has been weakening, affecting the sustainable development of pastoral areas and even the ecological security of China. The grassland yield has gradually decreased, which affects livestock production and threatens the production function and livelihood of the grassland [6,7,8]
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