Investigating Yield Variability and Inefficiency in Rice Production: A Case Study in Central China

Zhihai Yang,Fan Zhang,Amin Mugera

doi:10.3390/su8080787

Zhihai Yang, Fan Zhang + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su8080787

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Abstract

Insufficient and high variability in rice yield is a threat to food security in China, prompting the need for strategies to mitigate yield variability and increase productivity. This study investigates the presence of production risk and technical inefficiency for a sample of rice farms in the Xiangyang city of China using a stochastic production frontier framework. Results from the risk function reveal that labor and better soil quality have significant risk-reducing effects while machinery exerts a significant risk-increasing effect on rice production. The estimated mean technical efficiency score is 84%, suggesting that, on average, farmers could increase their rice production by 16%, without increasing the existing input levels by improving their management techniques. Factors that significantly affect technical efficiency are the age of farmers, female ratio, access and use of extension services, off-farm income, and the size of cultivated land. Results from this study suggest that yield variability and technical inefficiency in rice production can be reduced by appropriate choice of input combinations and elimination of mistakes in the production process through efficient management practices. Strategies, such as providing better extension services, loosening liquidity constraints facing farmers, and expanding rice farmers’ producing area, would help to achieve minimum inefficiency in production.

Highlights

Grain is one of the most important sources of human nutrition in many parts of the world [1]
Both the null hypotheses that the Cobb-Douglas specification is preferred over the translog specification and the technical inefficiency effect is absent in the surveyed rice farms are rejected at the 1% level of significance
This study investigated the presence of production risk and technical inefficiency for a sample of 231 rice farms in the Xiangyang city of China

Summary

Introduction

Grain is one of the most important sources of human nutrition in many parts of the world [1]. Chinese grain production is facing unprecedented challenges to continue to produce more rice while being constrained by limited arable land, population growth pressure, environmental pollution, degradation of soil fertility, water scarcity, and climate change [6,7,8]. These problems pose a challenge to the sustainability of agricultural production, especially the country’s ability to maintain a high level of crop productivity and stability in the long run [9,10,11]. China’s political agenda has always placed a high priority on managing production risk to minimize yield variability and finding methods to motivate farmers to make efficient use of scarce farm resources and, contribute to the growth of productivity

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