Soil and water conservation projects and national food safety: A panel difference-in-differences estimation based on Heilongjiang province

Abstract

Soil and water conservation investment performance is the key to whether the government should continue to increase related fiscal expenditure. Using a large dataset containing 66 counties from 2002 to 2010, we evaluate economic efficiency of soil and water conservation projects on the prospective of national food safety with a difference-in-differences estimation method. The result shows that the investment contributes to more than 11.2% of total grain production in the sample period and such positive effect has lasted more than one year. However, the analysis also shows that if we can not guarantee the continuity of soil and water conservation projects, it may produce a negative yield. Therefore, in order to ensure national food security, we should maintain and increase financial investment in soil and water conservation construction.