Labor Input Research Articles

Devolution of tenure rights in forestland in China: Impact on investment and forest growth

I investigate whether devolution of forestland tenure rights to households in China triggered forest investment and the impact on forest conditions. I use a panel dataset of a two-round survey of over 10,000 forestland plots held by 1500 households in eight provinces before and after the devolution. Using a quasi-experimental regression approach, I find that forestland devolved to households has higher per-area-unit, yearly labor input and capital investment. I also find larger forest cover in regions devolving more. The findings support that clearly-defined and well-protected household property rights offer an effective alternative to common-pool resources management in small-scale forestry.

Technical efficiency of agroforestry production technology among smallholder farmers in Kaduna State, Nigeria

This study evaluated technical efficiency of agroforestry production technology among smallholder farmers in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted. A total sample size of 120 smallholder agroforestry farmers was used. Primary data were collected with the aid of structured and well-designed questionnaire. Analytical tools used were: descriptive statistics, farm budgeting techniques, financial analysis, stochastic production frontier model, and principal component model. About 85% of agroforestry farmers were male, while 15% were female. Also, 87.50% of agroforestry farmers were less than 50 years of age. The mean age was 45 years. Furthermore, 85% of agroforestry farmers had formal education and were literate. The household sizes were large with mean value of 6 members per household. The agroforestry systems practiced include: alley farming, shelterbelts, wind breaks, home gardens, api-silviculture, aqua-forestry, retaining tree on farm land, taungya systems, farmed parkland, and silvo-pasture. The result of the farm budgetary technique show that agroforestry farming was profitable among the smallholder farmers in the study area. The result of the maximum likelihood estimates shows that the significant factors influencing output of agroforestry production technology were: seed input (P<0.05), farm size input (P<0.01), fertilizer input (P<0.10), labour input (P<0.10), and chemical input (P<0.01). The significant factors influencing technical inefficiency of agroforestry production technology were: gender (P<0.10), marital status (P<0.01), education level (P<0.01), experience in agroforestry production (P<0.01) and size of households (P<0.10). The average technical efficiency score obtained by the smallholder agroforestry farmers was 40.18%. The constraints facing agroforestry farmers include: lack of training and capacity building, inadequate extension officers, lack of improved seeds, lack of credit facilities, lack of fertilizers, and lack of agroforestry tree seedlings. The study recommends that agroforestry tree seedlings should be made available to farmers, credit facilities should be provided for easy access to agroforestry production technologies, extension officers should be employed, and improved seeds, fertilizers should be provided for increased productivity.

How agricultural contracting services are reshaping small-scale household farming in China

ABSTRACT This study examines the development of the ACS industry by taking the Agricultural Machinery Service (AMS) industry as a case study and discussing its impacts on small-scale household producers. Drawing upon the theory of ‘appropriationism’, this article shows that, by replacing family labor input, AMS providers take a share of the total agricultural income. As family labor input decreases, the producers are increasingly marginalized in the distribution of agricultural income. Even if small-scale household producers still retain small plots of land, they have increasingly lost control over the farming process and become increasingly subsumed to capitalism.

The Influence Mechanism of Farmer Behavior on the Spatial Pattern Evolution of Agricultural Production in the Yanhe River Basin

Featuring complex and fractured terrain, the Loess hilly and gully regions suffer poor grain production capacity. The behavior of farmers, the major users of agricultural production space, significantly influences the agricultural production space. Hence, it is essential to explore the evolution rules of the agricultural production space under the influence of farmer behavior and reveal the influencing mechanism of agricultural production space change, which will facilitate the promotion of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin. Relying on six-stage remote sensing images of the Yanhe River Basin from 1995 to 2018, this study utilized a land use dynamic index, transfer matrix and landscape pattern index to analyze the spatial pattern evolution of agricultural production in the Yanhe River Basin. Furthermore, the geographic detector model was applied to quantitatively analyze the influencing factors of the spatial pattern evolution of agricultural production. The results demonstrated the following: (1) From 1995 to 2018, the overall area of cultivated land in the Yanhe River Basin decreased by 927.02 km2, with a change degree of 21.07%. The spatial structure of agricultural production changed, mainly transferring the cultivated land to woodland and grassland. (2) The spatial form of agricultural production has changed from fragmentation to regularity, and the complexity of the production space shows a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. (3) The evolution of the spatial pattern of agricultural production was affected by multiple factors of farmer behavior, where significant interactive enhancement effects existed. Specifically, labor input was the dominant factor affecting the overall scale of the production space, with an influence value of 0.202; fertilization input and cultivated land transfer were the key factors affecting the spatial distribution of production, with influence values of 0.264 and 0.242, respectively; income level and social interaction were the base factors affecting the spatial form of production, with influence values of 0.558 and 0.438, respectively. The research results provide scientific support for the improvement of agricultural production quality and the spatial evolution mechanism of agricultural production in the Yanhe River Basin.

Towards sustainable management of agricultural resources: A framework to assess the relationship between water, soil, economic factors, and grain production

As the requirements for environmental protection and high-efficiency economies increase, grain production (GP) across the globe faces more stringent ecological constraints and economic pressure. Understanding the relationships between natural resources and economic and agricultural factors in grain-producing regions is paramount for ensuring global food security. This paper proposes a methodological framework to explore the relationships between water and soil resources (WSRs), economic input factors (EIFs), and GP. We employed the northeast region of China as a case study to advance our understanding of the factors driving the development of grain-producing capacity. We first constructed and calculated the region's water and soil comprehensive index (WSCI) to describe water-soil properties. We then used hotspot analysis to explore the spatial agglomeration characteristics of WSRs, EIFs, and GP. Finally, we used threshold regression analysis to understand the effects of EIFs and GP with the WSCI as the threshold variable. With the improvement of the WSCI, the positive impact of fertilizer and irrigation on GP shows a U-shaped curve in elasticity coefficients. The positive effect of agricultural machinery on GP decreases significantly, and the impact of labor input on GP is insignificant. These results provide new insights into the relationship between WSRs, EIFs, and GP and a reference for improving GP efficiency globally. This work thus contributes to advancing our capabilities to enable food security while considering aspects of sustainable agriculture in important grain-producing regions across the globe.

Macroeconomic challenges of scaling up aid to West African Economic and Monetary Union

AbstractThe increase in Official Development Assistance for which the international community has mobilised should enable developing countries such as those of the West African Economic and Monetary Union to have the resources to achieve sustainable development goals and, more recently, to deal with the Coronavirus crisis. But this ‘Big Push’ of aid presents several macroeconomic challenges that this paper simulates using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model. The results showed that an increase in aid to West African Economic and Monetary Union countries translates into an increase in output and labour input. On the other hand, increased aid leads to an appreciation of the real exchange rate and a widening of the budget deficit.

PALAEOASSOCIA as a methodological tool for phytosociological analyses is further developed

The earlier version of PALAEOASSOCIA involved a considerable input of manual labour in sorting species tables with association data to identify plant communities that could have been present. A large archaeobotanical dataset from the site of Best (The Netherlands) was used to judge whether this manual sorting results in subjective results. As these were found, we developed a fully automatic version of PALAEOASSOCIA, including this sorting process. Likelihood clustering with prior probability yielded the highest number of associations recovered from four samples, and was therefore chosen as the optimal clustering method. The sorted tables are automatically converted to syntaxonomical groups. The hierarchical level of these groups can be pre-defined by the user of the program. Syntaxa that are highly improbable geographically cannot be ruled out a priori, but need to be removed manually. PALAEOASSOCIA is not meant to replace other methods of ecological interpretations of archaeobotanical data, but instead as a tool to obtain a more detailed result.

The effect of digital transformation on intrapreneurship in real economy enterprises: a labor input perspective

PurposeDigital transformation is a confidence booster in intrapreneurship, but few have examined its impact on intrapreneurship. Further, quantitative analyses exploring the impact of Chinese enterprises' digital transformation on intrapreneurship at the micro-level are rare. Most enterprises do not have the dividend for digital transformation, and few enterprises have successfully achieved digital transformation through intrapreneurship, internal management re-engineering and technological innovation. This study investigates the effect of digital transformation on intrapreneurship in Chinese real economy enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe study develops and tests a theoretical model that digital transformation impacts intrapreneurship by promoting working capital turnover and furtherly influencing labor input. Panel data of 1,638 Chinese-listed companies between 2007 and 2020 were used to complete the empirical test.FindingsDigital transformation impacted labor input, with an inverted-U shaped relationship between the two, and labor input significantly stimulated intrapreneurship. This effect promoted labor input's impact on working capital. Chinese real economy enterprises generally increase labor investment to promote intrapreneurship. Heterogeneity analysis revealed that enterprises' asset scale and ownership attributes uniformly affected labor input.Originality/valueThis study provided empirical evidence of the promotional effect of real economy enterprises' digital transformation on intrapreneurship. Further, it advanced the literature by examining this relationship at the micro-level. Moreover, the data sample was long-term and included most industries, thus providing representative results with practical implications.

Compliance costs and productivity: an approach from working hours.

This study proposes a new approach of measuring compliance costs of rules and regulations by focusing on labor input, and estimates the compliance costs in Japan based on a survey of workers. According to the results, the working hours required to comply with rules and regulations account for more than 20% of total labor input. By industry, this cost is higher in the finance and insurance industry followed by the health and welfare industry, and by firm size, it is higher in large firms. If these costs were halved, overall economic productivity would increase by about 8%.

Sustainable Analysis of Maize Production under Previous Wheat Straw Returning in Arid Irrigated Areas

Conservation tillage is widely recognized as an important way to improve soil quality, ensure food security and mitigate climate change. However, relatively little attention has been paid to the subject in terms of sustainable evaluation of environmental and economic benefits of the combination of no tillage and straw returning for maize production in arid irrigated areas. In this study, grain yield (GY) and water use efficiency based on grain yield (WUEGY), soil carbon emission characteristics and economic benefits were investigated, and a sustainability evaluation index based on the above indicators was assessed in maize production under a wheat–maize rotation system from 2009 to 2012. Four wheat straw returning approaches were designed: no tillage with 25 to 30 cm tall wheat straw mulching (NTSMP), no tillage with 25 to 30 cm tall wheat straw standing (NTSSP), conventional tillage with 25 to 30 cm tall wheat straw incorporation (CTSP), and conventional tillage without wheat straw returning (CTP). The results showed that NTSMP treatment could effectively regulate water consumption characteristics of maize fields and meet the water conditions for high grain yield formation, thus gaining higher GY and WUEGY. NTSMP increased GY and WUEGY of maize by 13.7–17.5% and 15.4–16.7% over the CTP treatment, and by 5.6–9.0% and 2.3–11.2% over the CTSP treatment, respectively. Meanwhile, compared with CTP, the NTSMP treatment could effectively reduce carbon emissions from maize fields, where average soil carbon emission fluxes (ACf), carbon emission (CE) and water use efficiency based on carbon emission (WUECE) were reduced by 17.7–18.9%, 11.1–11.2% and 8.8–12.8% and carbon emission efficiency (CEE) was increased by 10.2–14.7%. In addition, the NTSMP and NTSSP treatments could effectively increase total output and reduce human labor and farm machinery input, resulting in higher economic benefit. Among them, the NTSMP treatment was the most effective, net income (NI) and benefit per cubic meter of water (BPW) were increased by 16.1–34.2% and 19.1–31.8% over the CTP treatment, and by 13.2–13.3% and 9.8–15.6% over the CTSP treatment, respectively. The sustainability analysis showed that the NTSMP treatment had a high sustainability evaluation index and was a promising field-management strategy. Therefore, no tillage with 25 to 30 cm tall wheat straw mulching is a sustainable maize-management practice for increasing economic benefits and improving environmental impacts in arid irrigated areas.

Emergy−based efficiency and sustainability assessments of diversified multi−cropping systems in South China

Designing diversified multi-cropping systems is critical for making full use of natural resources on the limited cultivated land to achieve more agricultural products in a sustainable way. However, information is still lacking on whether the higher multi-cropping index possibly decreases the use efficiency of resources and the sustainability of the cropping system due to more agricultural inputs on limited farmland. Therefore, this study introduced the emergy evaluation and designed two trials to quantitatively compare the efficiency and sustainability of different multi-cropping systems in South China, where double-rice was used as a control (CK). Trial 1 included peanut−rice (PRF), peanut−rice/ryegrass × milk vetch mixture (1:1) (PRM1), and peanut−rice/ryegrass × milk vetch mixture (1:2) (PRM2). Trial two included maize−rice (MRF), maize−rice/ryegrass × milk vetch mixture (1:1) (MRM1), and maize−rice/ryegrass × milk vetch mixture (1:2) (MRM2). In trial 1, compared to CK, the annual productivity of PRF decreased 15.38%, while both PRM1 and PRM2 increased 10.49%. Results illustrated that the annual productivity of the MRF, MRM1, and MRM2 systems in trial 2 were improved by 53.85%–85.31% compared to the CK. Meanwhile, the efficiency of the maize-based cultivation patterns (MRF, MRM1, and MRM2) to use nonrenewable resources was increased by 23.56%–24.62% compared to the conventional double-rice system. Moreover, the emergy sustainability index (ESI) in MRM1, and MRM2 systems were 175.63% and 175.51% higher than the CK, respectively. The ESI of PRF, PRM1, and PRM2 were 12.13%, 118.20% and 118.05% higher than CK, respectively. In general, the MRM1 and MRM2 showed the highest efficiency and sustainability compared to other cropping patterns. The key points to improve the efficiency and sustainability of multi-cropping systems were to optimize the fertilizer and labor inputs. This study provided valuable information for the development of diversified multi-cropping systems in South China. It was also a reference for the development of sustainable agriculture in the subtropical agricultural system in the world.

Riset Pengaruh Indeks Pembangunan Manusia Dan Tenaga Kerja Pada Pertumbuhan Ekonomi

In line with IPM, labor is a factor that affects economic growth, the role of work is one of the production factors that affect the level of national income. At the same time it is assumed that with the increase in labor input at the production plant, then the volume of production will also increase. In other words, if the amount of labor does not increase, the amount of production remains the same. Such a statement cannot be considered completely true, because although the number of employees has not changed, it is possible that if the quality of employees increases, the level of production will also increase.

Post-evaluation analysis on urban coal, oil and gas resources comprehensive utilization governance project: A case study in Fuxian, China

China's energy and chemical enterprises in the resource-based urban cities face challenges of climate change targets. Coal, Oil and Gas Resources Comprehensive Utilization (COGRCU) project can address the carbon and hydrogen imbalance between conventional methanol from coal and natural gas. Moreover, it can improve energy conversion rates and carbon resource recovery. Therefore, it is a better way for energy and chemical enterprises to transition to sustainable development and advocated by enterprises in resource-based cities. In practice, the actual benefits of the COGRCU project are often different from those expected from prior assessments, and the main factors contributing to the differences need to be identified. Therefore, it is necessary to propose a post-evaluation methodology for the COGRCU project to assist energy and chemical enterprises in identifying these constraints and optimize project management. This study considers energy and monetary flows, combines emergy-based energy return on investment (EmEROI) and cost-benefit analysis (CBA), and proposes a post-evaluation methodology of the COGRCU project based on the case study of YC Group's Fuxian COGRCU project in Fuxian County. In addition, the emergy per unit money, emergy per unit labor, and bio-resources emergy per unit area of Yan'an City are measured. Results showed that indirect energy and labor input emergy are the primary contributors to improving the projects' energy efficiency. Operating costs reduction are the key factors for improving economic benefits. The indirect energy has the highest impact on the project's EmEROI, followed by labor, direct energy, and environmental governance. Several policy recommendations are raised, including strengthening policy support, such as advancing the formulation and revision of fiscal and tax policies, improving project assets and human resource management, and increasing environmental governance efforts.

Can farmland transfer reduce vulnerability as expected poverty? Evidence from smallholder households in rural China

IntroductionExtant literature has extensively explored farmland transfer ‘s impacts, confirming its essential role in poverty alleviation. How-ever, most studies focus on poverty measures that exclusively emphasize current poverty status without adequately addressing the potential of falling into or remaining in poverty. Furthermore, the role of farmland transfer in helping the smallholder house-holds in rural areas appears to be underexamined in the literature.MethodsTo address this knowledge gap, this study investigates whether farmland transfer can reduce household vulnerability to poverty. A theoretical framework is developed to capture the mechanism by which farmland transfer has a vital role in smallholder households and impacts the probability of being poor in the future. The China Family Panel Studies Survey data set from 2010 to 2018 is used to explore this issue.Results and DiscussionThe results show that land transfer-out households are seemingly the most effective at reducing vulnerability, whereas the reduction effect is not obvious among transfer-in households. Specifically, the vulnerability of transfer-out households is reduced by about 39.52%. Furthermore, we analyze the reasons for heterogeneity in the poverty reduction effects and find that the key mechanism is on the labor resource allocation decision the heterogeneity of the effects of different types of income. Actually, for transfer-out households, farmland transfer can increase the probability of migrant work and business opportunities, as well as the labor input for non-agricultural production, which helps to reduce vulnerability to poverty. On the other hand, for transfer-in households, they will invest more labor in agricultural production and increase agricultural inputs, whereas increased inputs to agricultural production do not actually reduce vulnerability to poverty. Transferring out land can significantly increase farmers’ wage income and thus compensate for the loss of farm income; however, the increase in farm income generated by transferring in land roughly offsets the loss of wage income for farmers. This study provides a new research perspective on the long-term effects of farmland transfer on rural poverty.

Better Nitrogen Fertilizer Management Improved Mchare Banana Productivity and Profitability in Northern Highlands, Tanzania

Declining land productivity is a major problem constraining banana (Musa spp.) production in Tanzania. Banana fruit yield consequently reaches only 15% of the potential, primarily due to inadequate soil nutrient replenishment. Improving farmers’ soil nutrient replenishment strategy in banana home gardens, which relies on applications of cattle manure only, by mixing with inorganic fertilizer resources can increase land productivity and can improve the overall profitability of banana production in the country. Experiments were conducted at Tarakea, Lyamungo, and Tengeru to determine the effects of organic fertilizer resources (animal manure and crop residue) and their combination with inorganic fertilizer resources on the productivity and profitability of Mchare banana production. Banana fruit yield differed significantly among the experimental sites, with drier areas of Tengeru recording, on average, 19.6 t ha−1 year−1, while the more humid areas of Lyamungo recorded, on average, 39.3 ha−1 year−1. Mchare banana plants grown under sole inorganic fertilizer produced significantly low yields (33.0 t ha−1 year−1) compared with those fertilized with cattle manure only, which lifted the yields to 38.8 t ha−1 year−1, but the latter required more labor input. Soil nitrogen (N) fertilization via cattle manure + mineral fertilizer gave the highest average banana fruit yield (43.0 t ha−1 year−1) across the sites, and reduced fertilization costs by 32%. Subsequently, this integrated fertilization technique generated the highest average net benefits in all sites and both cropping cycles. Thus, the findings of this study form a basis to improve land productivity and profitability in banana-based home gardens in the study area by directing more labor input to good soil N management.

DETERMINANTS OF LEVEL OF ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF RICE PRODUCERS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

This study examined determinants and level of economic efficiency of rice production in Anambra State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: estimate the level of economic efficiency attained by rice farmers in the area; ascertain the determinants of level of economic efficiency attained by the farmers and assess the nature of returns to scale of rice production in the study area. Two hypotheses tested were: there is no significant difference between the levels of economic efficiency attained by farmers in the selected agricultural zones and socio-economic characteristics of the rice farmers do not significantly influence their economic efficiency level. Primary data were used for the study and Multistage, purposive and random sampling methods were used select 378 respondents. The collated data were analyzed by means of descriptive and inferential statistical tools such as Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression, Cobb Douglas Stochastic Frontier Production function and Scheffe’s Multiple Comparison test. Findings indicated a minimum economic efficiency score of 0.86, maximum of 
 0.99 and mean of 0.95 for rice farmers in the study area. Scheffe’s Multiple Comparison test indicated significant difference between means of economic efficiency scores and per hectare profits of farmers from paired agricultural zones. Maximun Likelihood Estimation of the Cobb Douglas stochastic frontier production regression showed that the production factors of land, labour and other inputs significantly and positively influenced economic efficiency level of the farmers. Inefficiency effect was significantly and negatively affected by educational level and amount of credit obtained; significantly and positively affected by farming experience while extension visit and farm size were not significant. Returns to scale figures were 1.32, 1.25, 1.15 and 1.12 for Anambra, Aguata and Awka Agricultural zones, and the State (pooled data) respectively. This implies increasing returns to scale across the Agricultural zones and the study area. It is recommended that Government should ensure adequate budgetary allocations to the institutions responsible for making cheap loans available to farmers while the institutions should maintain timely disbursement of the funds.

A network‐based economic growth model with endogenous migration and poverty traps

AbstractWe analyze a network‐based macroeconomic framework with the objective to analyze the effects that endogenous migration choices may have on the mutual relation between population dynamics and capital accumulation. In our economy population size determines the labor input which, together with the available capital stock, shapes total output. Production takes place with a convex‐concave technology allowing for a poverty trap. Migration depends on the origin‐destination income differential and affects the fertility rate. Thus population growth ultimately turns out to be endogenously dependent upon economic conditions. Such feedback effects between population and capital dynamics give rise to possible heterogeneity in the patterns of economic development, allowing to explain the large variability in the level of development between regions we generally observe at world level. We show that a higher degree of economic interaction improves economic outcomes at global level by allowing poor economies to escape their poverty trap, suggesting thus that promoting the formation of tight relations between countries may be an important policy option to favor economic development.

Improving grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency of direct-seeded rice with simplified and nitrogen-reduced practices under a double-cropping system in South China.

Enhancing grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of rice is of great importance for sustainable agricultural development. Little effort has been made to increase grain yield and NUE of direct-seeded rice under the double-cropping system in South China. Field trials were conducted during 2018-2020 with four treatments, including nitrogen-free, farmers' fertilization practice (FP), 'three controls' nutrient management (TC), and simplified and nitrogen-reduced practice (SNRP). Grain yield under SNRP averaged 6.46 t ha-1 during the three years and was 23.0% higher than that of FP but comparable to that of TC. Recovery efficiency (REN ), agronomic efficiency (AEN ), and partial factor productivity (PFPN ) of nitrogen under SNRP increased by 12.0-22.7%, 159.3-295.0% and 94.6-112.5% respectively compared with FP. Harvest index and sink capacity increased by 7.3-10.8% and 14.9-21.3% respectively. Percentage of productive tillers (PPT) and biomass after heading increased by 24.0% and 104.5% respectively. Leaf nitrogen concentration at heading and nitrogen accumulation after heading increased by 16.3% and 842.0% respectively. Grain yield was positively correlated with PPT, sink capacity, harvest index, biomass and nitrogen accumulation after heading, REN , AEN , and PFPN . Grain yield and NUE under SNRP were superior to those under FP and comparable to those under TC. Increase in sink capacity, higher PPT, more biomass and nitrogen accumulation after heading, and greater harvest index were responsible for high grain yield and NUE in SNRP with reduced nitrogen fertilizer and labor input. SNRP is a feasible approach for direct-seeded rice under a double-cropping system in South China. © 2023 Society of Chemical Industry.

Research on forestry labor input measurement and forestry industry development in China

PurposeAt present, China’s forestry development is mainly driven by the traditional production factors such as forestry labor force, land resources and capital and thus the top priority of forestry development is to optimize forestry production factors. Scientific and effective forestry labor input has a significant role in promoting the development of forestry industry. Given that the actual input to forestry labor is not clear, the accuracy of the forestry industry development may be slightly affected. Based on the monitoring project of collective forest tenure reform (RCFT), this paper uses the survey data of 3,500 rural households in seven provinces of China from 2010 to 2014 and 2016 to 2017 to measure the actual labor force in China, and empirically analyzes and studies the factors influencing the development of forestry industry based on the provincial data of forestry in China, and further discusses the heterogeneous impact of forestry production factors on the development of forestry industry.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the generalized least squares estimation model is used to calculate the actual number of forestry labor in China, and then the Cobb–Douglas production function is selected to explore the influencing factors of forestry industry development.FindingsThe results show that the actual number of forestry labor force in China continues to decline and the degree of reduction varies from different regions. The forestry labor is a major factor that promotes the development of the forestry industry, but this promotion is affected by the low matching degree between the forestry production factors and thus further inhibits the development of the forestry industry. Due to the time lag of the reform, the implementation of RCFT first weakens and then promotes the development of forestry production. Further on, the forestry labor input is heterogeneous in land resource endowment, forestry investment source and the proportion of management personnel.Originality/valueTherefore, researches show that the feasible way to promote the development of forestry industry is to expand the scale of forestry labor force, optimize the mutual allocation of forestry production factors, enhance the input of human capital in forestry and deepen the RCFT.

1 Challenges in the Pasture

Abstract Cow-calf farms are abundant across the southeastern US and there is a wide diversity of farm sizes and types of farmers. Farms include small-scale part-time farms, and large commercial-scale farms, often integrated with other farm enterprises. Many farmers have full-time employment off the farm and little if any hired labor, such that there is little time to devote to farming activities. In contrast, large farms often have access to labor, equipment and other inputs that may not be available to small farms. The diversity of farms and farmer demographics makes extension programming challenging as motivational factors vary considerably. Many pasture management practices proven by research have very low levels of adoption including active grazing management, pasture renovation, hay testing, etc. We assume that all farmers are focused on profitability, but this is clearly not the case especially with small part-time farmers. Other motivations may be enjoyment of spending time with animals, time spent with family, improving animal welfare, interest in machinery and “gadgets”, and other non-farm interests including using a cow-calf enterprise to hold land in some kind of agriculture for future development. New management practices may make sense from a profitability perspective but might require the development of new skills that the farmer does not have. Additionally, there may be other barriers including access to necessary equipment, conflicting information provided by advisers, and expertise in simple practices such as planting and spraying. As an example, novel endophyte tall fescue (NETF) has potential to eliminate the negative aspects of endophyte infected tall fescue while maintaining the desirable agronomic characteristics. While NETF technology is research proven and has been available to producers for over two decades, adoption has been very slow. The Alliance for Grassland Renewal is a multi-state private/public collaborative formed to promote the appropriate adoption of NETF. The Alliance conducts workshops to teach farmers and their advisors about how to best implement the NETF technology. The collaborative effort provides a more uniform set of recommendations than was formerly available through each member state. Through workshop evaluations we found several important factors that limit adoption including 1) the balance of cost and benefit is unclear, 2) farmers have limited financial resources, 3) the land is rented or unsuitable for renovation, and 4) farmers lack of knowledge, and 5) farm forage reserves are limiting. Many of these pasture management practices are difficult to adopt because they require many sequential steps that must be completed in a timely way. This may leave the farmer hesitant to take the first step in the process. For practices that are very different than standard management, use of on-farm demonstrations and hands-on learning have proven valuable.