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    Policy distortions, farm size, and the overuse of agricultural chemicals in China

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    Author
    Wu, Y; Xi, X; Tang, X; Luo, D; Gu, B; Lam, SK; Vitousek, PM; Chen, D
    Date
    2018-07-03
    Source Title
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of USA
    Publisher
    NATL ACAD SCIENCES
    University of Melbourne Author/s
    Gu, Baojing; Lam, Shu; Chen, Deli
    Affiliation
    Agriculture and Food Systems
    Metadata
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    Document Type
    Journal Article
    Citations
    Wu, Y., Xi, X., Tang, X., Luo, D., Gu, B., Lam, S. K., Vitousek, P. M. & Chen, D. (2018). Policy distortions, farm size, and the overuse of agricultural chemicals in China. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 115 (27), pp.7010-7015. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1806645115.
    Access Status
    Open Access
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11343/255367
    DOI
    10.1073/pnas.1806645115
    Abstract
    Understanding the reasons for overuse of agricultural chemicals is critical to the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture. Using a nationally representative rural household survey from China, we found that farm size is a strong factor that affects the use intensity of agricultural chemicals across farms in China. Statistically, a 1% increase in farm size is associated with a 0.3% and 0.5% decrease in fertilizer and pesticide use per hectare (P < 0.001), respectively, and an almost 1% increase in agricultural labor productivity, while it only leads to a statistically insignificant 0.02% decrease in crop yields. The same pattern was also found using other independently collected data sources from China and an international panel analysis of 74 countries from the 1960s to the 2000s. While economic growth has been associated with increasing farm size in many other countries, in China this relationship has been distorted by land and migration policies, leading to the persistence of small farm size in China. Removing these distortions would decrease agricultural chemical use by 30-50% and the environmental impact of those chemicals by 50% while doubling the total income of all farmers including those who move to urban areas. Removing policy distortions is also likely to complement other remedies to the overuse problem, such as easing farmer's access to modern technologies and knowledge, and improving environmental regulation and enforcement.

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