Measuring agricultural total factor productivity in China: pattern and drivers over the period of 1978‐2016

Abstract

The Chinese agricultural sector has experienced a substantial increase in total output since dramatic reforms were introduced in 1978. This paper uses the index method to measure agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) for China’s crop and livestock industries, based on the gross output model from 1978 to 2016. We construct production accounts for the industries using input‐output relationships for the 26 main agricultural commodities and commodity groups, which account for over 90 per cent of the total agricultural inputs and outputs. The results show that China’s agricultural TFP grew at a rate of approximately 2.4 per cent a year before 2009, which is comparable to the main OECD countries and is double the world average. TFP growth accounts for approximately 40 per cent of output growth, suggesting that input growth was the main driver of output growth in the past. However, average productivity growth slowed down after 2009 though it has gradually recovered since 2012. The slowdown reflects the emerging challenges to existing farm production practices in Chinese agriculture, suggesting the need for further institutional reform.

Spatial-Temporal Characteristics of Agriculture Green Total Factor Productivity in China, 1998–2016: Based on More Sophisticated Calculations of Carbon Emissions

“…China’s agriculture has developed rapidly in recent years and achieved great progress [1]. In 2017, China’s total agriculture output value (including crop, livestock, forestry, and fishery) reached 6.8 billion yuan, with 134.9 million hectares of arable land and 361.8 million agricultural practitioners [2]. However, the development of agriculture in China has caused serious pressure on the environment [3], because it produces a large amount of carbon emissions each year, accounting for a high proportion of all carbon emissions—much higher than the United States and the world average [4,5,6,7].…”

The Zoonotic diseases, agricultural production, and impact channels: Evidence from China

“…This yearbook is edited by China Price Information Centre, National Development and Reform Commission of China, which is responsible for cost surveys of key industries, agricultural products, and goods and services. The cost data is collected by all levels of price authorities and cost investigation institutions, and it is widely used in related studies ( Young, 2000 ; Jin et al, 2002 , 2010 ; Wang et al, 2016 ; Gong, 2020 ; Sheng et al, 2020 ). The commodity-level data are applied in this paper for two reasons.…”

Patent prospects and trends in post-harvest management technology of fresh agricultural products

“…Overall post-harvest management technologies, and particularly fruit storage technologies, have shown an explosive increase in patent applications since 2013. This increase coincides with an increase in the overall size of the Chinese agricultural market (Sheng et al, 2019). A patent distribution map is used to synthesize patent information, including patent counts, national contributions, and patent applicants.…”

“…The rapid increase in patents indicates that it was the closest to a completely free competitive market, meaning that it is less complicated to enter the post-harvest management technology market in China, compared with other countries The proportional change in patents for 2013-2017. x-axis, four upper subcategories of packaging technology and four lower subcategories of storage technology; y-axis, patent applicants which are Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. Group, Mitsui Chemicals Inc., Korea Food Research Institute, Rural Development Administration of South Korea, Toyobo Co., Ltd., QP Corp, Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Co., Inc., AgroFresh Co., Ltd., Landec Corp., and Chiquita Co.. Circle sizes are the relative correlation between the numbers of patents and applicants. (Rolle, 2006;Sheng et al, 2019). Regarding the technology position for the two categories, packaging technology is in the recovery stage, and applicants/applications in storage technology continue to grow.…”