The size of a farm is an important factor that affects the amount of agricultural chemicals it uses in China, recent research shows.
Conducted by researchers from Zhejiang University, Wuhan University, Stanford University as well as University of Melbourne, the research was based on data from 20,000 households from the China Rural Household Survey Database being built by Zhejiang University.
The research shows that agricultural chemicals are often used inefficiently on small farms, and moderately expanding the farm size can help alleviate agricultural chemical overuse in China.
According to statistics, a one-percent increase in farm size was found to be associated with a 0.3 percent decrease in fertilizer and 0.5 percent decrease in pesticide per hectare. 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.
China is developing appropriately scaled agricultural operations. When the farm size is expanded, the farmer is more willing to adopt technological innovations and modern management practices, which will help reduce the use of agricultural chemicals, said Gu Baojing, one of the researchers.
The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Xinhua)
86-10-68597521 (day)
86-10-68597289 (night)
86-10-68511095 (day)
86-10-68512458 (night)
cas_en@cas.cn
52 Sanlihe Rd., Xicheng District,
Beijing, China (100864)
Copyright © 2002 - Chinese Academy of Sciences
