This study examines the relationship between groundwater irrigation and off-farm employment with a set of household level data collected in North China. The results provide evidence that off-farm employment reduces both time spent on irrigation in terms of total hours of irrigation and the amount of groundwater pumped. However, these effects have not resulted in losses of crop production. In fact, water productivity measured as output value produced per m³of groundwater pumped is higher among households with off-farm employment. These seemingly contradictory findings are explained by the increased use of water-saving technologies such as furrow irrigation, underground pipes and/or lined canals. These technologies reduce seepage losses during the conveyance of groundwater as well as during irrigation of the fields. As a result, less groundwater needs to be pumped to achieve the same level of groundwater irrigation application rate in the field.

This study examines whether cooperatives can assist more than 200 million farmers in China, who are facing tightening resources and environmental constraints, in adopting green farming practices. A framework for counterfactual analysis was established to quantify the impact of farmers joining cooperatives on the reduction in chemical fertilizer consumption and the use of organic fertilizers. The study’s conclusions are based on data from 712 farmers in four counties in Shandong and Henan provinces. Joining a cooperative can have a positive impact on farmers’ selection of environmentally friendly production methods, which increases the likelihood of farmers reducing chemical fertilizer application by 35.6% and organic fertilizer application by 22.0%. It can also reduce the cost of chemical fertilizer application by an average of $209.2/ha. The extent to which smallholder farmers use chemical and organic fertilizers after joining cooperatives depends on the size of their farming operations and their perception of green production.

Rural business environments and informational sources play a pivotal role in shaping the dynamics of pesticide utilization in the agricultural sector. This study investigates the intricate mechanisms through which these environments impact farmers’ pesticide utilization practices and elucidates the key factors within rural business environments and information channels that influence such behaviors. By identifying effective strategies to promote judicious pesticide use among agricultural practitioners, this research aims to enhance the government’s ability to provide precise guidance to farmers, ultimately contributing to the preservation of ecological integrity. Employing grounded theory in conjunction with a series of comprehensive interviews with 32 cowpea farmers to gain firsthand insights, our investigation yielded the following key findings: (1) the enhancement of rural business environments has mitigated the impact of neighborhood influences on farmers’ pesticide use behavior; (2) farmers predominantly base their pesticide choices on verifiable information; (3) the influence of pesticide retailers on farmers’ pesticide use has significantly increased. Based on these findings, a dual-pronged approach is proposed. First, there should be sustained commitment to bolstering rural infrastructure, enhancing the entrepreneurial climate in rural regions, and fostering market liberalization. Second, it is imperative to disseminate advanced pesticide knowledge, demarcate effective information, and intensify dissemination efforts.

Food security remains a major issue for developing countries. Reducing arable land abandonment (ALA) is crucial to ensuring food security. In China, the ‘decline in both quantity and quality’ of arable land resources, especially in major grain-producing areas, has become increasingly serious. This study uses fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore the core conditions and combinations of paths leading to explicit and implicit abandonment using 30 typical cases in the main grain-producing areas of Hubei Province. The results show that (1) three combined pathways lead to explicit ALA (EALA) and that two pathways lead to implicit ALA (IALA); (2) laborer health (LH) is the core condition leading to EALA; and (3) LH, agricultural laborer (AL), per capita income (PCI) and social relationships (SRs) are the core conditions leading to IALA. To effectively alleviate ALA, the government should improve production conditions, pay attention to laborer health issues, improve agricultural returns and strengthen food security publicity and guidance, thereby promoting the rational use of arable land in these areas. The findings in this study link the changes in arable land use and provide a reference for other developing countries in ensuring food security.

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causal relationship between the prices of rice, crude oil, wheat, corn and soybean in China and estimate the long-run and short-run price relationships.Design/methodology/approach: – Using monthly price date over the period of January 1998-December 2013 in China, this paper employs an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds test to explore the cointegration relationship among the price variables and estimate the ARDL long-run price relationship and the short-run error correction process (ARDL-EC).Findings: – The empirical results indicate that crude oil, as one of the forcing variables along with wheat, corn, and soybean prices, is effecting rice price in China. Both the long-run and short-run price transmission elasticity estimates suggest the importance of crude oil price on the formation of rice prices. Furthermore, the adjustment speed coefficient is found to be statistically significant, supporting the notion that there is an error correction mechanism for maintaining the long-run price relationship facing short-run shocks.Originality/value: – This paper adopts four types of commodity food prices to explore the relationships with crude oil price. The evidence of market integration, including the degree of price transmission and the speed of adjustment, remains a crucial step to proceed with the government intervention.