Policy, institutional, and technological factors in agricultural development

Author: Hu Shaohua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-02-01
Features: This book provides a comprehensive discussion on the roles of policy, institutional, and technological factors in agricultural development. It creatively introduces climate as a key variable in agricultural output growth models, using Jiangsu cotton as empirical material to systematically analyze the sources of agricultural output growth through standardized economic methods. The research covers three major categories of factors: direct factors such as land, capital, and labor in output growth; indirect factors such as policy, institutions, and human capital; and regional layout adjustment factors. The book effectively reveals the characteristics of output growth during four distinct periods of rural management systems: collectivization, collective management, household division, and household contract responsibility. The monograph reviews the development history of the cotton industry and the changes in its policies, institutions, and technologies. It estimates the welfare losses caused by the government's low cotton purchase prices and constructs a cotton production technology index composed of a variety of yield index and cultivation technology index. It also comprehensively collects and organizes data on cotton varieties, cultivation, costs, procurement, prices, institutions, and meteorological factors since the founding of the country. This book is suitable for agricultural economists, cotton producers and operators, and administrative management personnel.