Analysis of a nationally representative survey of more than 20,000 rural Chinese households suggests that increasing farm size is associated with decreasing fertilizer and pesticide use per hectare but with minimal changes in crop yields, and that farm size has remained small in China despite strong economic growth and is tied to policies constraining land-use rights and rural-to-urban migration; removing such constraints could substantially reduce fertilizer and pesticide use while doubling farmers' incomes, according to the authors.
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Article #18-06645: "Policy distortions, farm size, and the overuse of agricultural chemicals in China," by Yiyun Wu et al.
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences