Influence of mechanization on technical efficiency of large-scale layer breeding

Abstract: As the foundation of large-scale breeding of livestock and poultry, mechanization is the springhead to improve the efficiency of livestock and poultry breeding. Although it may have been greatly improved, the mechanization of China's livestock and poultry breeding is still facing problems such as low degree of automation and underinvestment. Therefore, studies on the influence of mechanization on the technical efficiency of livestock and poultry breeding are extremely important for improving China's livestock and poultry breeding and realizing the modernized large-scale livestock and poultry breeding. This paper obtained the production and business operation data of 402 farmers breeding layers on a large scale in China's 5 major egg-producing provinces through field survey. Besides, it used DEA (data envelopment analysis) method to calculate the technical efficiency of large-scale layer breeding. Based on that, it used Tobit model to analyze the influence of mechanization on the technical efficiency of large-scale layer breeding. The result shows that, according to the evaluation standard on layer breeding machinery specified in the acceptance standard of standardized demonstration layer farms, large-scale breeding of layers in current China is still insufficiently mechanized; with the improvement of mechanization, farmers breeding layers on a large scale are gradually decreasing, which indicates that the mechanization of layer breeding has a potentially large room for improvement; mechanization of layer breeding is better than traditional breeding in both overall and pure technical efficiency. With the improvement of mechanization, both the comprehensive technical efficiency and pure technical efficiency of layer breeding are increasing, indicating that mechanized breeding enjoys a technological superiority; verified by Tobit model, farmers breeding layers on a large scale are poorly mechanized; whereas the mechanization effectively improves the technical efficiency of large-scale layer breading, i.e., mechanized breeding plays a positive role in improving the technical efficiency of layer breeding. It shows that the mechanization of livestock and poultry breeding, which is promoted in China, has clearly demonstrated its advantages on the improvement of livestock and poultry breeding. Besides, the field survey shows that the mechanization greatly facilitates the development of standardized and large-scale layer breeding. Therefore, under the background that labor cost keeps growing and employing labors for layer breeding gets increasingly difficult, mechanization should be promoted to improve the layer breeding. In addition, the number of farmers who have a good education background and breeding training is in significantly direct proportion to the scale, region and technical efficiency of large-scale layer breeding, while the number of labors in layer breeding is in significantly reciprocal proportion to the technical efficiency of layer breeding. Based on the practical situation of different regions, therefore, governments at all levels should, through training, site instruction and publicity, etc., continuously improve the quality and breeding skills of chicken farm owners and decision-makers, and keep promoting the standardized and large-scale layer breeding.