Extension services and the technical efficiency of crop‐specific farms in China
Qian Liu, Yongmu Jiang, Carl Johan Lagerkvist, Wei Huang
Abstract
Abstract China operates the world's largest system of extension services, but knowledge about its effectiveness is limited. Using farm survey data and a stochastic meta‐frontier production function, this study investigates the impact of extension services on the technical efficiency of crop‐specific farms in China. Results reveal that extension services have a statistically significant and strongly correlated relationship with farm technical efficiency and that different sources of extension have an inconsistent impact on it. Crop‐specific farms require distinct extension provision whose content is designed to match farmers' needs, and hence a pluralistic and well‐functioning system of extension provision should be developed.