The impact of participation in agricultural industry organizational models on crop yields: evidence from Chinese wheat growers

Increasing income for grain farmers is crucial to mobilise farmers’ incentive for grain cultivation. This article, based on the survey data of 2032 wheat growers in Anhui Province, China, employs the Logit model, multinomial Logit model, and entropy balance-OLS regression method to empirically analyze the factors influencing wheat growers’ participation in agricultural industrial organization models and the impact of their participation decisions on planting returns. The research found that: (1) Wheat growers with richer resource endowments are more likely to participate in agricultural industrial organization models. Factors such as household head’s education level, training experience, quality of arable land, scale of operation, and labor endowment are crucial determinants of wheat growers’ decisions to participate in industrial organization models. (2) Participation in agricultural industrial organizations significantly enhances the net income of wheat growers. Comparatively, the income-boosting effect is more pronounced for those participating in the “household + farmer cooperatives/agricultural enterprises” model. (3) The mechanisms through which wheat growers’ participation in different agricultural industrial organization models affects their crop yields vary. The income-enhancing effects of wheat growers' participation in the “household + farmer cooperatives/agricultural enterprises” model of industrial organization primarily stem from the improvement in land productivity and market bargaining power. On the other hand, the income-enhancing effects of participation in the “household + village collective + farmer cooperatives/agricultural enterprises” model are mainly attributed to the improvement in market bargaining power. The policy implication is that priority should be given to cultivating and developing industrial organisations based on the model of “household + farmers’ co-operatives/agribusinesses” in regions where farmers are richly endowed with resources, and at the same time, the development of industrial organisations based on the model of “household + village collectives + farmers’ co-operatives/agribusinesses” should be supplemented in accordance with local conditions. At the same time, the development of “household + village collectives + farmers’ cooperatives/agribusinesses” mode is supplemented according to local conditions.