臺灣新進農民與資深農民生產效率與所得之差異度分析

Abstract

由於工商業經濟發展快速，選擇投入農業生產的青年勞動力人數逐漸減少，此現象導致十年來臺灣農民的平均年齡不段攀升，政府近年來為改善農業勞動力老化的現象，積極制定相關政策來吸引有志青年新血加入農業生產行列。回顧國內外之相關文獻發現多數研究僅琢磨於新進的青年農民的生產研究，而少有研究將新進青年農民和經驗豐富的職業農民做生產效率和經濟上的比較。為彌補現有文獻的不足，本研究新進農民和資深農民，探討新進農民和資深農民在稻作生產技術效率和稻作農業所得上的差異，並且進一步研究造成差異的因素為何。 本研究使用行政院農業委員會『2011 年農牧業經營概況調查』之問卷資料作為分析樣本，先以隨機邊界生產模型探討影響不同農民樣本群的稻作產量的因素，以及估計其生產技術效率值；進一步再利用Blinder-Oaxaca 拆解模型探討兩樣本群在生產技術效率值和農業所得差異的原因。實證結果發現，耕作面積主要是增加產量對提升生產技術效率的主要正面影響因素，而肥料使用僅對資深農民的稻作生產有正面幫助，農藥則是在新進農民樣本群中屬於負面影響，其他變動成本亦屬於對稻作生產負面的影響；而進一步探討兩樣本群的差異因素時發現：資深農民在耕作面積、農藥使用費用、政府總補貼的領取比例和金額上都顯著高於新進農民並且生產成本費用、教育程度和年齡是影響生產技術效率差異的三大因素；而耕種面積、年齡和生產成本費用則是影響稻作農業所得差異的主要因素。

Due to the rapid pace in industrial and commercial development, the numbers of new and beginning farmers gradually reduce, the situation led to the average age of agricultural labors in Taiwan continuously increased. Taiwan government in order to improve the agricultural labor aging, make a plenty of policies to attract aspiring young people to participate the agricultural industry. Most literatures focus on the production of new and beginning farmers, but few researches compared productivity and farm income between young beginning farmers and established farmers. To supplement the lack of existing literature, this study discuss and explain the differences between young beginning farmers and established farmers on production efficiency and farm income, and further explain the reasons and factors why make the differences and policies implication. Using a unique farm household survey questionnaire data from Council of Agriculture in Taiwan in 2011 which contains 856 rice farm household. Based on the definition of United States Department of Agriculture, divided into two dataset by agricultural seniority, 77 are new and beginning farmers and 779 are established farmers. The first section, we use stochastic frontier approach to estimate the farmers production and technology efficiency. Then the second section we use Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition model to find out what factors that make two dataset difference in farm household income and production efficiency. The empirical results indicate that cultivated area is the main positive factor which enhances the production efficiency in two dataset, the fertilizer use does the positive effect on established farmers, and otherwise pesticide makes negative effect production efficiency of new and beginning farmers, other variable cost have a negative effect on rice production efficiency in both dataset. Then the section two Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition results show that the established farmers’ cultivated area, pesticide, the accept ratio and the amount of subsidies are significantly higher than new and beginning farmers. The difference in production cost, education level and age are the three main factors that cause the difference in production efficiency between two dataset. The cultivated area, age, and the production cost of rice agriculture are the three main factors resulting difference in farm income.