綠色照顧站對農會經營績效之影響

Abstract

農會對於農業生產至關重要，其經營效率更是農業經營永續發展的重要因素。然而全球農業目前面臨著勞動力老化的問題，故如何有效地處理是全球共業。臺灣農會為目前全世界密度最高的農民團體之一，農會成員同時面臨著高齡化的情形。為因應農漁村人口高齡化，農業部於2020年起推行綠色照顧計畫，輔導全國各鄉鎮農漁會設立綠色照顧站，結合在地特色食材、文化傳承及綠色景觀療育，期望發展出具地方特色的綠色照顧網路，以達協助高齡者在地健康老化。然而觀察現有之國內相關文獻，並無直接對農會實施綠色照顧站進行的量性研究。 為了分析綠色照顧站對於農會的影響，本研究首先參照陳柏琪等（2009）及王順發（2013）的方法，先使用資料包絡分析法對農會年報2017年至2023年各農會營運資料計算出農會整體及四大事業部門（信用部、供銷部、推廣部、保險部）的經營效率，而後結合農業部農水署各年度農會綠色照顧站統計資料以及農會管轄區域因素資料，透過機率單位模型（Probit Model）分析農會特質如何影響其建立綠色照顧站；並以二階段雙穩健模型分析實施綠色照顧站對各農會整體及各部門的績效影響。本研究發現農會的女性會員比例、農會員工數量及推廣部員工的比例，與農會管轄區域人口數和65歲以上高齡人口比例會增加農會實施綠色照顧站的意願。而實施綠色照顧站後有助於提高農會整體以及農會保險部的規模效率，卻也會降低保險部的純技術效率。不同農會類型樣本間，實施綠色照顧站會提高都市型農會整體的技術效率以及規模效率；鄉村型農會則與拆分前效果相似。 總結而言，本研究揭示農會實施綠色照顧站有助於提高農會的整體經營效率，而其主要效果集中於保險部門，並提供了綠色照顧站政策影響研究的開端供未來研究做為參考。

Farmers' associations are crucial to agricultural production, and their operating efficiency is an important factor in the sustainable development of agricultural operations. However, global agriculture is currently facing the problem of an aging workforce, so how to effectively deal with it is a global industry. Taiwan's Farmers' Association is currently one of the most densely populated farmers' groups in the world, and its members are also facing an aging population. In response to the aging population in rural and fishing villages, the Ministry of Agriculture launched a green care plan in 2020, guiding rural and fishermen's associations across the country to set up green care stations, combining local specialty ingredients, cultural heritage and green landscape therapy, hoping to develop local unique green care networks to help the elderly age healthily in place. However, looking at the existing relevant domestic literature, there is no direct quantitative research on the implementation of green care stations by farmers' associations. In order to analyze the impact of green care stations on farmers' associations, this study first refers to the methods of Chen et al. (2009) and Wang (2013), using Data Envelopment Analysis to calculate the efficiency for the whole and four major business departments in each Farmers' Association from 2017 to 2023, then combined with the statistical data about Green Care Station from the Agriculture and Water Resources Department with the factors data of the township area, using Probit Model to analyze the characteristics of associations which are willing to establish the green care stations. The final part of the analysis, I used the Two-stage Doubly-robust Model to analyze the impact of the implementation of green care stations on the overall performance of each farmer's association and each department. I find that the proportion of female members of the farmers' association, the number of farmers' association employees, and the proportion of employees in the promotion department, as well as the population in the area under the jurisdiction of the farmers' association and the proportion of the elderly population over 65 years old will increase the willingness of the farmers' association to implement green care stations. The implementation of green care stations will help improve the scale efficiency of the farmers' association as a whole and the insurance department of the farmers' association, but it will also reduce the pure technical efficiency of the insurance department. Among samples of different types of farmers' associations, the implementation of green care stations will improve the overall technical efficiency and scale efficiency of urban farmers' associations; the effects of rural farmers' associations are similar to those before the split. In summary, this study reveals that the implementation of green care stations by farmers' associations can help improve the overall operating efficiency of farmers' associations, and its main effect is concentrated in the insurance sector. It also provides a starting point for research on the impact of green care stations policy for future research as a reference.