Agro-food quality certification, agricultural organizations, and farm performance: evidence from vegetable farmers in China

ABSTRACT

Agro-food quality certification has been gaining greater importance, because it contributes to both agricultural sustainability and food quality. However, small-scale farmers in developing countries have difficulties in obtaining certification and the economic benefits acquired from certification are unclear. This paper investigates the effects of agro-food quality certification on the farm performance which is indicated by profit, yield and price. The impacts of agricultural organizations, farmer cooperatives and agricultural companies in particular, on the adoption of certification by farmers are explored. We also investigate the effects of organizations on the farm performance of certified farmers. A dataset of 410 vegetable farmers in China is applied, and the propensity score matching (PSM) method is employed in the empirical analysis to address selection bias and reverse causality. Our study finds that, overall, the adoption of certification does not significantly influence farm performance. Cooperative membership positively influences the adoption of certification and the farm performance of certified farmers, while contract farming does not generate additional benefits for certified farmers.

KEYWORDS:

• Agro-food quality certification
• agricultural sustainability
• farm performance
• farmer cooperative
• agricultural company

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Data source: http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2019-03/01/content_5369755.htm; 1 mu = 1/15 hectare.

2 Data source: China Rural Statistical Yearbook (2015), China Statistics Press.

3 The number of selected vegetable cooperatives is the double of that of vegetable companies, according to the relatively size of populations of the two types of organizations.

4 As of September 2019, the number of certificates issued by these three certifications were 68,835, 40,077 and 73,934, respectively. Data source: China Academy for Rural Development-Qiyan China Agribusiness Database (CCAD).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Planning Office for Philosophy and Social Science [grant number 21BGL179] and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 72161147001].