Mechanization of Small-Scale Agriculture in China: Lessons for Enhancing Smallholder Access to Agricultural Machinery
Greg Cameron
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Well written paper and extensive overview of the phases of mechanization. I am not a specialist on mechanization so cannot comment on the literature to any great degree, nor references. However, I am a cooperative specialist and I liked that you covered this sector in rural China. My main issues with the paper is that it is not at all clear that the Chinese experience with mechanization - and the overall tremendous growth of its national economy - is transferable in any direct sense to other countries of the Global South, especially in south Asia and African countries where the social structures are vastly different, as well as politics, and where national growth is not as robust as in China. Many of the rural poor may have to stay on the land for the foreseeable future in these poorer countries where industrialization is not as far advanced. Therefore, I would suggest to modify your conclusions (lines 782-810)with these caveats, that is, keep the general lessons, but then quality in a more fine tuned way, the key relevant lessons of the Chinese experience (e.g. farmer service cooperatives to hire out machinery.) that you believe may serve as a useful lesson at present for the broader rural areas of Global South.
Author Response
Author response: Thank you for pointing this out. The reviewer is correct, and we have added the following lessons
- “Farmer service cooperatives to hire out machinery is a proper business model that enables smallholder farmers to access machines of their requirement at a reasonable price. The government and other relevant institutions should take measures to empower cooperative service providers through incentives or other supporting mechanisms.
- Mechanization institutions should be established at all levels. In China, mechanization institutions are established from the ministry to the district level. The establishment of a strong institution will enable the government to have clear and attainable policies and strategies.
- Training institutions such as universities should closely work with the farmers, the policymakers and other stakeholders to facilitate the rapid introduction of agricultural machines.”
We have removed “The establishment and development of mechanization in smallholder agriculture is an evolutionary process that strongly opposes leapfrogging (technocratic behavior) by large jumps. Mechanization of small-scale agriculture needs a step-by-step strategical process as can be seen in China from the germination phase to the scale management stage.”
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
This review is informative, interesting, timely and well presented, the following questions and suggestions will hopefully add to this effort.
1- Add more information in the materials and methods section specifically relating to the source of the material used: the type of journals in terms of subject area, the number of papers examined, the span of journal dates, detail of the non-academic documents. Were any surveys done on farmers or policy makers? This extra data should be made available in a table or an Annex.
2- Clarify the approach or method that you have used to analyse the narratives and to draw your conclusions, are the conclusions drawn from those in the journal articles per se, or from your analysis or from a mix of both?
3- Further develop and discuss the statement on line 44 regarding how the role of agricultural mechanisation is a solution to mitigate climate change associated problems- especially as other outcomes are also likely such as damage to soil, reduced diversification of plant species, environmental pollution, degradation of landscape and the potential increase in the use of agrochemicals and fossil fuel- surely this is a complex issue and merits a section on its own especially if China plans to address this aspect as equally as addressing the economic potential. An opportunity to showcase this and demonstrate to the world what is possible in combining economic growth and sustainability!
4- Aside from the economic benefits of mechanisation of small-scale agriculture, what are the possible drawbacks on society such as rural-urban labour structural changes?
5- Section numbering: 2.1 surely is 1.1 on line 91?
6- Point #3 is missing from paragraph starting on line 78.
7- Y-axis terms on Fig.3 are unclear.
Author Response
Reviewer-2
This review is informative, interesting, timely and well presented, the following questions and suggestions will hopefully add to this effort.
Author response: Thank you!
- Add more information in the materials and methods section specifically relating to the source of the material used: the type of journals in terms of subject area, the number of papers examined, the span of journal dates, detail of the non-academic documents. Were any surveys done on farmers or policy makers? This extra data should be made available in a table or an Annex.
Author response: Thank you for pointing this out. The reviewer is correct, and we have added the following information in the method section.
2.1. Articles selection criteria
Table 1 shows the selection criteria of the included articles. Articles published in the English language with the main focus on agricultural mechanization in China were considered. In particular, those published in languages other than English were excluded. The paper considered articles published over the period between 2000-2021. The articles should published through peer-reviewed journal. The articles that address the factor affecting mechanization development in China and other countries were considered. The data were extracted from the papers included in the review. The motivation was to present information on the the development of agricultural mechanization in China. Moreover, we elucidated mechanisms how smallholder farmers can access to agricultural machine.
Table: The inclusion and exclusion criteria.
|
Criterion |
Eligibility |
Exclusion |
|
Literature type |
Research article journal |
Review article journal, book, book chapter, book series, conference proceedings |
|
Language |
English |
Non-English |
|
Time line |
Between 2000 and 2021 |
< 1999 |
|
Countries and region |
China |
---- |
We have attached the detail of the selected articles as a supplementary material.
2.2. Search result
A total of 328 studies were retrieved from the databases (Web of Science= 135, SCOPUS = 64 Google Scholar = 129). The hand search provided 11 additional relevant articles on the topic under investigation resulting in a total of 339 retrieved research articles. From the total searched articles, 104 were duplicates and 206 were excluded based on their titles and/or abstracts, as they did not fulfil the inclusion criteria. The final review included 29 articles. Moreover, 26 articles were added to critically observe the interactions among factors that affect agricultural mechanization. A few of these studies were other countries studies but provided substantial information on mechanization of small-scale agriculture.
- Clarify the approach or method that you have used to analyse the narratives and to draw your conclusions, are the conclusions drawn from those in the journal articles per se, or from your analysis or from a mix of both?
Author response: Thank you for pointing this out. The reviewer is correct, and we have added the following information. A mix of content-based and expert view analysis approaches that assume a link between narrative and experience. We draw conclusions based on the finding-based analysis of the journal articles, other supporting documents, and experts' views. We have chosen five experts in the field of agriculture to discuss issues related to the mechanisms of how smallholder farmers in China access agricultural machines.”
- Further develop and discuss the statement on line 44 regarding how the role of agricultural mechanization is a solution to mitigate climate change associated problems- especially as other outcomes are also likely such as damage to soil, reduced diversification of plant species, environmental pollution, degradation of landscape and the potential increase in the use of agrochemical s and fossil fuel- surely this is a complex issue and merits a section on its own especially if China plans to address this aspect as equally as addressing the economic potential. An opportunity to showcase this and demonstrate to the world what is possible in combining economic growth and sustainability!
Author response: We think this is an excellent suggestion. As you said agricultural mechanization may have problems such as damage to soil, reduced diversification of plant species, environmental pollution, degradation of landscape and the potential increase in the use of agrochemical and fossil fuel. However, this problems are mainly associated with improper application of agricultural machines without considering factors such as soil type, machine-scale and other existing situations. Small-scale mechanization unlikely to cause those problems. We have added the following information as a footnote:
“Agricultural mechanization, when carefully selected and appropriate to the agricultural practice, is capable of protecting natural capital and the environment whilst boosting food production.”
- Aside from the economic benefits of mechanization of small-scale agriculture, what are the possible drawbacks on society such as rural-urban labour structural changes?
Author response: Thank you for pointing this out. We believed that this suggestion is relevant and it has to be considered with the the development of agricultural mechanization. We have addressed this issue in each section by integrating the land-labor-machine nexus in some section. To make it more clear, we have added the following paragraph in the conclusion section.
“The use of agricultural machinery will cause many farm workers to lose their jobs. Because with the use of machines in agriculture, the work that many workers can complete can only be completed by a very few people. Others need to stay to adapt to the new job. Therefore, any mechanization project should consider the life of farmers, and the non-agricultural employment opportunities for them to leave the farm to urban industries. In China, how to balance the labor demand of urban industry and the employment demand of rural labor transfer is a big problem. However, the Chinese government finally relaxed the restrictions and formulated city-based policies to ensure the transfer of rural labor such as property right registrations. In addition, the expansion of rural non-agricultural industries also contributes to the allocation of rural labor force from agriculture to rural areas.”
- Section numbering: 2.1 surely is 1.1 on line 91?
Author response: Thank for pointing this out. We have replaced 2.1 with 1.1.
- Point #3 is missing from paragraph starting on line 78.
Author response: Thank you for pointing this out. We have corrected as “…….(1) examine the evolution and development of agricultural mechanization; (2) elucidate the trends of agricultural mechanization level growth; (3) reveal the role of mechanizing small-scale agriculture; (4) present the driving force for smallholder farmers' access to agricultural machines and; (5) unveil agricultural machinery hiring service provision models....”
- Y-axis terms on Fig.3 are unclear.
Author response: Thank you for pointing this out. Y-axis show the level of agricultural mechanization from scratch to the present automation-based level. We have added the following content as a figure caption.
Note: Before 1978, China had low level of agricultural mechanization (scratch). Since 1978, China has been formulating and implementing various policies and strategies to fully mechanize the overall agricultural production chain including pre-production, production, and post-production (existing to whole), while the mechanization level at the production stage is far better than at the pre- and post-production stage. In the period between 1996-2016, there was a rapid introduction of agricultural machines mainly due to the expansion of information system (good to strong). Currently, China is focusing on mechanizing the pre- and post-production chains of food production. China proposes to integrate information technology with agricultural mechanization to modernize agriculture by 2025 (whole to good).
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
