Pathways to Enhancing the Quality of Agricultural Statistical Services in the Context of Rural Revitalization

In the strategic context of rural revitalization,optimizing the quality of agricultural statistical services is a crucial element for advancing agricultural modernization and sustainable rural economic development.This paper focuses on the significance of enhancing agricultural statistical service quality under the backdrop of rural revitalization.It addresses current issues such as inadequate implementation of agricultural statistical survey systems,an imperfect data quality control system,and a shortage of statistical service personnel.Proposals are made to improve the statistical survey system,enhance the data quality control framework,and strengthen personnel training.These pathways offer references for elevating the quality of agricultural statistical services and implementing the rural revitalization strategy in the new era.

Nonfarm employment, agricultural machinery service purchase and agricultural production efficiency:An empirical study based on China's major wheat-producing areas

Based on the cross-sectional data of the survey conducted in China's main wheat producing areas at the end of 2019,this paper uses the translog production function model to estimate agricultural technical efficiency,and studies the relationship between nonfarm employment,agricultural machinery service purchase and agricultural production efficiency.The results show that the household non-agricultural employment ratio and non-agricultural income have a significant positive impact on the purchase of agricultural machinery services.In addition to the effect of scale efficiency,non-agricultural employment does not have a significant impact on agricultural technical efficiency,and labor transfer does not have a significant negative impact on agricultural production.

Construction of Agricultural Information Service System in China——under the Eyeshot of Communication Science

The paper aims to study the current communication condition,configuration,characteristic and regulation of Chinese agricultural information in terms of the eyeshot of communication studies,and provide reference to build Chinese agricultural information service system based on the analysis of their advantages and disadvantages.

A Review of Research on Agroecosystem Services Based on Bibliometric Analysis

Agricultural ecosystem is one of the most important ecosystems in the world,which provides multiple ecosystem services such as grain produc­tion,climate regulation,water conservation and biodiversity.The degrada­tion of ecosystem services has become an important factor that severely re­stricts the sustainable development of agriculture.Agroecosystem services have become the core and hot topic of ecological research.In recent years,countries and related institutions have been increasing their research on agricultural ecosystem service.Based on Web of Science(WoS)and China Knowledge Resource Integrated(CNKI)databases,the development char­acteristics and trends of agroecosystem services research were analyzed by bibliometric methods.The results show that:(1)The number of papers on agroecosystem services is increasing,which shows that the research on it is developing.(2)Developed countries are the main research forces in the field of ecosystem services,and the developed countries in Europe and the United States occupy the absolute leading position;China Agricultural Uni­versity and the University of California in the United States are the main research institutions.(3)At present,eight research hotspots in this field are the study of ecosystem services mechanism,protection management and sustainability,sustainable development,biodiversity,land use and land­scape change,value assessment,climate change,sustainable development of agriculture,ecological compensation.From the overall distribution of research hotspots in each period,the international research focuses more on the interdependence between ecosystem services and ecosystem services and human well-being,while the research in China focuses more on eco­system services assessment.(4)In recent years,there is a big gap between China and foreign countries in the field of ecosystem services research.It is necessary to strengthen cooperation with research institutions in developed countries in Europe and the United States,and further improve the research content,research vision and research methods.

Thoughts on Science and Technology Service in Provincial Agricultural Research Institutes under the New Normal:Taking Changli Institute of Pomology of Hebei Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences as an Example

In the context of the new normal of high-quality agricultural development,it is necessary to accelerate the comprehensive connection of scientific and technological services of provincial agricultural research institutes and industries,and mobilize the enthusiasm of scientific and technological service personnel.Under the new normal,traditional service types are single,technology promotion and training are becoming narrower and narrower.This article analyzed the problems in scientific and technological services of provincial agricultural research institutes,including lack of comprehensive demonstration bases,not close cooperation between scientific and technological and the government and new business entities,and lack of incentive mechanism.Finally,it came up with some pertinent recommendations such as improving supporting mechanism construction,making classified evaluation,and changing the scientific and technological service concepts.

Stakeholders’ Participation in Agricultural Farmers’ Extension Services Programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case of the Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) Programme in Uganda

The paper presents findings from a study carried out to assess the contribution of stakeholders’participation on the performance of the national agricultural farmers’extension services programme in Uganda known as Operation Wealth Creation(OWEC).Specifically,the study sought to establish how participatory planning,budgeting,monitoring and evaluation(M&E)respectively contributed to the performance of OWC in selected district in central Uganda.The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design using both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques and employed both questionnaires and interview guides on key participants in the programme.Findings of the study indicated positive relationships between stakeholders’participation and programme performance with participatory planning,budgeting and M&E all having positive significant effects on the performance of OWC programme.The study concluded that indeed stakeholders’participation contributed to improved performance of the OWC programme.The study recommends increased funding and M&E of the agricultural extension programmes for improved performance.

From Web Resources to Agricultural Ontology:a Method for Semi-Automatic Construction

In recent years, with the rapid development of information science, ontology becomes a popular research topic in the fields of knowledge engineering and information management. The reason for ontology being so popular is in large part due to what they promise： a shared and common understanding of some domain that can be communicated across people and computers. In the field of agriculture, FAO has started up the Agricultural Ontology Service （AOS） study project since 2001, AOS aims at providing knowledge service by agricultural domain ontology, it is the new seedtime for agricultural information service. However, establishing the ontology necessitates a great deal of expert assistance; manually setting it up would entail a lot of time, not to mention that there are only a handful of experts available. For this reason, using automatic technology to construct the ontology is a subject worth pursuing. A semi-automatic construction method for agricultural professional ontology from web resources is presented in this paper. For semi-structured web pages, the method automatically extracted and stored structured data through a program, built pattern mapping between relational database and ontology through human-computer interaction, and automatically generated a preliminary ontology, finally completed checking and refining by domain experts. The method provided a viable approach for ontology construction based on network resources in the actual work.

Agricultural Extension in Balochistan, Pakistan:Date Palm Farmers' Access and Satisfaction

This study analyzed information gathered from 200 date palm households in the mountainous Panjgur District of Balochistan in Pakistan with the aim of determining date farmers＇ access to and satisfaction with agricultural extension services. Information was collected through a structured questionnaire survey, group discussions and semi- structured personal interviews. The findings of the analysis revealed very poor access to extension services. The results of logistic regression analysis identified five variables out of six which significantly influence date farmers＇ access to extension services： household bead＇s age, household bead＇s literacy, number of date palm trees owned, mostly inherited date palm trees, and percentage of dead date palm trees. The overwhelming majority of farmers were dissatisfied with all three main types of extension services being provided by public extension officials. Explanations for this as well as for associations between access to extension services and the six independent variables are provided. Important policy conclusions are drawn based on the findings.

Problems in Statistical Data of Agricultural Population in the United States in 1910-1970

According to the data surveyed and released respectively by 3 official authorities including the Bureau of Agricultural Economics under US Department of Agriculture,Bureau of Labor Statistics under US Department of Labor and the Census Bureau under US Department of Commerce,the agricultural population in the United States had a sharp decrease in 1910-1970,and the population structure had completed the transition from agricultural population to industrial population. But there are also some omissions in the official statistical data,mainly including the " agricultural service" workers,floating agricultural population,illegal immigrants and child laborers. These 4 kinds of labor force population that directly or indirectly engage in farm production are not included in the agricultural population of the United States. For the purpose of exaggerating agricultural labor productivity and covering up exploitation from the perspective of the official US authorities and due to limited statistical methods as well as complicated conditions,some data problems including great difference in agricultural population statistics and inaccurate absolute quantity have been caused.

Demand for Meteorological Services in Smart Agriculture and Countermeasures

According to the current situation of modern meteorological services and smart agriculture in Tongliao City,the demand for meteorological services in smart agriculture was analyzed,including accurate meteorological services,point-to-point meteorological services,improved agro-meteorological disaster prevention system,and a comprehensive platform for agricultural services.Besides,some countermeasures to strengthen meteorological services for smart agriculture were proposed,such as promoting the construction of agro-meteorological big data,jointly carrying out the work of meteorological information into villages and households,promoting the construction of modern agricultural meteorological service demonstration areas,and advancing weather modification capacity construction.

County urbanization,agricultural servitization,and agricultural eco-efficiency:Statistical verification based on Chongqing

Agricultural ecologicalization is an important starting point to promote sustainable and high-quality development of agriculture.Based on the panel data of 37 districts(counties)in Chongqing from 2004 to 2019,the DDF-GML index method is used to measure the agricultural ecological efficiency of Chongqing.Based on the analysis of the interaction mechanism of urbanization,agricultural service,and agricultural ecological efficiency,with the help of the PVAR model verifies the relationship between the three.The study found that urbanization,agricultural service,and agricultural ecological efficiency have significant inertia effects and path dependence,especially agricultural ecological efficiency can provide more than 90%of its variance contribution,while urbanization and agricultural ecological efficiency have a significant impact on agricultural ecological efficiency.The influence will become weaker and weaker over time,obeying the law of diminishing margins.Therefore,to promote the development of agricultural ecologicalization,we must rely on the clean,green,and ecological development of agricultural production itself.At the same time,we also need to further improve the urbanization and agricultural service modernization system to maximize the benefits of agriculture.

Farmers'Exit from Land Operation in Rural China:Does the Price of Agricultural Mechanization Services Matter?

This study uses data covering 3,914 farm households,collected from Henan province in China,to investigate the links between the price of agricultural mechanization services and farmers'exit from land operation.The results indicate that the increasing price of agricultural mechanization services leads tofarmers leaving land operation,especially when the high sunk costs and the long-term breakeven period of self-owned machinery are considered.This effect is intensified by the rapid rural-urban migration in China.Further analysis reveals that the surge in service prices reduced land renting-in and encouraged non-grain production.Our analysis suggests that the agricultural mechanization service market in China tends to work against the survival of smallholder farmers.However,the price of agricultural mechanization services is conducive to eliminating less-productive farmers and cultivating new agricultural operators.

Review on the Work of Agriculture Ontology Research Group

This paper introduces efforts and achievements of Agriculture Ontology Service Research Group of Agricultural Information Institute of Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences in last 10 years. It summarizes the research on ontology construction methodology, ontology management system, ontology application and etc.

ANALYSIS ON AGRICULTRUAL INFORMATION DEMAND——Case of Jilin Province

With the rapid development of agricultural informalization in the world, the demand of agricultural information has been a focus in the international agriculture and information fields. Based on the investigation, this paper presented the four characteristics of the demand of agricultural information in China, includingregionality, seasonality, great potential demand and variation in kind and level. The factors infuencing the demand of agricultural information were analyzed by the Optimized Less Square （OLS） method. The result shows that, of all factors influcing agricultural information demand, the most important one is economy, the second is facility of information pass, and knowledge and education of user, credit of agricultural information service system and production situation follow. Taking Jilin Province as an example, this article also elaborated the agricultural information demand status, and deduced the regression model of agricultural information demand and verified it by the survey in rural Jilin.

SMALLHOLDER ADOPTION OF GREEN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGIES ON THE NORTH CHINA PLAIN: EVIDENCE FROM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BACKYARDS

Understanding the impact of agricultural socialized services on smallholder adoption of green production technologies and their mechanisms of action is of great importance for sustainability of farming systems.Currently,there were numerous related studies,but it is still unclear how to gradually achieve the diffusion of technological innovations on pilot sites to a regional level.To answer this question,this paper presents the pathways and mechanisms of green production technologies diffusion by comparing international typical service organizations or modes such as agricultural technology extension service centers(ATESC),farmer field schools(FFS),participatory technology innovation(PTI)and integrated colearning approach(ICLA),while taking Wangzhuang Science and Technology Backyard(WZ STB)in Quzhou,Hebei Province,China as an example.This research had three key outcomes.(1)The combination of collaborative,tree-shaped and jump-start diffusion modes promotes the diffusion of participatory technology innovation to different scales,such as farmers,villages and counties.(2)The three diffusion modes combine and expand the advantages of existing international modes.The collaborative diffusion mode not only provides full scope for the advantages of PTI,but also provides smallholders with service supply for the whole production period.The tree-shaped diffusion mode combines the advantages of FFS from point technology innovation to village diffusion,while achieving a full range of technical service support.The jump-start diffusion mode cannot only achieve large-scale technology diffusion like ATESC and ICLA,but also empower smallholders through adaptive technology innovation.(3)Trust is the key to promoting smallholder reliance on the science and technology provided by STB and to promote their adoption of green production technologies.Accordingly,the following policy recommendations were proposed:strengthen the combination of top-down and bottom-up technology innovation and diffusion models,establish an effective service communication platform and evaluation mechanism,and strengthen the linkage mechanism between socialized services providers and smallholders,which will provide a realistic basis for the national policy of targeted socialized services provision and promote smallholder adoption of green production technologies.