Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy On Pastoral Production Efficiency—Evidence From Pastoral China

Abstract Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy(GECP) in the protection of grassland ecological environment at the same time also promote the transformation and upgrading of animal husbandry, pastoral production efficiency is one of the important indicators to evaluate the sustainable development of animal husbandry, but also has a direct impact on the economic benefits of the herders. Based on field questionnaire data from 468 herding households in the pastoral areas of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, this study used two-stage semi-parametric DEA model and mediated effect model to measure herding households’ pastoral production efficiency and analyze the effect and influence mechanism of GECP on herding households’ pastoral production efficiency, respectively.The results of the study show that: (1) the overall pastoral production efficiency of herding households in Inner Mongolia is low, with a mean value of 0.43, which is mainly caused by low pure technical efficiency. (2) GECP, the number of years of education of the household head, whether or not the head of the household receives technical training, the percentage of income from herding, the number of herding machines, the evaluation of the herding socialized services and whether or not to rent pasture have a significant positive effect on the herding efficiency of herding households. (3) the realization of appropriate scale management by herding households plays a part of the mediating effect in the process of affecting herding households’ pastoral production efficiency. The realization of moderate scale operation by herders plays a partial intermediary effect in the process of GECP affecting herder’s pastoral production efficiency, and the direct effect of this policy on the pastoral production efficiency of large-scale herders is significantly larger than that of small-scale herders. Based on the above conclusions, this paper puts forward the suggestions of improving the supporting policies of ecological bonus, demonstrating and popularizing the breeding technology, and guiding the moderate scale management.