Study on the appropriate scales of breeding-type family farms from the perspective of quantifying resource losses

ABSTRACT

The appropriate sizes of scale-breeding industries are causing increasing attention in that rational scale-breeding industries may both meet the meat demand of the market and avoid serious environmental problems. In this paper, the appropriate scales of breeding-type family farms were studied from the perspective of quantifying resource losses. The mathematical models about quantifying resource losses were built, and then the evaluation index system of resource losses was established. More than one hundred family farms in Sichuan province and Chongqing city of China located in the subtropics were selected as research cases and were classified as small-, medium- and large-scale family farms, whose unit resource losses and resource loss rates were both evaluated by the index system. Results show that the unit resource losses and the resource loss rate of medium-scale family farms are the lowest among these three kinds of family farms. Therefore, medium-scale farms are moderate, and then are recommended for scale-breeding industries.

Implications: Appropriate sizes are essential for the green development of scale-breeding industries. The external environment factors and internal resource effect should be considered. The unit resource losses and the resource loss rate of medium-scale family farms are the lowest among these three kinds of family farms. Therefore, medium-scale farms are optimistic, and then are recommended for scale-breeding industries. For medium-scale family farms, the scale of 800–999 pigs is optimistic. Furthermore, it is very necessary to adopt green cycle.

Disclosure statement

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

Author contributions

Shuai Wang prepared the data, carried out the theoretical analysis, and Zheng-Tao He did the empirical analysis and wrote the manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data used in this study are from questionnaire, and none of the data were deposited in an official repository. https://mail.qq.com/cgi-bin/frame_html?sid=zMuj1VL1I14DJCZC&r=f8d4c691072f2dbf2f1caf3b6da6913c&lang=zh

Additional information

Funding

Supported by three projects: state scholarship fund of China scholarship council [201808505088]; the social science planning project of Chongqing city [2016BS031], Chongqing educational science planning project [2017 G×266].

Notes on contributors

Zheng-Tao He

Zheng-Tao He, is a Lecturer at the School of Economics and Management, CQUPT, and visiting scholar at the George Fox University, U.S. She is a U.S. certified public accountant (USCPA) and member of China Internal Audit Association. She received a Ph.D. in management from the School of Economics and Management, Southwest University. Her academic areas are environment accounting, auditing, and performance evaluation. She has presided over and participated in nearly 10 national and provincial level projects, and published more than 20 academic papers.

Shuai Wang

Shuai Wang, is an Associate Professor, Master Instructor, and Visiting Scholar at Stony Brook University, U.S. Her main research fields include finance and accounting in capital market, corporate governance, company information disclosure,and green accounting. She has taken charge of 3 China Projects supported by the Social Science and Humanity of the Ministry of Education and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and participated in more than 10 national, provincial, and ministerial scientific research projects as the main participants. She has published more than 20 academic papers.