Abstract:

Food security and farmers’ income increase have always been the focus of China’s Sannong issues (namely, agriculture, rural community and farmers), especially under the COVID-19, it is more urgent to take effective measures to ensure the nation’s food security. Based on the comparative advantage theory, this study adopts the comprehensive comparative advantage index model, and uses the sowing area and yield data of five main grain crops, including rice, wheat, corn, beans and tubers in Yunnan Province from 2009 to 2018, to calculate the scale advantage index, efficiency advantage index and comprehensive comparative advantage index, so as to reveal the changing law of the strong and weak comparative advantages of main grain crops in Yunnan Province and its 16 prefectures and cities. The study found that in the 10 years, the three grain crops of tubers, beans and corn had strong average scale, efficiency and comprehensive comparative advantage at the same time, while the average scale, efficiency and comprehensive comparative advantage of rice and wheat were weak, and the strong and weak dominant grain crops in the prefectures and cities were different. Therefore, it is suggested that Yunnan Province should use the study result to make a reasonable layout and arrangement of the production of main grain crops in the whole province, and give full play to the planting and yield advantages of various main grain crops, so as to maximize the increase of income and yield of main grain crops.

Key words: comparative advantage theory, regional advantage, grain crops, indexation measurement, Yunnan Province