Can water rights trading pilot policy ensure food security in China? Based on the difference-in-differences method

摘要

Ensuring food security in China is the primary task in solving the problems of ‘agriculture, countryside, and farmers’. Based onChinese provincial panel data from 2009 to 2018, this paper evaluates the impact of a water rights trading pilot policy (WRTPP)on food security and examines its underlying mechanism. To overcome the estimation bias existing in previous studies, we usethe difference-in-differences method, which can separate time effects from policy treatment effects and is an effective tool tocompare the effect before and after policy implementation. We, therefore, use this method to evaluate the net effect of theWRTPP on food security. It is found that the WRTPP can help ensure food security. This effect reaches its maximum in thefourth year after the policy’s implementation. It is further found that the WRTPP can improve the adoption of agriculturalwater-saving irrigation technology to increase the grain yield. Our conclusions complement existing evidence on the factorsinfluencing food security. From the perspective of improving farmers’ water-saving irrigation technology, we confirm thatthe mechanism of the water rights trading pilot policy helps ensure food security.