Contract farming has been increasingly found to benefit smallholders in developing countries, yet much less is known about its role in the poultry industry where economies of scale could be more prominent.  This study aims to narrow this gap by analysing the choice of contract farming among Chinese broiler producers using a nationally representative survey.  Simply cost-benefit analysis and multinomial logit regression modelling are jointly employed to explain contract farming decision making especially among small producers.  In contrast to many recent studies, we find that small producers, though not passively excluded, usually opt out of contract farming due to limited profitability when large producers are coexistent.  Such relationship is appropriately identified through a control function approach to correct for possible endogeneity.  Therefore, contract farming may not help achieve higher welfare goals for small broiler producers who actually instead seek alternative market opportunities that better realise their comparative advantages. 

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) contamination via wild birds and rodents poses a threat to food security and safety.  As chicken meat comprises an increasing proportion of diet in China, it is useful to determine whether broiler farmers are adopting wild bird and rodent controls to minimize the risk of HPAI impacts on food supply.  Our study surveyed a cross sectional sample of 331 Chinese broiler farmers in six provinces.  We find that only 47% of farmers (mainly farmers with large herds) adopted control measures against wild birds and rodents, while 14% adopted no measures.  Farm size was the biggest driver of adoption followed by proportion of farm revenue derived from broiler production.  However, southern farmers were at a far greater probability of non-adoption.  We suggest that assistance in the form of education/training programs and subsidized traps or baiting controls across smaller producers could help raise of the adoption level toward more effective HPAI control.

From 1985, an increasing gap has emerged between the official statistical measures of meat production and meat consumption in China, which has raised concerns from many researchers using such data. In this paper we report the results of 428 observations (survey of 107 urban and rural households×4 quarters) from 7 provinces conducted in 2010, and compare them with the official statistical data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBSC). We conclude that the main reason for the discrepancy is due to the underreporting of consumption, which is due mainly to the omission of consumption away from home.