The Role of Agricultural Socialized Services in Mitigating Rural Labor Shortages: A Multi-Crop Analysis of Production Performance

China’s agricultural sector faces unprecedented challenges due to rapid urbanization. The rural labor force is declining, and the agricultural workforce is aging significantly. This labor shortage, worsened by the exodus of agricultural technicians, threatens food security and agricultural sustainability. This study analyzes data from 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2022 using a transcendental logarithmic production function. The research examines how agricultural socialized services can alleviate rural labor shortages by improving production efficiency. It also investigates these services’ impact on labor input intensity and grain yield across different crops and regions. The results show that socialized agricultural services effectively promote food production. At the national level, these services can promote a 54.4% increase in total crop production. Agricultural socialized services are gradually developing toward labor substitution. The significant negative interaction coefficient between services and labor confirms this substitution effect. The input–output elasticity of these services is positive for total crop and cereal crop production in major production areas. It also shows positive elasticity for total crop and tuber crop production in non-major production areas. The national-level “service-labor” technical elasticity of substitution maintains values above zero, averaging 0.37 across regions, offering an effective solution to agricultural labor shortages. This study identifies a threshold effect where these services’ impact on food production significantly increases with business scale expansion. These findings highlight the importance of optimizing agricultural socialized services through strengthened service systems, differentiated regional strategies, technological innovation, and comprehensive support policies. Such targeted approaches would enhance substitution effects and service efficiency, addressing labor shortages and boosting food production.