Search Results (22)

By constructing a comprehensive evaluation index system for the development level of Agricultural Machinery Socialization Services (AMSS) in China’s hilly and mountainous areas, the article adopts the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) entropy weight method to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the development level of AMSS in China’s 17 major hilly mountainous provinces, and utilizes the obstacle degree model and the Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition method to deeply explore the developmental constraints and regional differences in characteristics. The results of the study show that the development level of AMSS in all provinces is generally on the rise, and the overall development level of the Southwest region is relatively lagging behind, with significant differences from other regions. The obstacle degree model shows that industrial development, Government funding, and farmland construction are the main factors constraining AMSS in hilly and mountainous areas, specifically, the degree of coverage of AMSS, the percentage of agricultural machinery professional cooperatives, the degree of land fragmentation, and the level of agricultural machinery extension inputs have a greater impact on the level of development of AMSS. Dagum Gini coefficient calculations show that the overall relative differences in development levels have a tendency to decrease, but the level of development of agricultural machinery socialization in the southwestern hilly and mountainous second-maturity areas is still low, with an imbalance in development within the region and a more significant gap with the development levels of other hilly and mountainous regions. Full article

The rural population aging poses a great challenge to China’s agricultural production, which is dominated by small farmers. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces or cities (except Tibet) in China from 2005 to 2020, the DEA-Malmquist index is employed to measure the agricultural total factor productivity (ATFP) in each province (city), and then the mediation effect model is used to reveal the mechanism by which the rural population aging affects the ATFP through farmland transfer, agricultural social services, and agricultural machinery. The results show that the rural population aging has made a significant contribution to the ATFP, and farmland transfer, agricultural socialized services and agricultural machinery have a intermediary effect on the increase of the ATFP. Further decomposition of ATFP reveals that the rural population aging can significantly contribute to the scale efficiency and technical progress rate through farmland transfer, agricultural socialization services and agricultural machinery, but does not have a significant effect on pure technical efficiency. In order to promote the high-quality and high-efficiency development of agriculture in the context of population aging, it is necessary to optimize the market environment for farmland transfer, improve the agricultural socialized service system, and continue to strengthen agricultural science and technology innovation. Full article

Common prosperity is the core goal of rural revitalization, and the sustainable growth of farmers’ income is an inevitable requirement. This study uses CLDS2014-2018 village- and family-level questionnaire data to reveal how the degree of village organization affects the sustainable growth of farmers’ income, thus providing a reference for local government decision-making to promote the increase in farmers’ income and narrow the income gap at the village level. The results show that the degree of village organization can significantly affect farmers’ income, and the analysis results of the degree of formal organization are consistent with this. Specifically, for every 1% increase in the degree of village organization, the per capita household income will increase by 0.324%, among which, the wage income will increase by 0.226%, the operational income will increase by 5%, the property income will increase by 0.008%, and the transfer income will increase by 0.042%. The estimation results obtained by using instrumental variables are consistent, and the results are robust. At the same time, improving the degree of village organization can also significantly increase the proportion of farmers’ non-agricultural income and narrow the income gap among farmers. On the impact of heterogeneity, it was found that the geographical distance between villages and county and township governments, as well as the political identity and education level of farmers, will affect the role of the degree of organization. The results of the mechanism analysis show that improving the degree of village organization is mainly achieved by promoting the circulation of agricultural land, socializing the service of agricultural machinery, and providing industrial and commercial capital to the countryside to increase farmers’ income. The research revealed that the modernization of rural governance should be accelerated and the degree of village organization should be improved, especially the degree of formal organization, so as to build benign trust and a cooperative relationship between village committees and villagers and implement policies and measures that improve the income of farmers according to local conditions. At the same time, this will strengthen the publicity and education of party members to improve the proportion of rural party members and the education level of farmers. Full article

Socialized services are crucial for addressing the issue of “who will farm the land” and subsequently enhancing agricultural economic resilience (AER). However, few studies have examined the mechanisms and effects of socialized services on AER. Consequently, this study aims to elucidate the impact and mechanisms of socialized services on AER, with the objective of providing new policy recommendations for enhancing AER and ensuring food security. Based on provincial panel data from China spanning 2009 to 2021, this paper examines the impact and mechanisms of socialized services on AER using a two-way fixed effects model, a mediated effects model, and a panel threshold model. The findings reveal that socialized services significantly enhance AER. Mechanism analysis indicates that socialized services enhance AER by accelerating the substitution of machinery for manpower and promoting the efficiency of labor division. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that in regions with high grain cropping ratios and high internet penetration rates, the enhancement effect of socialized services on AER is stronger. Further analysis uncovers a significant nonlinear threshold effect of socialized services on AER. The impact becomes more pronounced when AER surpasses 0.4689. Consequently, this study argues that in the process of constructing a modern agricultural business system, it is essential to focus on improving the differentiated socialized service system and accelerating the development of rural digital infrastructure. Full article

In recent years, the Chinese government has been continuously promoting reduced use of chemical fertilizers and enhancing the sustainable development capacity of agriculture. This study uses China’s Household Finance Survey (CHFS) data to explore the impact of rural labor transfer on the intensity of fertilizer use and examines the mediating role of agricultural machinery services. The results show that: (1) rural labor transfer is helpful for reducing chemical fertilizer use, and it has a negative impact on the intensity of chemical fertilizer use; (2) rural labor transfer will enhance the socialization of agricultural machinery services by promoting the adoption of mechanized fertilization and expanding the scale of agricultural land management to promote the reduction of chemical fertilizers use; (3) different topographic conditions have different regulatory effects on the use of socialized agricultural machinery services, and for mountainous areas with poor topographic conditions, socialized agricultural machinery services may be difficult to implement, resulting in poor effects of chemical fertilizer use reduction. These findings provide important evidence for sustainable agriculture development and have significant theoretical and policy implications. Full article

Agricultural machinery services are an important guaranteed way to promote Conservation Agriculture. It is of great significance to study how to encourage farmers to choose agricultural machinery services to promote the standard implementation of Conservation Agriculture technology. In order to promote the implementation of Conservation Agriculture and improve the supply of agricultural machinery services, this paper identifies the stakeholders of normative Conservation Agriculture technology adoption behavior and the relationship between agricultural machinery service organizations, farmers and agriculture-related governments. An evolutionary game model was established to evaluate the decision-making characteristics of tripartite behavior and simulate the evolution trend of stakeholder behavior. The results show that agriculture-related governments, agricultural machinery service organizations and farmers can achieve evolutionarily stable strategies. The punishments and subsidies of agriculture-related governments and the supervision cost of all links of agricultural machinery social service organizations can significantly affect the behavior strategies of the three parties. The government set up reasonable subsidy and punishment mechanisms, and the agricultural machinery service organization controls the supervision cost of all links to ensure the stability of the three-party behavior strategy. This study provides theoretical guidance for scientific decision making and active cooperative development of the government, farmers and agricultural machinery service organizations and lays a foundation for countermeasures and suggestions to further promote farmers’ implementation of Conservation Agriculture technology. Full article

This study intends to build a theoretical mechanism of agricultural socialization services for the eco-efficiency of agricultural land use from two paths, namely the agricultural division of labor and technological progress, and empirically calibrate the Tobit model based on the data of the China Family Tracking Survey (CFPS) for 4453 farming households in 23 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across China. The results of the study show the following: (1) Agricultural socialization services can significantly improve the eco-efficiency of agricultural land use. (2) Hired labor services are more likely to promote eco-efficiency in agricultural land use than farm machinery leasing, especially in major food-producing areas; however, in non-major food-producing areas, the effectiveness of farm machinery leasing services is limited or affected by regional policy differences. (3) In the analysis of the mechanism of agricultural socialization services on the eco-efficiency of agricultural land use, the division of labor in agriculture plays an intermediary role, and the intermediary effect accounts for about 11.4%; however, there is a masking effect of technological progress. This means that China should further develop the role of agricultural socialized services in promoting the ecological efficiency of agricultural land use by developing agricultural socialized service organizations, accelerating the integration of farmers into the modern agricultural division of labor, and promoting the application of green agricultural machinery, among other measures. Full article

In China, private-owned cooperatives are becoming increasingly involved in agricultural production. In order to find the key characteristics of smallholders’ social networks after the appearance of cooperatives and better organize different farmland operators, this study completed a field survey of 114 smallholders who adopted farmland trusteeship service of a private-owned cooperative in China and applied the social network analysis to reveal the following results. (1) Compared to the theoretical ideal value, smallholders’ social networks showed low network density, efficiency, and little relevancy. (2) In the social network of mechanical-sharing, neighbor, kinship, and labor-sharing relationships, some isolated nodes existed, but no isolated nodes are found in the synthetic network. (3) The mechanical-sharing relationship among smallholders was stronger than the other relationships. (4) Machinery owners, farmers whose plots are on the geometric center and experienced older farmers showed higher centralities in the network, but village cadres did not. (5) The centralities and QAP correlation coefficients among different networks inside the cooperative were lower than that inside a single village. As a result, this paper confirmed that the ability of cooperatives to organize farmers’ social networks is not ideal. Farmers’ trust of farmland to a cross-village cooperatives does not help them to form a larger social network than their villages. In the future, the answer to the question of “who will farm the land” will still lie with the professional farmers and highly autonomous cooperatives. Full article

Innovation has been the transforming tool of precision agriculture as a response to population growth and the demand for more food with quality, less waste, food security, and sustainable management of environmental resources. The challenges are to increase the productivity of cultivated areas, both for current and future areas, to manage the use of potable water, scarce in many regions, to keep the soil fertile, and to reduce waste through reuse, optimization, resource sharing, and operational and strategic management based on accurate information of planting, harvesting, and management of environmental conditions, which are also objectives of the Circular Economy. Therefore, using Industry 4.0 technologies in agriculture becomes fundamental to facing such challenges. This paper presents a systematic literature review on Industry 4.0 technologies adopted in agriculture for sustainable development, considering environmental, economic, and social benefits. The research pointed to the use of IoT in irrigation control systems by sending automatic commands, monitoring soil and weather conditions, in the use of machinery with some automation features and in cloud data storage systems, and with the use of Big Data analytical tools, with access by mobile devices, these uses contribute to operational and strategic decision making in the management of planting and harvesting. However, the literature review did not find a technological architecture for Integrated Services in Agriculture 4.0. Thus, this paper proposes a Service Architecture that enables the promotion of a Circular Economy in Agriculture 4.0. The contribution of this article to the theory is in the expansion of knowledge of the use of technologies in Agriculture 4.0. In terms of practice, this article provides an Integrated Service Architecture so that new products can be developed for Agriculture 4.0 and thus contribute to society in reducing food insecurity, generating environmental, economic, and social benefits, and promoting the Circular Economy in Agriculture 4.0. Full article

Enhancing land productivity is a crucial strategy for addressing key sustainable development issues, such as poverty reduction and ensuring food security. Farmers’ Internet use behavior offers the potential to improve land productivity. However, relatively little is known about the association between Internet use and land productivity. To fill this void, this study examines the impact of Internet use on land productivity and its mechanisms. The results indicate that farmers’ use of the Internet has a positive impact on improving agricultural land productivity. Internet use increases land productivity by 12.3%, and the conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests and endogeneity tests. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that Internet use significantly enhances land productivity in the central and northern parts of Jiangsu Province, while it does not have the same effect in the province’s southern regions. Without the addition of county fixed effects, the central sample regression results show that the coefficient for Internet use is 0.165 and significant at the 10% confidence level. When county fixed effects are added, the coefficient decreases to 0.117 and is not significant. The coefficient on Internet use for the northern sample is 0.128 and is significant at the 5% confidence level. Mechanistic analyses demonstrate that Internet use also enhances land productivity primarily by expanding the cultivated land area, facilitating mechanized production, and strengthening farmers’ social networks. The results of the study indicate that the positive effects of Internet use in improving land productivity should be fully released by strengthening the communication infrastructure, further enhancing farmers’ Internet use capacity, improving the land transfer system, upgrading the socialized service level of agricultural machinery, and strengthening agricultural financial support. Full article

Agricultural machinery socialization services are an important means of alleviating poverty and promoting agricultural modernization. Based on 2750 items of survey data from farmers in Henan Province, this paper empirically tests the impact and mechanism of agricultural machinery socialization service adoption on the relative poverty of farmers by using a binary logit model and mediation effect model. The results show that the adoption of agricultural machinery socialization services has a significant negative impact on the relative poverty of farmers. The reduction in natural risk plays an intermediary role in the impact of the adoption of agricultural machinery socialization services on the relative poverty of farmers. The size of the household labor force and the land operation scale affect the poverty reduction effect of agricultural machinery socialization services. It can be seen that in the relative poverty governance stage, we should improve the development of the agricultural machinery socialization service system, enhance the risk resistance of farmers, build a supporting system for farmers’ employment skills training, and encourage an orderly connection between the large-scale operation of agricultural land and the large-scale operation of services so as to fully realize the poverty reduction role of agricultural machinery socialization services. Full article

The aims of this study were to analyze in depth the impact of agricultural machinery socialization services on the scale of land operation and to examine whether agricultural machinery socialization services can effectively alleviate the constraints faced by the scale of land operation. Accordingly, a systematic theoretical analysis and derivation of a farmer production model were first conducted to show that the adoption of agricultural machinery socialization services by farmers alleviated the financial, technical, and labor constraints they faced and facilitated the expansion of the farming scale. Subsequently, the OLS model, three-stage least squares, seemingly uncorrelated Biprobit association model, and Probit model were used based on survey data of maize farmers in 13 Chinese provinces in 2019. The endogeneity of simultaneous decision-making between farmers’ adoption of farm machinery socialization services and operation scale was assessed. Then, we empirically tested the effects of agricultural machinery socialization services on the operation scale under different part-time situations and terrain conditions. The empirical study shows that there is a significant contribution of farmers’ adoption of agricultural machinery socialization services to the scale of land operation. The adoption of agricultural machinery socialization services by purely agricultural household groups has a more significant effect on increasing the scale of land management. Moreover, the adoption of agricultural machinery socialization services significantly increases the scale of land management only among farmers on flat land as compared to farmers on sloping land. The research results help to dissect the relationship between agricultural machinery socialization services and operation scale and provide insights for developing agricultural machinery socialization service systems and expanding operation scale. Full article

Socialized agricultural machinery services, effectively cracking the “who to plant, how to plant” dilemma, are an important grasp of the development of modern agriculture. Based on the specialization division of labor theory, using the 2019 national survey data of maize growers in 13 provinces, the instrumental variable method and systematic generalized moment estimation (GMM) were used to overcome the endogeneity problem of mutual causality between socialized agricultural machinery services and labor transfer, analyze the impact of socialized agricultural machinery services on the labor transfer of maize growers and its link to heterogeneity, and explore the impact effect in different terrain conditions, part-time. We also explored the cohort differences in the effect in different terrain conditions and degree of part-time work. The endogenous switching regression model (ESR) was also applied to construct a counterfactual framework to further analyze the impact effect of socialized agricultural machinery services on labor transfer. The results showed that socialized agricultural machinery services could effectively promote labor transfer among maize farmers. Compared with maize farmers in other terrain conditions and part-time degree, the impact effect of agricultural machinery socialization services on labor transfer of flatland and pure farming households was more significant. Socialized agricultural machinery services play an important role in driving traditional farming households to labor transfer and realizing their organic connection with modern agriculture. Full article

Developing agricultural socialized services is of great significance for promoting agricultural sustainable development and ensuring food security. The use of the Internet provides new opportunities to promote the development of agricultural socialized services. Using data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2016 and 2018 with 8850 observations, this paper investigates the effects of Internet use on farmers’ adoption decision and adoption degree of agricultural socialized services, and explores the mediating effect of social networks. The adoption of agricultural socialized services is divided into adoption decision and adoption degree, and the Probit model and Tobit model are used for empirical analysis. The results showed that: (1) Internet use has a significant positive impact on both the adoption decision and the adoption degree of agricultural socialized services. Specifically, the impact of Internet use on the adoption decision and adoption degree of agricultural machinery services is greater than that of agricultural hired labor services. (2) The mechanism analysis found that social networks partially mediated the effect of Internet use on farmers’ adoption decision and adoption degree of agricultural socialized services. Furthermore, social networks have a greater mediating effect on the influence of Internet use on farmers’ adoption decision and adoption degree of agricultural machinery services compared to agricultural hired labor services. (3) The heterogeneity test found that Internet use has no significant impact on the adoption of agricultural socialized services by older farmers and farmers with a low education level. Therefore, it is crucial to fully leverage the potential of the Internet to facilitate the supply and demand of agricultural socialized services. Moreover, it is essential to integrate the market of agricultural socialized services with the rural social network to realize the synergy of “Internet plus social network”. This integration facilitates the organic connection between small farmers and modern agricultural development. Full article

Given the spatial heterogeneity of the social-economic situations across different regions in China, the decomposition of emission reduction targets should be designed according to the actual characteristics of the industrial economy. There is concern about the loss of industrial competitiveness and leakage of CO₂ emissions if just seven pilot carbon markets operate independently, so the national carbon market of the power sector was established in 2021. In this study, a China two-region CGE model including Guangdong (GD) and the rest of China (ROC) is built on an analysis of the long-term effects of CO₂ prices in industrial sectors at the target 2030 peak. Based on this model, we constructed one business-as-usual scenario and six comparison carbon tax scenarios to quantify the CO₂ cost impact for a wide range of manufacturing sectors and identify specific economic activities that face relatively high CO₂ costs between the two regions. Based on the China two-region CGE model, the risks of leakage and competitiveness distortions in these potentially exposed sectors are qualitatively assessed. The results show that chemical, nonferrous metal, and machinery are GD’s competitive sectors, and agriculture, food, textile, paper, cement, construction, and service belong to ROC’s competitive industry. Both GD and ROC need to further unify carbon pricing policies at the same time to effectively coordinate the carbon intensity reduction target and industrial development, which is 2.6% and 3.2% of the severe GDP loss compared with BaU when implementing carbon tax policy. The results can support the setting of the carbon tax and industrial competitiveness promotion policy and with a strong reference to support the provincial emission reduction path. Full article