Are Socialized Services of Agricultural Green Production Conducive to the Reduction in Fertilizer Input? Empirical Evidence from Rural China

Agricultural mechanization service (AMS) is a critical path to achieving agricultural green transformation with smallholders as the mainstay of agricultural production. Based on the panel data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2011 to 2020, this paper measures the AGTFP using the Super-SBM model and examines the effects of different AMS supply agents on AGTFP and spatial spillover effects through the spatial Durbin model. The main conclusions are as follows: First, China’s AGTFP showed a stable growth trend, with the mean value increasing from 0.1990 in 2011 to 0.5590 in 2020. Second, the specialization (SPO) and large-scale (LSO) of AMS supply organizations have significantly positive effect on the AGTFP of the local province. However, SPO has a significantly positive effect on the AGTFP of the neighboring provinces, while LSO has the opposite effect. Third, the specialization of AMS supply individuals (SPI) has significantly negative effect on the AGTFP of the local province. In contrast, the large-scale AMS supply individuals (LSI) has the opposite effect. Furthermore, the spatial spillover effects of both are insignificant. Fourth, the spatial spillover effect of AGTFP shows asymmetry among different regions and indicates that AMS resources flow from non-main grain production and economically developed regions to main grain production and less developed regions. These findings provide helpful policy references for constructing and improving the agricultural mechanization service system and realizing the agricultural green transformation in economies as the mainstay of agricultural production.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The existing studies have demonstrated the critical role of AMS in improving agricultural productivity and environmental efficiency at both macro and micro levels [ 42 , 44 , 54 , 55 , 57 , 83 ]. These findings provide an essential theoretical basis for AMS’s positive role in agriculture’s green transformation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Does Agricultural Mechanization Service Affect Agricultural Green Transformation in China?

Guan

2023

“…The moderating effect model is widely used, and the interaction between two variables can be analyzed by introducing interaction terms [ 44 , 45 ]. Therefore, the following moderating effect model is established to analyze the moderating effects of agricultural-extension-services:

where U represents the moderating variable agricultural extension services, MU represents the interaction term between land lease term and agricultural extension services, and e 4 and e 5 represent the residual term.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Higher Land Rentals Promote Soil Conservation of Large-Scale Farmers in China?

Wang

Zhang

Lü

et al. 2022

Based on theoretical analysis, this study empirically analyzes the mediating mechanism of how land rentals work on large-scale farmers to enhance soil conservation with survey data of 425 large-scale farmers in Shandong and Anhui Provinces, the main grain-producing regions of China, and further examines the moderating effect of agricultural extension services. The results show that: (1) The higher the land rentals, the greater the probability that large-scale farmers enhance soil conservation. (2) The mediating effect demonstrates that in a highly market-oriented rural land transfer market in China, the land lease term of large-scale farmers is longer with the increase of land rentals, thus motivating large-scale farmers to engage in soil conservation. (3) As shown by the moderating effect, agricultural extension services can further positively moderate the contribution of land lease term to large-scale farmers enhancing soil conservation. In order to encourage large-scale farmers to enhance soil conservation, on the one hand it is necessary to standardize the land transfer market and proactively guide large-scale farmers to extend the land lease term. On the other hand, it is indispensable to strengthen agricultural extension services and further broaden the access to soil conservation technologies for large-scale farmers.

“…Some studies show that the age and education of the household head, as the main decision-maker in the household, have important effects on household production and management behavior [29,30]. Differences in household characteristics, such as household support ratio, social capital, economic level, and part-time workers are also important causes of differences in farm households' business behavior [31][32][33]. Production and management characteristics (e.g., the scale of cultivation, degree of land fragmentation, quality of cultivated land, land ownership, crop type, animal husbandry, and degree of commercialization) are closely related to farmers' production behavior and can impact their technology adoption [34,35].…”

Section: Control Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can Agricultural Cooperatives Promote Chinese Farmers’ Adoption of Green Technologies?

Dong

Wang²,

Long

et al. 2023

Green technologies are important for achieving green and high-quality agricultural development. The Chinese government has issued various policies to explicitly encourage the adoption of green technologies. However, incentives for Chinese farmers to adopt green technologies remain insufficient. This study examines whether participation in agricultural cooperatives can help break the barriers to Chinese farmers’ adoption of green technologies. It also examines the potential mechanisms by which cooperatives can mitigate the lack of incentives for farmers to adopt agricultural green technologies. Using data from a study on farmers in four Chinese provinces, we found that cooperative participation significantly increases farmers’ adoption behavior for both green technologies with effective market incentives (e.g., commercial organic fertilizer technologies) and those without such incentives (e.g., water-saving irrigation technologies).