Can Agricultural Productive Services Promote Agricultural Environmental Efficiency in China?

Abstract

Agricultural productive services are important paths to realize the development of green agriculture, while the effect of agricultural productive services on the agricultural environment and its influencing mechanism are not yet clear. With the panel data of agricultural production in China from 2004 to 2019, by using multi-output stochastic frontier analysis with an output-oriented distance function, this study investigates agricultural environmental efficiency based on net carbon sinks. Then, this study explores the effect of agricultural productive services on agricultural environmental efficiency and its mechanisms by adopting ordinary least squares regression with fixed-effect panel model, causal steps approach, and spatial econometric method. The main findings are as follows: Firstly, agricultural productive services enhance agricultural productivity and agricultural environment by optimizing inputs and increasing outputs, and thus improve agricultural environmental efficiency. This result holds steadily after using instrumental variables to deal with endogeneity, changing the measurement of the dependent and independent variables, and subdividing the sample. Secondly, the pathways of agricultural productive services affecting agricultural environmental efficiency are mainly reflected in technology progress, planting structure adjustment, factor allocation optimization, and spatial spillover. Thirdly, due to the law of diminishing marginal returns, the impact of agricultural productive services on agricultural environmental efficiency is more significant when the level of agricultural productive services is relatively low. To improve agricultural environmental efficiency, we suggest implementing different productive service strategies in different regions, strengthening information integration, and improving infrastructure.

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

“…Therefore, longer-term panel data could be considered in future studies to more accurately capture the relationship between the development of AMS and the agricultural green transformation. Third, AMS exists in many aspects of agricultural production, such as tillage, sowing, irrigation, and harvesting [ 43 , 64 ]. A possible future research direction is to explore in depth the heterogeneous role of AMS in different product segments in promoting the agricultural green transformation, which will help to construct a more comprehensive AMS system.…”

“…Xu et al characterized agricultural services in terms of agricultural services output and indicated that agricultural services helped to promote the growth of AGTFP, and the improvement effect was higher in the eastern region [ 42 ]. Zhu et al characterized productive agricultural services in terms of the number of people employed in agricultural services and indicated that productive agricultural services effectively improved agri-environmental efficiency by optimizing inputs and increasing outputs [ 43 ]. From a micro perspective, Li et al showed that adopting green agricultural services by farmers helped improve AGTFP, and the improvement effect was more substantial with higher adoption [ 44 ].…”

Agricultural Machinery Socialization Service Adoption, Risks, and Relative Poverty of Farmers

“…One way to solve the dilemma of the weak income increase of farmers is to promote the agricultural division of labor. Agriculture "imports" the division of labor economy from industry through the purchase of machinery and the indirect production effect, which greatly extends the space of the specialized division of labor and the trade radius [25], thus generating an agricultural machinery socialization service and improving production efficiency [26]. The adoption of agricultural machinery socialization In general, there have been discussions on the relationship between agricultural machinery socialization services and the relative poverty of farmers, which has laid a good foundation for the smooth development of this study.…”

“…On the other hand, the adoption of agricultural machinery socialization services by farmers adds mechanical elements to agricultural production, and the mechanical operation efficiency is generally higher than that of manual operations, thus improving agricultural production efficiency. At the same time, the adoption of agricultural machinery socialization services can accelerate the non-agricultural transfer of labor by promoting the improvement of labor allocation efficiency [25], increasing the wage income of farmers, and alleviating relative poverty. In addition, agricultural machinery socialization services will embed other production factors such as pesticides and fertilizers into the production process so that farmers can obtain other production factors more conveniently, reduce transaction costs, and alleviate relative poverty [27].…”

Can Agricultural Productive Services Inhibit Carbon Emissions? Evidence from China

“…Ji (2018) concluded that APS significantly reduce pesticide use and enhance pesticide abuse prevention and control [35]. Zhu et al (2022) concluded that APS effectively improve agro-environmental efficiency by optimizing the input-output structure [36].…”