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

Abstract

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.

Does agricultural mechanization improve agricultural environmental efficiency?

“…In the field of agricultural environmental research, a subset of researchers has posited that the mechanization of agriculture plays a pivotal role in influencing the sector's environmental efficiency. From a theoretical standpoint, the advent of agricultural mechanization serves multiple purposes: it augments farmers' incomes (Qian et al, 2022), increases the efficiency of agricultural production (Jiang et al, 2020), revolutionizes traditional agricultural practices (Li and Guan, 2023), and enhances the ecological sustainability of the agricultural landscape (Zhou and Ma, 2022). Furthermore, interdisciplinary studies have delved into the multifaceted impact of agricultural mechanization by examining variables such as subsidy policies for machinery acquisition (Tian et al, 2021), migration patterns of agricultural labor (Shao et al, 2021), and carbon footprint of agricultural activities (Chen et al, 2021).…”

“…By elevating the productivity of agricultural operations and mitigating adverse environmental repercussions, agricultural mechanization provides indispensable support for the sustainable development of agriculture. The advent of advanced agricultural machinery is progressively supplanting manual labor, thereby augmenting labor productivity (Jiang et al, 2020), finetuning the allocation of agricultural resources (Zhu et al, 2022a), and diminishing undesirable agricultural byproducts (Li and Guan, 2023). This culminates in a marked improvement in agricultural environmental efficiency (Zhou and Ma, 2022).…”

Maintenance Skill Training Gives Agricultural Socialized Service Providers More Advantages

“…The existing research on the influencing factors of agricultural machinery operation services focuses on two aspects: one is from the perspective of the demand side of agricultural machinery operation services. For example, some studies believe that, with the increase in correct farmland confirmation rate, farmers are more inclined to purchase agricultural machinery operation services [19]. Agricultural income promotes the demand for machinery operation services [20], while nonagricultural employment promotes farmers' incomes, which encourages farmers to purchase agricultural machinery services [21].…”

Shallow convolutional neural network structure for vegetable recognition

“…Since the beginning of the new century, China has made significant strides in the modernization of its agriculture. The productivity of Chinese agriculture has notably increased, according to statistical data, the total grain output in China has risen from 43.07 million tons in 2003 to 68.24 million tons in 2021, remarkably, there has been continuous growth in grain production for eighteen consecutive years [1]. However, in contrast to the increasingly mature production processes, the level of automation in the distribution and sales of agricultural products remains relatively low, consuming substantial human and material resources.…”