The present study aims to measure the technical efficiency and establish core factors affecting rice production in Cambodia. A four‐year dataset generated from the central government document “Profile on Economics and Social” of 25 entire provinces between 2012 and 2015 and the stochastic production frontier model (SFA) was applied. The results indicated that the level of output (quantity) of Cambodian rice production varied according to the different level of capital investment in agricultural machineries, total rice actual harvested area, and technical fertilizer application within provinces. Furthermore, evidence revealed that the overall mean efficiency of rice production is 78.4%, which implies that there is still room to further improve technical efficiency given the same level of inputs and technology. More importantly, the findings revealed that irrigation, production techniques and amount of agricultural supporting staff are the most important influencing factors of rice production’s technical efficiency in Cambodia. In conclusion, the present study strongly recommends the development of irrigation systems and good water management practices to be considered and bring about more effective actions by the central government as well as related agencies for improving rice production in Cambodia in addition to capital investment and improving technical skills of supporting staff and rural farmers.

This study aims to identify the major factors influencing the Cambodian rice exports through an application of the dynamic gravity framework estimated by the Generalized Least Square (GLS), the Poisson Pseudo-Maximum-Likelihood (PPML), and the Heckman Sample Selection models, based on a period of 22-year panel data (1995–2016) and a total of 40 selected importing partners. The results show that the historical ties, the policy of exchange rate and the agricultural land reform promote the rice exports; the expansion of the exports to the trading partners, especially the EU, China and the ASEAN countries are particularly highlighted. As a macroeconomic issue and resistance factor, the economic recession, impeding the exports flows, would require further special attentions.

The Grassland Ecological Compensation Policy (GECP) is a key set of policy instruments designed to alleviate grassland degradation and increase herdsmen’s income. However, considering the various constraints and obstacles that policies often face in actual operation, it may not be able to achieve the expected goals. In order to test the real income effect of GECP and clarify its mechanism, based on the data of 499 counties in Chinese pastoralist provinces from 2000 to 2019, this paper uses the difference-in-differences (DID) model to empirically test the impact of GECP on herdsmen’s income from the dual perspective of income growth and income gap. This analysis not only evaluates the impact and mechanism of GECP on income growth in more detail, but also broadens the existing research perspective from the perspective of the income gap. The major study findings are as follows: (1) GECP significantly promotes income for herdsmen, with a marginal effect of 0.078. (2) The mechanism analysis indicates the GECP improves the income of herdsmen through the direct effect of increasing transfer income and the indirect effect of optimizing the allocation of labor, and promoting the livestock scale of barn feeding. (3) With respect to the income gap, this paper finds that areas with relatively high levels of development benefit more from GECP, which will widen the income gap between regions for herdsmen.

In this investigation, we analyze data from 929 tea farmers across Shanxi, Sichuan, and Anhui provinces to elucidate the impact of productive and transactional agricultural social services on farmers’ adoption of soil testing and formula fertilization technology. Our perspective centers on the farmers’ standpoint and the underpinning mechanisms of these influences. Our findings delineate several key points: Both transactional and productive socialized services exert a positive influence on farmers’ decisions to adopt green production technologies, with the impact of productive socialized services being more pronounced than their transactional counterparts. The enthusiasm and the scale of adoption for green production technologies among farmers are positively impacted by both types of socialized services, a conclusion robust even when potential endogeneity and other statistical biases are corrected using IV Probit. The influence mechanism of transactional and productive social services operates symbiotically, primarily fostering trust, enhancing farmers’ tea price expectations and industry cognition, driving positive social evaluations, and motivating speculative behavior among farmers. Transactional and productive socialization services show varying propensities in promoting the adoption of soil testing and formula fertilization technology, depending on the farmers’ type, endowments, and income levels. Involvement in these agricultural socialization services enables farmers to bolster their income, improve technical proficiency and information-gathering capabilities, jointly participate in market competition, reduce market risks, and enhance their recognition and choice of green production technologies. This appears to be a crucial catalyst for the successful promotion of greener development and transformation within agriculture and rural areas.

The Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) is the largest ecological restoration program in the world. Evaluating the ecological effects of the SLCP not only provides a scientific basis for China to improve the SLCP but also provides a reference for other countries in the world to evaluate the ecological effects of ecological restoration programs being implemented or to be implemented. To this end, we took the Loess Plateau, the core area for the implementation of the SLCP, as an example and, based on multi-source remote sensing data and GIS technology, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the ecological effects of the implementation of the SLCP on the Loess Plateau. The results showed that, first, from 2000 to 2018, a total of 12,372.05 km² of cultivated land was converted into forest land and grassland on the Loess Plateau, and this contributed to an increase in vegetation cover from 45.09% in 2000 to 64.15% in 2018, and a decrease in the soil erosion modulus from 26.41 t·hm⁻²·yr⁻¹ in 2000 to 17.92 t·hm⁻²·yr⁻¹ in 2018. Second, the 6–25° slope range is the core area of the Loess Plateau for implementation of the SLCP. In this range, the area of cultivated land converted into forest land and grassland accounts for 60.16% of the total area of transferred cultivated land. As a result, the 6–25° slope range has become the most significant area for improving vegetation cover and reducing the soil erosion intensity, and it is mainly concentrated in the southwestern, central and central-eastern hilly and gully areas of the Loess Plateau. Third, from 2000 to 2018, the climate of the Loess Plateau tended to be warm and humid and was conducive to the implementation of the SLCP. Among these factors, precipitation is the dominant factor in determining the spatial distribution of vegetation on the Loess Plateau, and the increase in precipitation is also the main reason for the promotion of vegetation growth. Fourthly, from 2000 to 2018, the ecological environment of the Loess Plateau was significantly improved as a result of the combined effects of the implementation of the SLCP and climate warming and humidification, but the primary reason is still the implementation of the SLCP.