Purpose: This study aims to estimate the synergy effect of agricultural dual-scale management (ADM) on farmers' total household income, its heterogeneous effects and its mechanisms.Design/methodology/approach: This study constructs a theoretical analysis framework based on the division of labor and synergy theory, empirically assesses the impact of ADM on farmers' income, and further discusses the heterogeneity and mechanisms using the propensity score matching (PSM) and quantile treatment effect (QTE) models. Data is collected from 1,076 households across 4 cities in Liaoning Province of China in 2021.Findings: ADM can improve the total household income of farmers, and the impact force is greater than that of the single-scale management mode. ADM is more conducive to improving the income of farmers with low income and low labor endowment. Moreover, ADM can improve agriculture production efficiency, increase net grain production income. Nevertheless, it has no significant effect on farmers' off-farm employment income.Originality/value: Previous studies have mainly focused on the income effect of land scale management or service scale management. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to identify the synergy effect of ADM on farmers' income in China. It provides new insights into the process of agricultural production and management mode transitions in rural China.

Reducing food loss can improve environmental sustainability, resource use, and food security. Agricultural machinery services have considerable advantages in enhancing the adaptability and competitiveness of farms, but little is known about its potential for addressing food loss. Here, this work attempts to reveal a strong yet under-discussed connection between agricultural machinery services and food loss. Using survey data covering 483 corn farmers in the Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning provinces of China from October to December 2024, this study examined the extent to which participation in agricultural machinery services reduced food loss. Our results confirmed the existence of this significant causal effect and estimated 0.864% and 0.862% reductions in weight and value losses in response to a 1% increase in the purchase of agricultural machinery services. The possible mechanisms driving this relationship, including factor allocation optimization and technology introduction, were further verified. A variety of robustness tests were conducted to validate the strength and reliability of the empirical results and address endogeneity issues. Also, to better contextualize the heterogeneous effects of agricultural machinery services on food loss, the differences across production links, land fragmentation, and service quality were explored. By highlighting the important roles of agricultural machinery services in reducing food loss, our analysis contributed to contemporary debates about the long-term linkage between the wide popularization of agricultural machinery services and achieving food security, particularly providing insights for developing countries.

Rural livelihood transformation is increasingly vital for achieving agricultural modernization, reducing poverty, and promoting sustainable development in developing countries. Despite growing attention to land consolidation as a tool for improving agricultural resource allocation and productivity, its role in shaping rural livelihoods remains insufficiently understood. Addressing this gap, this study investigates the impacts of China’s High-Standard Farmland Construction (HFC), the country’s flagship land consolidation policy, on farmers’ livelihoods, focusing on both income level and income structure. Using provincial panel data from 30 regions, we adopt a continuous difference-in-differences design and mediation effect model to identify the causal effects of HFC. The results indicate that HFC significantly promotes total household income. Specifically, HFC facilitates mechanized agricultural production by consolidating fragmented plots, reducing production costs, and improving crop yields, thereby increasing agricultural income. Simultaneously, mechanization substitutes for labor and releases surplus workers, who often move to off-farm employment, diversifying income sources and stabilizing household livelihoods. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the benefits of HFC are unevenly distributed. Low-income households, central provinces, and major grain-producing areas experience the greatest gains, and moderate-scale implementation proves more effective than either small- or excessively large-scale projects. This study highlights mechanization as a key mechanism linking land consolidation to rural livelihood transformation. The findings demonstrate that well-planned and efficiently implemented HFC policies can not only enhance agricultural productivity but also foster diversified and inclusive rural livelihoods.

Agricultural productive services (APS) play an important role in improving agricultural efficiency and ensuring food security. Existing studies have widely recognized that labor scarcity induced by rural labor transfer stimulates farmers’ demand for APS and promotes the expansion of agricultural service markets. Yet non-farm employment in developing countries is often characterized by instability, temporariness, and informality, which may generate volatile service demand and undermine the sustainable provision of APS. Based on survey data from 684 maize-producing households in China, this study constructs a multidimensional index of non-farm employment quality and investigates how it influences APS adoption intensity and transaction stability. Our results confirm that improvements in non-farm employment quality significantly increase APS adoption intensity, and the findings remain stable under alternative measurements and estimation methods. Mechanism analysis reveals that higher employment quality promotes APS adoption intensity by reducing farmers’ risk perception, while this effect is moderated by social capital. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the positive effect of non-farm employment quality is concentrated among growth-stage households, lower-land-fragmentation households, small-scale households, and single-type employment households. Further analysis indicates that higher employment quality contributes to more stable and long-term contractual relationships between farmers and service providers. By highlighting the importance of non-farm employment quality in stabilizing agricultural service demand and fostering stable transaction relationships, this study contributes to ongoing discussions on rural labor transformation and the sustainable development of APS markets under smallholder farming systems in developing countries.

Climate change increasingly threatens global agricultural sustainability, emphasizing the need to develop climate-adaptive agricultural systems. The expansion of agricultural mechanization, a key component of modern farming, has been extensively studied from socio-economic perspectives; however, whether it functions as an adaptive response to climate change remains poorly understood. This study examines the relationship between extreme heat events and mechanization, with particular attention to machinery heterogeneity. Using provincial panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning 2006–2023, a fixed-effects model is employed to analyze the impact of extreme heat on mechanization, while assessing moderating factors such as land endowment and institutional support. The results indicate that extreme heat significantly increases the adoption of medium- and large-sized machinery, while reducing the use of small-sized machinery, leading to no net effect on overall mechanization. Land fragmentation constrains mechanization, whereas government support facilitates greater adoption of medium- and large-sized machinery. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals stronger mechanization responses in subsoiling and water-saving irrigation practices. Regions with higher agricultural insurance coverage and greater off-farm employment demonstrate enhanced climate adaptation through mechanization. These findings underscore the importance of differentiating machinery types and reinforcing institutional support to strengthen agricultural resilience. The study provides actionable insights for policymakers in developing countries to promote adaptive and sustainable agricultural systems through targeted mechanization strategies and improved institutional frameworks.