Reducing pesticide use is a crucial step toward achieving the green and low-carbon transformation of agriculture. Analyzing the role and mechanisms of agricultural digital technologies—particularly plant protection unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for aerial spraying—is essential for identifying viable strategies to reduce pesticide application intensity among farming households. This analysis is critical for facilitating the low-carbon transformation of rice production and advancing sustainable agricultural development. This study, using survey data from 455 farming households in Jiangxi Province, China, employs Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) methods to investigate the relationship between plant protection UAVs and pesticide application intensity. The findings reveal that adopting plant protection UAVs significantly reduces pesticide application intensity in rice production by 24.9%. Further analysis indicates that the reduction effect is more pronounced among non-aged, large-scale, and part-time farming households. To achieve the low-carbon transformation of rice production, it is vital to enhance agricultural support policies and develop effective market promotion and application mechanisms to encourage the adoption of UAV-based aerial spraying and other digital agricultural technologies.

At present, farmland abandonment (FA) is a serious problem in China, severely restricting agricultural production. In this context, it is of great significance to explore the logical relationship between high-standard farmland construction (HSFC) and FA to optimize land resource allocation and guarantee national food security. Based on a sample of 838 farmers in the main rice production area of the Yangtze River Basin in China, this study employed the Tobit model, the mediating effect model, and the moderated mediating effect model to analyze the impact of HSFC on FA at the micro level. The results show the following: (1) HSFC inhibits FA and the FA proportion decreases by 1.15% for every 1% increase in the HSFC proportion; the robustness test and endogeneity treatment also yield consistent conclusions. (2) The inhibitory effect of HSFC on FA varies greatly among different farmers and is more significant for part-time farmers and those with a higher degree of land fragmentation. (3) Agricultural socialization services (ASS) play a positive mediating role in the influence path. HSFC promotes the farmers’ purchase of ASS, which in turn inhibits FA. (4) The agricultural labor transfer distance (ALTD) plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between HSFC and FA. The farther the distance, the more likely it is that HSFC can promote the farmers’ purchase of ASS and inhibit FA. The results provide insights regarding how to precisely implement the HSFC policy, i.e., to inhibit FA by improving the construction of high-standard farmland and the post-construction management and protection system. Building targeted construction programs and operational systems that consider the differences in the target groups, improving the standard and capacity of ASS to ensure sustainable benefits for farmers, and promoting the non-agricultural transfer of surplus agricultural labor can create conditions for the modern transformation of the traditional rural economy.

Introduction: As a vital food crop in China, the sustainable production of high-quality rice is essential for ensuring food security and facilitating the green transformation of agriculture. However, the limited adoption of green production technologies for high-quality rice among farmers poses a significant obstacle to the sustainable development of the grain sector. While previous studies have primarily focused on the adoption of green technologies by traditional farmers, there has been a lack of attention on professional grain farmers as a distinct category of agricultural operators.Methods: This study, based on the sustainable livelihood framework, focuses on professional grain farmers. By analyzing data from 655 professional grain farmers in Jiangxi Province and utilizing the ordered logit model, we analyzed and validated the influence of livelihood capital on the green production behaviors. Additionally, we applied mediating and moderating effect models to clarify the roles of value cognition and government regulation in this relationship.Results: The study found the following: (1) livelihood capital significantly and positively affects the green production behaviors of professional grain farmers. Specifically, human capital, natural capital, financial capital, and social capital all contribute to the adoption of green production practices. (2) The relationships between livelihood capital and green production behavior are partially mediated by perceptions of economic, ecological, and social benefits, with the mediating effects ranked in descending order. (3) Government regulation acts as a moderator, where stronger incentive and guidance policies amplify the influence of livelihood capital on professional grain farmers’ green production behaviors. (4) Heterogeneity analysis indicates that livelihood capital and value perception have a more pronounced effect on green production behaviors among farmers with higher levels of livelihood capital.Discussion: Based on these results, the study suggests enhancing the allocation of farmers’ livelihood capital, intensifying the dissemination and education of green production technologies, and strengthening policy incentives and guidance.

The promotion of pesticide use reduction is an inevitable requirement for advancing green and low-carbon transformation of agriculture. Analyzing the impact and mechanism of agricultural digital technology applications, represented by plant protection unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), in reduction of pesticide application intensity by farming households is of great significance for exploring feasible pathways for low-carbon transformation in rice production. Based on the survey data of 455 sample farming households in Jiangxi Province, China, this paper employs the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) methods to examine the relationship between plant protection UAVs and the intensity of pesticide application. The research results indicate that the use of plant protection UAVs substantially reduces the intensity of pesticide application in rice by 24.9%. Heterogeneous analysis reveals that the inhibitory effect of plant protection UAVs on pesticide application intensity is more pronounced among non-aged farming households, large-scale farming households, and part-time farming households. Therefore, in order to achieve the goal of rlow-carbon transformation in rice production, it is essential to improve agricultural support policies and establish market promotion and application mechanisms to jointly promote the adoption of plant protection UAVs aerial spraying technology and other agricultural digital technologies.

At present, farmland abandonment（FA）is a severe phenomenon in China, imposing a serious restriction on agricultural production. In this context, it is of great significance to explore the logical relationship between high-standard farmland construction (HSFC) and FA to optimize land resource allocation and guarantee national food security. Based on 838 samples of farmers in the main rice production area of the Yangtze River Basin in China, this paper employs the Tobit model, the mediating effect model, and the moderated mediating effect model to analyze the impact of HSFC on FA at the micro level. The results show that (1) HSFC inhibits FA, and FA proportion decreases by 1.14% for every 1% increase in HSFC proportion, and the robustness test and endogeneity treatment also yield consistent conclusions. (2) Agricultural socialization services (ASS) play a positive mediating role in the influence path. HSFC promotes farmers' purchase of ASS, which in turn inhibits FA. (3) The agricultural labor transfer distance (ALTD) plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between HSFC and FA. The farther the distance, the more likely HSFC can promote farmers' purchase of ASS and inhibit FA. The results provide enlightenment on how to precisely implement HSFC policy, that is, to inhibit FA by improving the construction of high-standard farmland and the post-construction management as well as protection system. Moreover, this study helps guiding the development of ASS and optimizing the institutional environment for agricultural labor transfer, creating conditions for agricultural scale management.

In contrast to other countries, China's agricultural production faces the challenges of aging and feminization, which have a tremendous impact on food security. The purpose of this research was to reveal the correlations between aging and feminization and agricultural production factor input and its heterogeneity. This was evaluated using the ordinary least squares (OLS) model. The research found that the aging of farming did not correlate with the input of land factor and employment input. However, the feminization of farming significantly correlated with the input of land factor and employment input. In particular, an increase in the feminization of farming by one standard deviation reduced the land factor input by 18.9% and employment input by 31.3%. Second, agricultural aging and feminization had a positive and significant effect on agricultural machinery input but a negative and significant effect on material input. The instrumental variable method test results were consistent with those of the main regression. Third, heterogeneity analysis showed that the correlations between aging and feminization and the input of land, employment, agricultural machinery, and materials were significantly different with different educational levels of house heads and the proportion of agricultural income. Therefore, this study provides a reference for adjusting the rural labor structure and accumulating advanced rural production factors.