The service quality of land trusteeship is often subpar due to farmers’ ineffective supervision of service providers’ opportunistic behaviors. However, the existing literature has not given much attention to this agency issue from the principal–agent theory. Accordingly, this paper analyzes the mechanism of supervision failure leading to the quality risk of land trusteeship services, then applies the IV-Heckman model to empirically test the impact with follow-up survey data of 1138 farmers in China. The study found that: (1) supervision failure has a positive impact on the quality risk of land trusteeship services. The OLS model overestimated the main effect of supervision failure by 23%, while the Heckman model effectively corrected the sample selectivity bias. (2) The results of heterogeneity analysis showed that the effect of supervision failure on the quality risk of different crop types is in the order of cash crops, corn, and wheat. The impact of supervision failure on quality risk in different links is single-link, multi-link, and full-link in that order. (3) The quantile regression shows that the higher the level of quality risk is, the deeper the impact of supervision failure on the quality risk of land trusteeship services is. Accordingly, this paper proposes the following policy insights. First, a sound regulatory mechanism for land trusteeship services should be established. Second, increase the punishment for land trusteeship services violations. Third, establish a digital supervision platform to supervise and evaluate the service process and quality.

Farmers’ income growth is a central issue in consolidating the achievements of poverty alleviation in China and advancing common prosperity. It is also crucial for addressing the imbalance between urban and rural development and promoting agricultural and rural modernization. Based on theoretical analysis and mathematical modeling, this study develops a series of research hypotheses. A two-way fixed-effects model is employed to examine the impact of the land trusteeship interest linkage mechanism on farmers’ income growth. Furthermore, heterogeneity analyses are conducted from the perspectives of farmer characteristics, income levels, and crop types, followed by a series of robustness tests. The main findings are as follows: (1) The land trusteeship interest linkage mechanism has a significant positive effect on farmers’ income, and this conclusion remains robust after a series of robustness and endogeneity tests. Among the three core components, namely value cocreation, profit sharing, and risk division, all are found to effectively increase farmers’ income, with their marginal effects decreasing in sequence. (2) In terms of heterogeneity analysis, from the perspective of farmer types, the interest linkage mechanism has the most significant income-enhancing effect on large-scale specialized farmers, followed by small-scale full-time farmers and part-time farmers. From the perspective of income structure, the effect is mainly reflected in the increase in agricultural operating income, followed by wage income and transfer income. Regarding crop types, the income growth effect is more pronounced for vegetable producers than for wheat and maize producers. Based on these findings, efforts should focus on strengthening the interest linkage mechanism through enhanced value cocreation while implementing targeted and differentiated support measures for small-scale full-time farming households and vegetable growers. Particular attention should be paid to improving their operating income in order to maximize the income growth effects for farmers. This study provides important insights for improving mechanisms through which agricultural enterprises link with and benefit farmers, thereby contributing to the realization of China’s strategic goal of common prosperity.

Agricultural production trusteeship (APT) represents an innovative model of agricultural socialized services in which specialized service organizations provide scaled operations to smallholders without transferring land rights. It can effectively address rural labor shortages while contributing to China’s grain security and agricultural modernization by improving production efficiency and promoting more sustainable resource allocation. Using survey data from farm households across six Shandong cities, this study applies an Ordered Probit model to examine how off-farm employment influences farmers’ adoption of APT, together with its underlying mechanisms and heterogeneous patterns. The results show that a higher share of household labor engaged in off-farm employment is associated with a higher probability of APT adoption. This association is stronger under flexible employment model and weaker as the location of off-farm work becomes more distant. Mechanism analysis shows capital endowment mediates the association between off-farm employment and APT adoption, with physical capital having the strongest effect and economic capital the weakest. Higher risk perception weakens the positive effect of off-farm employment on farmers’ adoption of APT. These findings provide novel evidence and practical policy implications for improving APT implementation and facilitating smallholders’ effective participation in modern agricultural production systems.