Socialized Agricultural Services and Cultivated Land Use Resilience in China: Evolutionary Trends, Impact Mechanism, and Policy Implications

Abstract

Improving cultivated land use resilience (CLUR) is critical for ensuring global food security and achieving the global goal of zero hunger. Using panel data from 31 provinces (2011–2022) in China, this study analyses the time trends and regional differences in CLUR using the entropy, Theil index, global undesired super-efficiency SBM, and difference-in-difference methods. This study also examines the impact of socialized agricultural services (SAS) on CLUR. The findings show that CLUR levels in China have increased, with provincial differences initially narrowing and then widening. The major grain-producing areas, eastern and central China, have a higher CLUR level than the average level in China. After the pilot of the SAS policy, CLUR in central China exceeded that in eastern China, maintaining consistent growth, while Northeast China remains the lowest. SAS can improve CLUR, and this effect is more obvious in major grain-producing areas and areas with elevated levels of agricultural mechanization. SAS enhances CLUR through facilitating the enlargement of farmers' land management scale and improving the ecological efficiency of cultivated land use. China should cultivate diversified service organizations according to local conditions and innovate SAS methods, continue to improve SAS incentive policies, service specifications, supervision systems, and improve the service effect. Additionally, intensifying efforts to bolster the positive impacts of these services on the agricultural scale management and green transformation of cultivated land use, as well as to enhance CLUR, is imperative.