The impact of the supply of farmland, level of agricultural mechanisation, and supply of rural labour on grain yields in China

Abstract

impacts of farmland supply, rural-labour supply, and agricultural mechanisation development on grain-crop yields in China. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to co-integration and error correction was applied to data over the period 1978-2017. The results show that farmland supply and agricultural mechanisation developments are positively associated with the growth of grain-crop yields in both the short- and long-term. However, the impact of the rural labour supply on grain yield is insignificant. Strengthening farmland protection policies and promoting innovation-based agricultural mechanisation development plays an important role in sustainable food production. Future research should focus on improving the quality of farmland, agricultural mechanisation, and finding effective strategies to protect farmland for sustainable food production. Moreover, China’s efforts to enhance the multidimensional level of agricul tural mechanisation should be encouraged.