Agricultural mechanization and land productivity in China

This study estimates the impacts of the adoption of different mechanized farming strategies (i.e. no-mechanized farming, semi-mechanized farming, and full-mechanized farming) on land productivity. An innovative multivalued treatment effects model addresses selectivity bias and estimates farm household data from the 2016 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey. The results show that adopting semi- and full-mechanized farming positively impacts land productivity, and the larger impact is associated with the adoption of full-mechanized farming. The disaggregated analyses indicate that female-headed households obtain higher land productivity from mechanization adoption relative to their male-headed counterparts; the farm size-land productivity relationship is U-shaped for semi-mechanized farming adopters but negative for full-mechanized farming adopters; semi-mechanized farming adopters living in central China and full-mechanized farming adopters living in western China obtain higher land productivity than their counterparts in other parts of China.

Automated summary

This study estimates the impacts of different mechanized farming strategies on land productivity and finds that both semi-mechanized and full-mechanized farming have positive effects. Female-headed households achieve higher land productivity through mechanization adoption compared to their male-headed counterparts, and the relationship between farm size and land productivity varies for different types of mechanized farming adopters.