Do small farms prefer agricultural mechanization services? Evidence from wheat production in China

Developing agricultural mechanization services has been an important approach to pushing smallholder farmers engaging modern agricultural production in China. However, whether smallholder farmers prefer adopting agricultural mechanization services is still under-analysed. In this paper, we use data covering 3,440 wheat farmers collected from Henan province in China to investigate the links between farm size and the adoption of agricultural mechanization services. The results indicate that an inverted U-shaped relationship between farm size and the adoption of agricultural mechanization services exists. We also find that small farms can input more family labour, and large farms tend to invest in self-owned machinery assets. Our analysis implies that the development of agricultural mechanization services is not inevitable to attract farmers with alternative elements, and smallholder farmers may not be the major groups involved in the market of social services in agriculture in the future.

Automated summary

The study shows an inverted U-shaped relationship between farm size and the adoption of agricultural mechanization services. Small farms tend to input more family labor, while large farms are more likely to invest in self-owned machinery assets. The results imply that the development of agricultural mechanization services may not necessarily attract smallholder farmers, who may not be the major participants in the future market of social services in agriculture.