Mechanization in land preparation and irrigation water productivity: insights from rice production

This study investigates how and to what extent mechanization in land preparation (MLP) can help improve irrigation water productivity (IWP) (measured as rice yield per unit volume of irrigation water). We employed an endogenous treatment regression model to estimate the 2021 China Land Economic Survey (CLES) data collected from Jiangsu province, China. The results reveal that MLP adoption increases IWP significantly; a higher IWP is determined by whether or not farmers adopt MLP rather than through which channel they access their farm machines; the effects of MLP adoption on IWP are monotonically increasing across the selected quantiles.

Automated summary

This study examines the impact of mechanization in land preparation (MLP) on irrigation water productivity (IWP) and identifies the factors influencing IWP. The findings indicate that adopting MLP significantly improves IWP. The determinant of higher IWP is whether farmers adopt MLP, rather than the channel they use to access farm machines. The effects of MLP adoption on IWP increase consistently across different quantiles.