Livestock enterprises are the core actors in the livestock industry, and the Environmental Protection Tax (EPT) plays a critical role in driving their green transformation. Addressing the "environment–efficiency " trade-off and unlocking the policy dividends of EPT remain urgent research priorities. Using data from Chinese publicly listed livestock firms spanning 2007–2024, this study treats the EPT policy as a quasi-natural experiment and employs a double machine learning framework to investigate the impact and underlying mechanisms of EPT on livestock enterprises' green total factor productivity (GTFP). The results reveal that EPT significantly enhances GTFP. Mechanism analysis demonstrates that EPT promotes GTFP through two channels: green innovation and green mergers and acquisitions, while corporate digital transformation exerts a significant positive moderating effect on this relationship. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that EPT's positive effect on GTFP is particularly pronounced for livestock and poultry farming firms, feed production enterprises, privately owned companies, and firms located in China’s western regions. Finally, economic consequence analysis confirms that EPT implementation reduces livestock enterprises’ market value and intensifies industry competition. Collectively, these findings not only clarify the pathways through which EPT improves GTFP in China’s livestock sector but also offer critical policy insights for optimizing environmental tax design and advancing sustainable livestock development.

Under the impetus of economic and social development and the rural revitalization strategy,China's grain output has maintained bumper harvests for many consecutive years,but it still faces challenges such as the low production efficiency and the large income gap among farmers.Given the national condition of"a large country with small-scale agriculture",promoting the connection between small farmers and modern agriculture is of great significance,and agricultural socialized services have become a key bridge linking them.This paper focused on China's agricultural socialized services,aiming to analyze their development status and regional characteristics,draw lessons from international experience,and put forward development suggestions,so as to provide the reference for promoting agricultural modernization.In terms of the current development situation,the policy system for agricultural socialized services has been gradually improved,with increasingly clear policy goals,supporting the diversification of service subjects,the diversification of policy tools,and regional differentiation.In terms of the regional service structure,taking the socialized service situation in Henan Province as the analysis object,the agricultural socialized service market has formed a three-level market structure of"leading enterprises-agricultural machinery professional cooperatives-agricultural machinery professional households".The government took the lead in providing financial support,and market entities at different levels had complementary advantages.In terms of regional service characteristics,China has initially built a new agricultural socialized service system characterized by"government guidance,multi-stakeholder collaboration and functional complementarity".This system took public service institutions as the basic support,cooperative economic organizations as the grassroots network,leading agricultural enterprises as the industrial hub,and social forces such as scientific research institutions and industry associations as important supplements.It combined public welfare services with commercial services and coordinates special services with comprehensive services.In terms of international experience,the United States has built a three-dimensional collaborative agricultural socialized service system adapting to large-scale agricultural production,which consisted of government public services,private enterprise services and farmer cooperative systems.Japan has established an agricultural socialized service system centered on agricultural associations,which was suitable for small-scale family operations.In the reform of their service systems,both countries have achieved upgrades in organizational structure,service content and technical empowerment.The common points of the two countries'service systems lay in connecting farmers with modern agriculture through organizational embedding,promoting agricultural modernization with technical empowerment,and innovating service content to enhance industrial competitiveness.Based on China's national conditions and international experience,the following policy suggestions were put forward:We should strengthen government guidance and institutional guarantees to consolidate the service foundation,cultivate diversified service subjects and build a collaborative service network,deepen financial and digital empowerment to improve service quality and efficiency,and improve the interest linkage mechanism to protect the rights and interests of small farmers.

Property rights reform is expected to mobilize multiple actors to actively participate in rural governance, thereby exerting an important influence on the provision of rural public goods. This study examines the impact of China’s Rural Collective Property Rights System Reform (RCPRSR) on rural public goods provision, with particular attention paid to its effects on the government, market actors, and farmer organizations. Based on multi-source geocoded points of interest (POI) data and township-level data on public goods provision, a panel dataset covering the period from 2012 to 2019 is constructed. A staggered difference-in-differences (staggered DID) approach is employed to identify the welfare effects of RCPRSR on rural public goods provision. The results show that RCPRSR significantly promotes the growth of rural public goods provision. Mechanism analysis indicates that this effect is mainly achieved through three channels: inducing greater governmental attention to public services, stimulating market-based entrepreneurial activity, and strengthening farmer organization. Further analysis reveals that the effects of RCPRSR vary across different types of public services. The coefficients are positive and significant for all three categories, with larger magnitudes for basic public services and living services. Moreover, the reform effect is weakened by greater fiscal pressure and longer distance from county or district seats, but strengthened in townships with a higher density of nonprofit organizations, which is used as a proxy for local trust. These findings provide empirical evidence on the social welfare effects of property rights reform and offer valuable insights for improving collaborative rural governance and promoting integrated urban–rural development in other regions worldwide.

InroductionSmallholder commercialization remains central to agricultural transformation in developing countries, yet fragmented production systems, high transaction costs, and weak institutional capacity continue to constrain market participation and rural welfare. In Ethiopia, Cluster Farming (CF) has emerged as a flagship policy intervention designed to address these challenges through collective production, coordinated input use, and joint marketing. However, evidence on its economic performance remains fragmented and heterogeneous.MethodsThis study systematically reviews the economics of cluster farming in Ethiopia following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A total of 41 empirical studies were synthesized using an evidence-weighting approach that differentiates studies according to methodological rigor. The review integrates theories of agglomeration economies, Transaction Cost Economics, Institutional Analysis and Development, and smallholder commercialization to explain the mechanisms underlying cluster farming outcomes.ResultsThe evidence indicates that cluster farming is generally associated with improvements in technical efficiency, productivity, commercialization, technology adoption, and household welfare. Studies applying stronger causal identification strategies consistently report higher marketed surplus, improved asset accumulation, and greater market participation among cluster participants, while efficiency analyses document substantial gains in technical and allocative efficiency. However, these benefits are highly context dependent, with coordination costs arising from collective decision-making, weak local governance, information asymmetries, and unequal benefit distribution constraining the realization of economies of scale.DiscussionInstitutional quality, farmer resource endowments, commodity characteristics, market access, and regional implementation capacity explain the heterogeneous performance of cluster farming across Ethiopia. This review contributes to the literature by proposing an integrated framework that conceptualizes cluster farming as an institutional coordination mechanism through which economies of scale can be translated into sustainable commercialization when supported by effective governance and robust local institutions. The findings suggest that policies should move beyond spatial clustering alone and prioritize institutional capacity building, transparent governance, stronger market linkages, and context-specific implementation strategies to enhance the long-term sustainability of smallholder commercialization and rural welfare.

Against the backdrop of the global dietary structure shifting toward high-protein livestock products, rising pork demand driven by population growth, and the in-depth integration of the “dual carbon” goal with the strategy for green and sustainable agricultural development, China—as the world’s largest pig breeding and consuming country—bears the livelihood mission of ensuring meat supply through its pig industry while confronting practical challenges such as excessive resource consumption and worsening environmental pollution. To address the coordinated dilemma of “production efficiency-resource consumption-environmental impact,” this study takes 199 self-breeding and self-raising pig farmers in three northeastern provinces of China as research objects, and systematically measures the ecological efficiency of fattening pig rearing and quantifies the greenhouse gas emission reduction potential by combining the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Super-efficiency SBM-DEA models. The LCA results indicate that the manure treatment and feed processing stages are the core contributing links to global warming potential, acidification potential, and eutrophication potential. The DEA calculation shows that the ecological efficiency of large-scale farmers is significantly higher than that of small-scale scattered farmers: the former exhibits high redundancy in labor and epidemic prevention inputs, while the latter features comprehensive redundancy in factors such as the number of sows and land. The analysis of emission reduction potential reveals that the greenhouse gas reduction rate of small-scale scattered farmers is much higher than that of large-scale farmers, making them the key target for regional agricultural carbon emission reduction. This study reveals the scale differences and optimization paths of ecological efficiency in pig breeding in Northeast China from the micro-subject perspective, providing empirical support and decision-making basis for targeted industrial emission reduction, efficient resource allocation, and green transformation.

In worldwide, climate change poses an increasingly serious threat to horticultural production and postharvest management, with rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns, and more frequent droughts and floods increasingly affecting crop performance and quality. The review follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A systematic search was conducted using Web of Science, Scopus, and other major databases. After screening, duplicate removal, and eligibility assessment, 140 studies were synthesized in this review. Horticultural crops particularly fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals are highly sensitive to these changes due to their perishability and narrow climatic tolerances. Induced abiotic stresses disrupt key physiological processes, fruit development, reduce yield, and increase the vulnerability to pests and diseases, while also compromise the nutritional value and market quality of produce. In addition to production-level impacts, climate change accelerates postharvest deterioration, shortens shelf life, and increases losses during storage, transport, and marketing. Beyond production losses, climate variability accelerates postharvest deterioration, shortens shelf life by increasing respiration, water loss, and microbial spoilage, leading to higher losses during storage, transport, and marketing. These impacts are especially severe in developing countries, where limited cold chain capacity and weak adaptive systems constrain resilience. These impacts pose serious threats to food security, livelihoods, and the global competitiveness of horticultural markets, particularly in developing nations where limited cold chain capacity and adaptive systems constrain resilience. This review synthesizes current evidence on the biophysical and socio-economic effects of climate change on horticultural systems, emphasizing its implications for food security, livelihoods, and market stability. It also highlights practical mitigation and adaptation strategies, including climate resilient varieties, improved agronomic and water management practices, efficient and energy smart postharvest technologies, and supportive policy measures. The review underscores the need for integrated, climate-smart approaches that strengthen institutional capacity, promote innovation, and enhance farmer awareness to sustain horticultural productivity and reduce postharvest losses under a changing climate.

Livestock manure outsourcing has emerged as an environmental management strategy for improving manure collection, treatment, and recycling under livestock intensification and crop–livestock decoupling. However, the effectiveness of this strategy depends on whether pig farmers can participate in outsourcing arrangements under constraints imposed by land access, service markets, and regulatory enforcement. Using micro-level survey data from 320 pig farmers in China, this study applies Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to examine how three categories of transaction costs—Land Factor Allocation Transaction Costs (LFATC), Market Exchange Transaction Costs (METC), and Institutional Enforcement Transaction Costs (IETC)—affect farmers’ Manure Outsourcing Treatment Intensity (MOTI) through Willingness to Outsource Manure Treatment (WILL) and Peer Effect (PEER). The results show that LFATC and IETC significantly increase farmers’ MOTI, whereas METC significantly reduces farmers’ MOTI. WILL and PEER serve as important transmission channels linking transaction costs to farmers’ outsourcing participation, although the strength of these pathways varies across topographical conditions, farm scale, and technical training. These findings indicate that third-party manure treatment depends not only on treatment capacity but also on reducing coordination costs in land-based nutrient recycling, improving service-market reliability, and strengthening environmental regulatory arrangements. The study provides practical implications for designing livestock manure management policies and environmental service systems in regions facing livestock intensification and crop–livestock decoupling.

With the rapid digitalization of rural areas, its effects have been widely studied in terms of economic returns and lifestyle changes, yet little is known about whether and to what extent it affects household food security. Using data from rural China for the period 2019 - 2020, this study examines the causal effect of digital rural construction on household food security. Food security is measured using the Chinese Healthy Eating Index and the Diet Balance Index. The results show that digital rural construction significantly improves household food security, with stronger effects among high-income households. We further explore two potential mechanisms: dietary availability and household engagement with online dietary and health information. The findings suggest that digital rural construction significantly improves dietary availability, while its effect on online information engagement is not statistically significant. Moreover, we examine the effects of different dimensions of digital rural construction and find that rural life digitalization exerts the strongest influence on household food security. Overall, the evidence implies that advancing digital rural development can serve as an effective policy instrument to strengthen household food security in rural areas of developing countries.

IntroductionThis paper explores the growth effect and role decomposition of agricultural socialized service on farmers' agricultural income, and makes comparative analysis on farmers' self-cultivation model and agricultural socialized service model from the perspectives of agricultural production income, production cost and net income. Agricultural socialized service realizes the increase of grain output through the introduction of modern elements, thus promoting the growth of agricultural income and net income.MethodsEmpirically, based on the survey data of grain farmers, multiple linear regression model and propensity score matching method are used to test, and heterogeneity analysis is performed according to grain varieties.Results and discussionThe results show that agricultural socialized service can significantly increase the agricultural income of grain farmers. Compared with the farmers' self-cultivation model, the production cost of the agricultural socialized service model is significantly higher. The analysis shows that the input of modern factors is higher than the cost of farmers' traditional factors, but the resulting increase in output makes up for it. The comprehensive realization of farmers' adoption of agricultural socialized service brings significant improvement in agricultural production income and net income.

Fertility and employment are two major livelihood issues that garner significant attention in numerous countries. Based on the data from the experimental section of the 2021 China General Social Survey questionnaire, this paper systematically examines the impact of non-agricultural employment on multiple-child fertility intention among rural reproductive-age women. The findings reveal that non-agricultural employment significantly reduces multiple-child fertility intention among this group, with the concept change effect serving as an important underlying mechanism. Moderation effect analysis indicates that family care and medical service play moderating roles in the inhibitory effect of non-agricultural employment on multiple-child fertility intention. Specifically, on the one hand, within the realm of family care, elderly care intensifies the inhibitory effect of non-agricultural employment on multiple-child fertility intention, whereas intergenerational care mitigates this effect. On the other hand, improvements in both the time accessibility and spatial accessibility of medical service diminish the inhibitory effect of non-agricultural employment on multiple-child fertility intention. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the negative impact of non-agricultural employment on multiple-child fertility intention among rural reproductive-age women is more pronounced for those in the stable phase of fertility decision-making, with lower levels of educational attainment, engaged in full-time non-agricultural work, whose spouses are also employed in non-agricultural sectors, and whose families do not participate in medical insurance or pension insurance schemes. This study holds significant theoretical implications and practical value for China and other developing countries in balancing the participation of reproductive-age women in non-agricultural employment with the enhancement of their fertility intention within the context of rural development.

BACKGROUND: Animal diseases threaten pig production by reducing growth efficiency and farm profitability. Total factor productivity (TFP), reflecting technological progress, organizational improvement, and resource allocation, provides a comprehensive measure of farm performance. Yet, the impact of diseases on TFP in pig farming remains unclear. This study examines the effects of animal diseases on TFP across different farm sizes in China using provincial panel data from 2007 to 2020. RESULTS: A 1% increase in disease cases raises TFP by 0.018 units in large-scale farms, reduces it by 0.041 units in small-scale farms, and shows no significant effect for medium-scale farms. Mechanism analysis indicates that diseases mainly affect TFP through technical change, while heterogeneity analysis shows stronger effects in major pig-producing regions. CONCLUSIONS: Diseases, though adverse shocks, have spurred technological progress and TFP in large-scale farms but significantly constrained TFP in small-scale farms. These findings underscore the need to promote technological innovation, account for scale heterogeneity in policy design, and strengthen the resilience of small- and medium-scale farms to ensure sustainable development of the swine industry.

The dual-scale agricultural management, namely farmland-scale management and service-scale management, offers a solution for achieving a balance between ensuring food security and reducing carbon emissions. Based on panel data of 30 Chinese provinces between 2005 and 2021, we use two-way fixed effects model and mediating effect model to explore the impact of dual-scale agricultural managements on agricultural carbon emission intensity. It was found that: Dual-scale agricultural managements have a significant negative correlation with agricultural carbon emission intensity; They have a synergistic effect on reducing carbon emission intensity through industrial agglomeration effect, technological progress effect, and machinery service effect; Farmland-scale management correlate more significantly with reduced agricultural carbon emission intensity in regions with balanced food production and sales, regions with high degree of agricultural mechanization, and the eastern regions, while service-scale management correlate more significantly in the main food sales regions, high degree of agricultural mechanization regions and the central regions. Farmland- and service-scale managements synergistically reduce agricultural carbon emissions in China between 2005 and 2021 through effects of agglomeration, technology, and machinery, based on an analysis of panel data from 30 Chinese provinces

Large-scale livestock farming improves production efficiency but may increase environmental pressure by disrupting the balance between livestock manure nutrient supply and cropland nutrient demand. However, the relationship between Pig Farming Scale (scale) and crop-livestock nutrient matching, as measured by the Crop-Livestock Nutrient Matching Index (CNMI), remains insufficiently understood. Using panel data from 29 provincial-level administrative regions in China from 2007 to 2022, this study measures CNMI based on soil nitrogen balance theory and employs a two-way fixed-effects model, subgroup regression and moderation analysis. The results show, first, a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between scale and CNMI, with a turning point at 50.02%. This suggests that the effect of scale on CNMI is nonlinear. To the left of the turning point, the scale effect is relatively dominant; to the right, land carrying-capacity constraints may become more binding, crowding effects may emerge, and the risk of nutrient imbalance may increase. Second, the effect of scale is heterogeneous across different farming-size groups. In the 50-499 head group, scale1 is significantly positively associated with CNMI. In the 500-999 head group, the relationship is significantly inverted U-shaped. In the 1000-head-and-above group, the effect is not statistically significant. Third, Land Transfer Rate (LTR) moderates the inverted U-shaped relationship between scale and CNMI mainly by shifting the turning point rather than significantly changing the curvature, shifting the estimated turning point from 50.02% to 27.57%. These findings support nutrient management, moderate-scale pig farming compatible with land carrying capacity, and improved crop-livestock resource allocation.

Against the backdrop of increasingly emphasized sustainable development goals and the pursuit of high-quality agricultural growth, farmland fragmentation not only undermines agricultural production efficiency and crop yield levels but also poses challenges to achieving food security, ecological conservation, and rural revitalization. Drawing on data from the China Rural Revitalization Survey Database, this study employs econometric models—including ordinary least squares estimation, moderation effects, and mediation effects—to investigate the mechanisms and impacts of farmland fragmentation on maize yield per unit area. It also conducts heterogeneity analysis across farm sizes and land transfer situations. The key findings are as follows: (1) Farmland fragmentation significantly reduces maize yield, constrains mechanized operations, increases production costs, and decreases field management efficiency. (2) The negative impact of fragmentation is exacerbated under conditions of straw return practices and exposure to natural disasters. (3) Irrigation capacity and labor input function as mediating variables; fragmentation reduces the effective irrigated area while increasing farmers’ fieldwork time and physical exertion, thereby influencing maize yield. (4) The impact of fragmentation is heterogeneous across different types of farmers. Large-scale farmers, who depend more heavily on land consolidation and mechanization, are more adversely affected. Although land transfer partially mitigates the negative effects, farmers who rent in land still face limitations due to scattered plots. The study recommends optimizing land consolidation and transfer mechanisms, increasing agricultural investment, improving infrastructure, and strengthening agricultural socialized services to enhance agricultural productivity and alleviate the adverse effects of farmland fragmentation.

Against the backdrop of accelerated global agricultural transformation and continuous growth in market demand for high-quality grain products, agricultural production trusteeship, as an innovative model within the modern agricultural service system, plays a pivotal role in promoting the enhancement of both quality and efficiency in grain production. Grounded in the transaction cost theory and the division of labor theory and incorporating a farmer production model, this paper constructs a theoretical analytical framework termed "Agricultural Production Trusteeship (APT) - Factor Constraints Alleviation (FCA) - Farmland Scale Management (FSM) - High-Quality Rice Cultivation (HRC)" to examine the impact of APT on farmers' HRC and its underlying mechanisms, with empirical validation conducted using micro-survey data gathered from rice growers in Jiangxi Province, a major rice-producing region in China.The research findings demonstrate that APT substantially enhances farmers' HRC, a conclusion that holds firm even after addressing endogeneity concerns and undergoing a battery of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis reveals that APT generates a substitution effect by FCA, thereby offsetting the shortcomings of small farmers in terms of labor, machinery, information, and technology. Consequently, this reduces transaction costs and facilitates HRC. Simultaneously, APT yields a division-of-labor effect through FSM, thereby integrating small farmers into the division-based economy and encouraging contiguous specialization, which promotes HRC. Notably, APT can through FCA, moreover expedite FSM, thus promoting farmers' HRC. Further analysis finds that trusteeship in pre-production stage and semi-trusteeship model of APT are more efficacious in promoting farmers' HRC. However, the promotional effect of APT on HRC is relatively weaker for risk-averse farmers and those who have not participated in variety training programs.This study offers policy insights for numerous developing countries dominated by small farmers, aiming to accelerate the establishment of ATP systems and steer farmers toward actively participating in the high-quality crop varieties cultivation.

Climate change mitigation policies must be developed to reduce the adverse effects of escalating climate risks. However, climate policies are fraught with uncertainty, which leads to unavoidable negative consequences. It is crucial to understand the impact of climate policy uncertainty on urban climate risk. This study uses the entropy weighting method to measure the urban climate risk of 274 prefectural-level cities in China from 2011 to 2021 based on the Hazard-Exposure-Vulnerability (H-E-V) adaptation decision-making framework, and employs the two-way fixed effects model to investigate the impact of climate policy uncertainty on urban climate risk through multidimensional empirical tests. The results indicate that: (1) Climate policy uncertainty significantly increases the level of urban climate risk. (2) Climate policy uncertainty affects the level of urban climate risk through the industrial structure of the production sector. (3) Deposit balances and insurance cost of the household sector exacerbate the positive relationship between climate policy uncertainty and urban climate risk. (4) Climate policy uncertainty has a greater impact on climate risk in capital cities than in non-capital cities and it has the most significant impact in cities with medium level of climate risk. The findings offer new perspectives on reducing urban climate change risk and achieving sustainable development.

Against the backdrop of global climate change, improving irrigation water accessibility (IWA) in arid highland regions has become an essential prerequisite for boosting the income and fostering prosperity among remote and economically disadvantaged farmers.This study primarily examines the impact of irrigation water accessibility on farmers' agricultural operating income (FAOI) and elucidates the underlying mechanisms through which this impact unfolds, utilizing survey data gathered from farmers in representative arid highland regions for empirical analysis.The results indicate that: Firstly, enhancing IWA significantly contributes to increasing FAOI, with a more pronounced effect on income growth in crop farming than in Livestock farming. Concurrently, improved IWA generates spillover and normative effects that drive income growth by elevating agricultural production efficiency and grain yield per unit area, as well as motivating farmers to adopt climate change adaptation strategies encompassing soil management, water resource management, farm management, and crop management. Secondly, transportation accessibility plays a moderating role in the relationship between IWA and FAOI, highway and high-speed rail accessibility exhibit a negative moderating effect, whereas township and county accessibility demonstrate a U-shaped moderating effect. Thirdly, improved IWA has effectively promoted FAOI with low fragmentation, high agricultural dependency.The findings hold significant practical implications for relatively underdeveloped regions in developing countries, advocating for targeted promotion of farmland water conservancy facilities and transportation infrastructure construction based on local conditions.

Promoting large-scale farmland operations has been widely regarded as a key strategy to enhance agricultural productivity and increase farmers' income in the process of agricultural modernization. However, the mechanisms and marginal effects of scale remain contested. This study examines both plot size and farm size, using micro-level data from 1415 maize-growing households across seven provinces in the China Rural Revitalization Survey organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. We construct regression models incorporating nonlinear terms and mechanism variables to systematically evaluate the effects of these two dimensions of land scale on per-unit yield, mechanization adoption, and labor input. The findings reveal a significant U-shaped relationship between plot size and maize yield: while extremely small plots may confer limited output advantages, yield generally increases with larger plot sizes, reflecting scale-driven efficiency gains. In contrast, farm size exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with yield: moderate-scale operations improve efficiency, but excessively large farm sizes reduce productivity due to increased management burdens. Plot size plays a decisive role in mechanization adoption, whereas expansion in farm size primarily enhances mechanization in sowing, fertilizing, and harvesting stages. Regarding labor input, fragmented plots significantly increase the intensity of household labor, while a moderate farm size helps reduce labor input per unit of land. This study suggests that promoting farmland consolidation and moderate-scale operations, along with optimizing plot configurations and organizational structures, represents an effective pathway for improving mechanization efficiency, reducing labor costs, and advancing agricultural modernization. The results provide empirical support and policy insights for the coordinated development of ''scale + mechanization'' in agriculture.