Can agricultural mechanization enhance the climate resilience of food production? Evidence from China

Climate change is exacerbating food security, necessitating the ability to reduce losses from climate hazards and restore high food yields, known as the climate resilience of food production (CRFP). Agricultural mechanization offers a promising adaptation strategy for enhancing CRFP through rapid, wide-ranging, and timely operations. However, the effect of agricultural mechanization on CRFP remains unclear. Taking China as a case study, we proposed an assessment framework to characterize provincial CRFP from 1994 to 2022 and explored the impact of agricultural mechanization on CRFP. The results show that, despite frequent droughts and floods, CRFP in China has been on an upward trend since 2004, driven by national policies aimed at securing grain production. China's CRFP exhibits regional spatial correlations: the Loess Plateau and the Northern arid and semi-arid regions are less resilient to disasters, while the coastal regions of Shandong, Jiangsu, Fujian, and Guangdong have maintained high levels of resilience in recent years. Agricultural mechanization has both direct and spatial spillover effects on CRFP by increasing food production and reducing disaster losses. For every 1% increase in agricultural mechanization, local CRFP increases by 0.012, with a total increase of 0.762 in neighboring provinces. Specifically, the spatial spillover effect of mechanization is primarily realized through the cross-latitude service of large harvesting machinery. This study provides insights into climate-resilient food production and global food security on improving the structure of agricultural machinery and optimizing cross-regional operations.