IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i14p6136-d1437684.html

Does Agricultural Mechanization Help Farmers to Strengthen Sustainability and Protect Cultivated Land? Evidence from 2118 Households in 10 Provinces of China

Author

Listed:
  • Nan Zhang

    (College of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010011, China
    Vocational and Technical College, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Baotou 014109, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Xuguang Zhang

    (College of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010011, China
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Changbai Xiu

    (College of Economics and Management, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010011, China
    Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural & Animal Husbandry Sciences, Hohhot 010010, China)

Abstract

The protection of cultivated land is related to food security and sustainable agricultural development. Improving agricultural planting efficiency and reducing chemical inputs are important to promoting sustainability and protecting cultivated land, and agricultural mechanization plays an important role in this process. Based on the survey data of 2118 households in 10 provinces of China, we used the Oprobit and IV-Oprobit models to analyze the impact and mechanism of agricultural mechanization on the behaviors of farmers in achieving sustainability and protecting cultivated land. The results show that agricultural mechanization has a significant promotion effect on the behaviors of farmers, especially in motivating them to adopt higher levels of protective behaviors in terms of sustainable land cultivation. At the same time, the impacts of agricultural mechanization on the different production links were different. The promotion effect of the harvesting link on the sustainability protection behaviors of farmers was the most obvious, and the promotion effects of the tillage and sowing links were the least obvious. In addition, planting income and fertilizer input played a role in mediating between mechanization and cultivated land sustainability protection. Further analysis showed that agricultural mechanization can more effectively motivate farmers with full-time businesses or higher land concentrations to prioritize cultivated land sustainability. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the role of agricultural mechanization in promoting sustainability, protecting cultivated land, and promoting innovative green agricultural machinery. Via mechanization, we can increase the incomes of farmers, reduce excessive fertilizer use, and specifically target full-time farmers engaged in agricultural production and key aspects of land sustainability protection to promote the construction of better agricultural machinery systems, as well as agricultural machinery research and innovation, thereby fully leveraging the ecological protection effects of agricultural mechanization.

Suggested Citation

  • Nan Zhang & Xuguang Zhang & Changbai Xiu, 2024. "Does Agricultural Mechanization Help Farmers to Strengthen Sustainability and Protect Cultivated Land? Evidence from 2118 Households in 10 Provinces of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-19, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:14:p:6136-:d:1437684
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/14/6136/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/14/6136/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Xiaobing Wang & Futoshi Yamauchi & Jikun Huang, 2016. "Rising wages, mechanization, and the substitution between capital and labor: evidence from small scale farm system in China," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 47(3), pages 309-317, May.
    2. Hajivassiliou, Vassilis & McFadden, Daniel & Ruud, Paul, 1996. "Simulation of multivariate normal rectangle probabilities and their derivatives theoretical and computational results," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1-2), pages 85-134.
    3. David Roodman, 2011. "Fitting fully observed recursive mixed-process models with cmp," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 11(2), pages 159-206, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ejeta, Tadesse Tolera & Bai, Xiuguang, 2026. "Does the adoption of agricultural green production technologies improve eco-efficiency? Evidence from wheat farmers in Ethiopia," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Teimuraz Gogokhia & George Berulava, 2021. "Business environment reforms, innovation and firm productivity in transition economies," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(2), pages 221-245, June.
    2. Michael King, 2012. "The Unbanked Four-Fifths: Informality and Barriers to Financial Services in Nigeria," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp411, IIIS.
    3. Yuyang Li & Jiahui Li & Xinjie Li & Qian Lu, 2024. "Does Participation in Digital Supply and Marketing Promote Smallholder Farmers’ Adoption of Green Agricultural Production Technologies?," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-24, December.
    4. Paleti, Rajesh, 2018. "Generalized multinomial probit Model: Accommodating constrained random parameters," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 248-262.
    5. Tuccio, Michele & Wahba, Jackline & Hamdouch, Bachir, 2016. "International Migration: Driver of Political and Social Change?," IZA Discussion Papers 9794, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Chen, Xiaojie & He, Guangwen, 2025. "Digital credit and investment in risky financial assets: Evidence from rural China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 86(PF).
    7. Hajime Seya & Junyi Zhang & Makoto Chikaraishi & Ying Jiang, 2020. "Decisions on truck parking place and time on expressways: an analysis using digital tachograph data," Transportation, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 555-583, April.
    8. Yannis M. Ioannides & Vassilis A. Hajivassiliou, 2007. "Unemployment and liquidity constraints," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 479-510.
    9. Michael Grimm & Carole Treibich, 2013. "Why Do Some Bikers Wear a Helmet and Others Don't? Evidence from Delhi, India," AMSE Working Papers 1348, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France, revised 10 Oct 2013.
    10. Donatella Furia & Alessandro Crociata & Massimiliano Agovino, 2018. "Voluntary work and cultural capital: an exploratory analysis for Italian regional data," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 35(3), pages 789-808, December.
    11. Dan Pan & Jinlong Zhou & Yi Yu & Shengdong Chen, 2024. "Rural Collective Property Rights System Reform and Urban-Rural Income Gap: A County-Scale Big Data Analysis in China," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, August.
    12. Haaijer, Marinus E., 1996. "Predictions in conjoint choice experiments : the x-factor probit model," Research Report 96B22, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    13. Catherine Sofer & Claire Thibout, 2019. "Women’s investment in career and the household division of labour," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(60), pages 6535-6557, December.
    14. Jaehwan Kim & Greg M. Allenby & Peter E. Rossi, 2002. "Modeling Consumer Demand for Variety," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(3), pages 229-250, December.
    15. Junpeng Li & Wanglin Ma, 2025. "Alleviating Multidimensional Energy Poverty and Energy Unaffordability in Rural Areas: The Role of Renting-Out Land," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 178(1), pages 465-497, May.
    16. Surya Nath Maiti, 2024. "Domestic Risk Factors, Violence and Marital Dissolution: Evidence from Demographic and Health Survey of India," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(5), pages 1147-1170, October.
    17. Sabatini, Fabio & Sarracino, Francesco, "undated". "Keeping up with the e-Joneses: Do Online Social Networks Raise Social Comparisons?," ETA: Economic Theory and Applications 234936, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    18. Yingqian Lin & Shuaikun Lu & Guanmao Yin & Baolong Yuan, 2025. "Policy Tools, Policy Perception, and Compliance with Urban Waste Sorting Policies: Evidence from 34 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-22, July.
    19. Park, Cheolsung & Kang, Changhui, 2008. "Does education induce healthy lifestyle?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1516-1531, December.
    20. David Roodman & James G. MacKinnon & Morten Ørregaard Nielsen & Matthew D. Webb, 2019. "Fast and wild: Bootstrap inference in Stata using boottest," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 19(1), pages 4-60, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:14:p:6136-:d:1437684. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.