Agricultural Productive Services, Stage-Specific Technical Efficiency, and Sustainable Rice-Based Food Systems: Evidence from Jiangsu, China

Achieving sustainable rice production is essential for food security, rural livelihoods, and the resilience of rice-based food systems that supply raw materials to the food processing industry. Improving technical efficiency (TE) at the farm level is a key pathway to reduce resource use and environmental pressures per unit of output while ensuring a stable supply of high-quality rice for downstream processing and value-added products. Drawing on micro-survey data collected in 2021–2022 from 455 rice farmers selected through a multi-stage sampling strategy in Jiangsu Province, China, this study investigates how agricultural productive services (APSs) affect stage-specific technical efficiency along the production process and discusses the implications for sustainable rice production and the rice-based food industry. We apply a stochastic frontier production function to estimate overall and stage-specific TE and examine the effects of different APS combinations for land preparation, sowing, fertilization, pest control, and harvesting. The results show that overall participation in APSs significantly improves rice farmers’ TE. Stage-specific analysis reveals that APSs in land preparation, sowing, and harvesting are associated with higher TE, supporting more sustainable use of machinery and labor, while APSs for fertilization and pesticide application do not consistently improve TE and may reflect potential overuse of chemical inputs. Multi-stage service combinations that include both production and pest-control operations can further enhance TE. These findings suggest that well-designed APSs can contribute to sustainable intensification and low-carbon transformation of rice production, thereby strengthening the sustainability of rice-based food systems. Policy interventions should guide APS providers and farmers toward integrated, precision-oriented, and environmentally friendly service packages that support both farm-level efficiency and the sustainability goals of the broader food industry.