Do the types of agricultural socialized services and their diverse suppliers matter to farmland renting in rural China?

Abstract

Based on the nationally representative panel data collected in 2000 households in 100 villages of 5 provinces in 2016 and 2019, this study analyzed the impact and potential paths of different types of agricultural socialization services (labor-intensive, technology-intensive, marketing) on farmland rented-in from the perspectives of accessibility and diversity of suppliers. The consistent results yielded from OLS, fixed effect model, and instrumental variable method showed that labor-intensive services had positive and significant effects on the probability and size of renting in farmland and it was much larger for the households without off-farm employment or with rich farmland endowment. However, neither technology-intensive nor marketing services had such effects . The substitution effect of different type of services on labor force, the attributes of service providers, and the characteristics of service buyers contributed to the difference. These findings imply that the government should pay more attention to the development of technology-intensive and marketing services, especially for smallholders, while keeping to encourage and support various suppliers to provide labor-intensive services.