How does land fragmentation affect farmers’ decision-making for agricultural socialized services?

Abstract

Land fragmentation still threatens the agricultural modernization in developing countries. Adopting agricultural socialized services is one of important methods to help farmers realize agricultural modernization. It is imperative to clarify how land fragmentation affects the farmers' decision-making for agricultural socialized services. This article constructed a non-linear model using negative binomial regression analysis based on field research data. It is found that an inverted U-shaped relationship exists between land fragmentation and farmers' purchase of agricultural socialized services. Especially, the turning point of 0–1 mu share is 41.18 %. Agricultural socialized services initially increase and then decrease after the turning point. At the same time, farmers exhibit different levels of sensitivity to land fragmentation across the 1–3 mu and 3–5 mu plots. Moreover, the moderating effect of distance from financial institutions weakens the inverted U-shaped relationship for 0–1 mu plots, while strengthening it for 3–5 mu plots. In addition, the proportion of the village-level out-of-home working population reinforces the inverted U-shaped relationship across all three plot sizes. Finally, the article confirms that the inverted U-shaped relationship between agricultural socialized services and land fragmentation stems from farmers’ production costs trade-off between self-purchased equipment and agricultural socialized services. This article is beneficial for expanding relative research about land fragmentation and agricultural socialized services.