Agricultural Scale Management: A Review From a Dual-Scale Perspective

Abstract

Agricultural scale management is widely regarded as a key pathway to agricultural modernization, yet existing studies remain fragmented between land scale management and service scale management. This paper advances a dual-scale management perspective to integrate these two approaches and clarify their interaction mechanisms and economic effects, particularly in land-scarce, smallholder-dominant economies. The review traces the evolution of scale management from a land-centered concept toward a broader framework of coordinated factor allocation, emphasizing that land expansion alone does not guarantee efficiency gains under conditions of land fragmentation, labor scarcity, and imperfect factor markets. It synthesizes evidence on the determinants and performance effects of land and service scale management, highlighting their heterogeneous impacts on production efficiency, income level and distribution. Then the review conceptualizes land and service scales as complementary and mutually reinforcing: land expansion stabilizes service demand, while service specialization reduces the cost and risk of land expansion by substituting fixed capital with flexible service inputs. Emerging evidence suggests that dual-scale management can outperform single-scale strategies through efficiency improvements and improved risk-return balancing, conditional on effective coordination. Overall, the review reframes agricultural scale management as a coupled land-service system rather than a one-dimensional process of land expansion.