The Level of Agricultural Mechanization, the Scale of Agricultural Operation and the Income Gap Between Urban and Rural Areas
Abstract
Agricultural mechanization is an effective way to improve farmers' income, and increasing farmers' income is the key means to narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas, and narrowing the income gap between urban and rural areas is one of the key factors to realize the integrated development of urban and rural areas. Based on the relevant statistical data of China from 2010 to 2020, a two-way fixed effect model was established to analyze the impact of agricultural machinery intervention on the income gap between urban and rural areas. The results show that the improvement of agricultural mechanization level has a significant positive impact on the convergence of urban-rural income gap. Its mechanism of action is to promote the increase of farmers' income and narrow the income gap between urban and rural areas, mainly through two paths: obtaining economies of scale through large-scale agricultural operation and providing agricultural machinery social services to improve operating income. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the improvement of agricultural mechanization level had a more significant effect on the convergence of urban-rural income gap in eastern China and non-main grain producing areas. Finally, it is suggested to develop mechanized agriculture according to local conditions, give diversified policy support to farmers to purchase agricultural machinery, improve the construction of socialized service system of agricultural machinery, ensure that land use rights can be transferred in an orderly manner, and further improve the relevant systems to support the development of large-scale agricultural operation.
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