Agricultural mechanization, large-scale operation and agricultural carbon emissions

Abstract

Agriculture plays an indispensable role in the economic system of all countries, and the issue of agricultural carbon emissions has become a challenge to the sustainable development of the global economy. Against this backdrop, based on the data of 30 provinces, municipalities directly under the central government and autonomous regions (excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Tibet) in China from 2005 to 2019, this current study comprehensively uses the two-way fixed effect panel model and panel vector autoregressive (PVAR) model to explore the static and dynamic relationships between agricultural mechanization, large-scale operation and agricultural carbon emissions. Analysis show that agricultural mechanization and large-scale operation promote the agricultural carbon emissions, and increasing the level of urbanization will help curb the increase of agricultural carbon emissions. However, in a dynamic perspective, there is a two-way granger causality relationship between agricultural mechanization and agricultural carbon emissions. Agricultural mechanization is an important cause of agricultural carbon emissions and its promoting effect is sustainable, while the short-term effect of large-scale operation on agricultural carbon emissions is positive, and in the long run it helps reduce agricultural carbon emissions. Accordingly, the study recommends that the government should make the following efforts: firstly, speed up the research and development of agricultural machinery driven by clean energy; secondly, guide the effective transfer of land and encourage farmers to reduce the amount of agricultural chemical materials input while improving the use efficiency of pesticide chemical materials; thirdly, uphold the concept of ecological civilization in the process of promoting urbanization.

Keywords:

• agricultural mechanization
• large-scale operation
• agricultural carbon emissions
• dynamic relationship

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Agriculture plays an important role in many countries around the world, and agriculture is both a source of greenhouse gas emissions and a huge carbon sink system. Therefore, agricultural production is closely related to climate change caused by carbon dioxide emissions, and it is necessary to pay attention to the carbon emissions of the agricultural industry. Based on the two major trends of agricultural development, namely mechanization and large-scale management, this paper proposes the relationship between agricultural mechanization, large-scale management and agricultural carbon emissions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ningning Guan

Ningning Guan is a professional teacher at Nanjing XiaoZhuang University. Her dissertation focuses on agricultural carbon emissions, discussing the static and dynamic relationships between agricultural mechanization, large-scale operation, and agricultural carbon emissions. Her bachelor's degree, master's degree and doctorate are all in finance. She has been working on agricultural development issues since her master's degree. Her doctoral thesis thoroughly analyzed topics related to agricultural mechanization and large-scale management. After completing her PhD in 2022, she began to focus on the relationship between agricultural development and climate change.

Lingyun Liu

Lingyun Liu is a professional teacher at NanJing XiaoZhuang University.

Kai Dong

Kai Dong is an associate professor at NanJing XiaoZhuang University.

Meng Xie

Meng Xie is a doctoral student at Nanjing Agricultural University.

Yingjie Du

Yingjie Du is an associate professor at Tianjin University of Science and Technology.