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Large-scale agricultural land management has become the obvious development trend of China’s rural land management. This paper focuses on large-scale agricultural land management in China and analyzes the influence mechanism of large-scale agricultural land management on the circulation of agricultural products. We use the methods of field investigation and empirical research, put forward the theoretical hypothesis through field investigation, and empirically test it. It is found that the impact of large-scale agricultural land management on the circulation efficiency of the agricultural products under the “input-output” index has a lag and shows a U-shaped characteristic of decreasing first and then increasing. For the modernization of agricultural product circulation under the comprehensive index system, large-scale agricultural land management has a significant positive promoting effect. This reflects the potential of large-scale agricultural land management in promoting the development of rural agriculture and agricultural product circulation. This suggests that in the process of promoting the modernization of agricultural product circulation, the government should pay special attention to the modernization of upstream agricultural production, promote large-scale agricultural land management in a standardized and orderly way, and realize the coordinated reform of agriculture and the agricultural product circulation industry. In addition, the Chinese government also needs to make up for the shortcomings in the upstream organization, the construction of wholesale markets for the agricultural products, and rural logistics infrastructure.

The recycling of agricultural waste is an important measure for achieving green agricultural production. Existing studies have discussed the relationship between agricultural land scale and agricultural production from different angles, but ignored the disposal of agricultural waste. This study used China Land Economic Survey (CLES) from 2020 to 2021 and applied the probit model and the instrumental variable method to conduct the empirical analysis. The results showed a significant negative relationship between farmers' agricultural land scale and the recycling of agricultural waste. Heterogeneity analysis showed that the effect of less-developed areas was higher than that of relatively developed areas, and younger samples were less affected than the elderly. The mechanism analysis further pointed out that social norms and economic incentives can effectively promote the recycling of agricultural waste for farmers, given the scale of agricultural land. This study expands the relevant studies on agricultural waste disposal behavior, clarifies the impact and relevant mechanisms, and provides insights for realizing sustainable agricultural development.

Agricultural total factor productivity (ATFP) serves as the core driver and a critical benchmark for high-quality agricultural development. Utilizing panel data from 31 Chinese provinces (2012–2023), this study examines the impact, mechanisms, and heterogeneity of agricultural digital infrastructure construction (ADIC) on ATFP. Results show that digital infrastructure significantly promotes ATFP with a distinct non-linear acceleration. Specifically, once development surpasses a critical threshold (1.5416), marginal contributions increase substantially, marking a transition of digital dividends from “accumulation” to “explosive release.” Mediation analysis identifies green technological innovation and farmland scale management as key pathways, accounting for 11.4% and 12.5% of the total effect, respectively. This confirms ADIC enhances ATFP through a technical innovation effect and a scale operation effect. Regional heterogeneity is significant: digital infrastructure yields significant positive impacts on main food consumption and balanced areas, whereas results for main grain-producing areas remain statistically insignificant. Based on these conclusions, it is recommended that policymakers maintain strategic focus by proactively deploying rural digital infrastructure to surpass critical thresholds, implementing differentiated regional strategies, and effectively translating digital dividends into endogenous momentum for high-quality agricultural development through the integrated application of green technologies and the improvement of farmland transfer service systems.

In the context of the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy in China, returning rural migrant workers are bound to have a certain impact on the rural economy, and land is a very important factor in the agricultural economy. Using data from the 2018 China Labor Dynamic Survey (CLDS), this study examines how migrant workers’ return behaviors influence farmland transfer-in. To address potential endogeneity, the analysis employs the Probit model, instrumental variable methods, and propensity score matching. The findings reveal that returning migrant workers significantly promote farmland transfer-in. Households with returning migrant workers exhibit stronger demands for land transfer-in and tend to operate farmland on a larger scale. Furthermore, returning migrant workers drive farmland expansion through mechanization labor substitution, enhanced access to agricultural loans, and reduced non-farm participation. Additionally, returning migrant workers who are highly educated and younger play a particularly influential role, underscoring the heterogeneous impacts across different migrant groups. This study provides empirical evidence for rural revitalization policies in China by systematically analyzing the effect of returning migrant workers in promoting land transfer-in and the path of influence on farmland scale.

Studying the carbon emission efficiency of the agricultural sector plays an important role in achieving the goal of global carbon neutrality. As a common economic behavior in agricultural production, it is still unclear about that how land transfer affects agricultural carbon emission efficiency (ACEE). Therefore, according to panel data of 30 provinces (including autonomous regions and municipalities at the same level) from 2005 to 2019 in the Chinese mainland, this work adopts the panel Ordinary Least Square (OLS) to reveal the influential mechanism of land transfer on ACEE. Subsequently, the panel quantile regression and sub-sample regression are applied to divide the provinces into different types of regions, so as to explore what kind of heterogeneity effect would occur, if land transfer acts upon ACEE. Finally, this work discovers the influential mechanism of land transfer to ACEE by agricultural industrial agglomeration and agricultural land management scale. The research results support the view that the land transfer significantly inhibits the improvement of ACEE, and also prove that there is regional heterogeneity in the impact of land transfer on ACEE, and this heterogeneity is mainly reflected in the impact intensity of land transfer on ACEE in different regions. The more important and deeper discovery is that agricultural industrial agglomeration and agricultural land management scale intensify the inhibition of land transfer on ACEE. Considering that both agricultural industrial agglomeration and agricultural land management scale have a regulatory effect on the influence of the land transfer on ACEE, this work suggests that the government improve the land transfer market system, implement differentiated agricultural management measures, and reasonably promote agricultural industrial agglomeration to gradually realize economies of scale.

The scaling of agricultural land is a trend in land use transformation and is important for modernizing agriculture. Therefore, the reasons for large-scale agricultural land formation should be explored. The spatial distribution of large-scale agricultural land and the factors for its formation vary between different regions. Currently, the exploration of the formation mechanism of large-scale agricultural land from the perspective of heterogeneity is not yet sufficient. Therefore, the main objectives of this article are as follows: first, analyze the spatial pattern characteristics of large-scale agricultural land; second, explore the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of influencing factors from both global and local perspectives; third, explore the mechanism of the formation of large-scale agricultural land from the perspective of heterogeneity. The results indicate the following: (1) The large-scale agricultural land distribution pattern in the Wuling Mountains area was high in the east and low in the west. (2) Natural conditions, production factors, and location conditions all significantly impacted large-scale agricultural land, but with differences in their degree of influence. From a local perspective, the influences of various factors in different regions also exhibited spatial heterogeneity. These two types of heterogeneity can be attributed to the differences in regional development stages. (3) Natural conditions, location conditions, and production factors had negative, positive, and positive effects on the agricultural land scale, respectively, but the influence of the first two decreased with the improvement in the regional development stages. The influence of different factors on production factors was related to the regional development stage, and production factors that were suitable for the regional development stage had a greater impact. The conclusion can provide differentiated policy support for regional land use in practice.

The scale of agricultural land management was scientifically measured to provide a theoretical reference for improving the efficiency of agricultural land utilization, optimizing the industrial structure, and effectively solving the “three rural problems”. Based on 368 microfarmers’ agricultural land management questionnaire responses, the Cobb–Douglas production function was used to measure the average household size in different zones of Shawan City, Xinjiang, and then to calculate the total scale of moderate management in the region, and to divide the supplementary and reduced zones of arable land. The proposed countermeasures and suggestions for achieving the scale of moderate management from the perspectives of both people and land are presented. The results show the following: (1) the average suitable operating scales of households in the hilly area, the agricultural area in the oasis plain, and the oasis–desert interlace area were 5.15, 9.28, and 7.74 ha, respectively. (2) The moderate total scales of operation in the low hilly area, the middle oasis plain agricultural area, and the lower oasis–desert ecotone were 60,380, 112,510, and 115,500 ha, respectively. (3) Two areas, the low mountainous and hilly areas and the oasis plain farming areas, are supplementary areas of arable land, which should be supplemented by improving the management capacity of farmers, cultivating two new agricultural business entities, increasing land transfers, developing modern agriculture, and reducing the degree of fragmentation of arable land. The oasis–desert staggered area is the area where the scale of arable land is reduced. We should vigorously implement the work of retreating land and reducing water, and guide farmers to engage in secondary and tertiary industries so as to reduce the scale of arable land.

Ensuring food security while advancing agricultural modernization is a strategic priority in China. Using county-level panel data from 2,571 counties in 26 provinces during 2013–2022, this study exploits the phased establishment of national rural industrial integration demonstration parks as a quasi-natural experiment. A difference-in-differences framework, combined with event-study analysis and multiple robustness checks—including tail trimming, placebo tests, shortened sample windows, PSM-DID, exclusion of concurrent policies, and double-machine-learning replacement—is employed to estimate causal effects on grain production. The results show that demonstration park designation significantly increases county-level grain output, with a benchmark effect of about 5.81%, which persists for three years after implementation but gradually declines over time. Mechanism analysis indicates that the policy effect operates mainly through agricultural technological progress and farmland scale operation, while heterogeneity tests reveal stronger impacts in counties with higher fiscal expenditure and greater internet penetration. These findings suggest that rural industrial integration can enhance grain production by promoting technology diffusion and land-use optimization, and that policy effectiveness is contingent on fiscal and digital conditions, highlighting the need for regionally tailored support when scaling up integration strategies.

Until now, most policy recommendations put forward to deal with the possible negative impacts of large-scale land acquisitions are either directed towards the legal recognition and formalization of land rights in order to secure the rights of historical land holders or the design and implementation of “voluntary” guidelines and codes of conduct that promote positive development outcomes of large-scale land investments. This paper argues that these types of recommendations tend to depoliticize the debate around access to land and natural resources, whether at local, national and international levels. This paper looks to bring this political dimension back by proposing an analytical framework in line with the legal pluralist tradition. From a legal pluralistic analysis of the process of land deals in Ethiopia, this paper finds out that socio-cultural identity and power structures, rather than market and regulatory failure alone, play a fundamental role in redirecting negotiations and determining losers and winners from such deals. With the above finding, this paper finally suggests that blueprint international standards or investment regulatory measures cannot be used as a panacea and that solutions need to be more profound than such conventional approach.

The reform of rural land property rights system can promote large-scale and intensive agricultural production, improve the quality of laborers, improve agricultural production efficiency, increase farmers' income, and effectively promote the development of agricultural modernization. In the context of the reform of the \"separation of three powers\", the rural land property rights system still has problems in terms of ownership, use rights, disposal rights, and income rights, which affect the healthy development of agricultural modernization. In this situation, it is necessary to further clarify the subject of rural land ownership, thoroughly improve the right to use rural land, vigorously improve the right to dispose of rural land, effectively protect the right to benefit from rural land, and deeply promote the reform of the rural land property rights system in order to effectively promote the development of agricultural modernization.