Synergistic effects of agricultural dual-scale management on carbon reduction in China

The dual-scale agricultural management, namely farmland-scale management and service-scale management, offers a solution for achieving a balance between ensuring food security and reducing carbon emissions. Based on panel data of 30 Chinese provinces between 2005 and 2021, we use two-way fixed effects model and mediating effect model to explore the impact of dual-scale agricultural managements on agricultural carbon emission intensity. It was found that: Dual-scale agricultural managements have a significant negative correlation with agricultural carbon emission intensity; They have a synergistic effect on reducing carbon emission intensity through industrial agglomeration effect, technological progress effect, and machinery service effect; Farmland-scale management correlate more significantly with reduced agricultural carbon emission intensity in regions with balanced food production and sales, regions with high degree of agricultural mechanization, and the eastern regions, while service-scale management correlate more significantly in the main food sales regions, high degree of agricultural mechanization regions and the central regions. Farmland- and service-scale managements synergistically reduce agricultural carbon emissions in China between 2005 and 2021 through effects of agglomeration, technology, and machinery, based on an analysis of panel data from 30 Chinese provinces