Do Socialized Agricultural Services Contribute to Improved Efficiency in Farmers’ Green Grain Production?

Socialized agricultural services (SASs) play a crucial role in enhancing grain production capacity, promoting environmentally friendly and sustainable practices, and integrating smallholder farmers into modern agriculture. Our study applies the Super-Efficiency SBM (slack-based measure) model to measure the green grain production efficiency (GGPE) of farmers. We then employ the Tobit model, the threshold regression model, and the moderated effect model to empirically analyze the influence of SASs on farmers’ GGPE. SASs are found to significantly enhance farmers’ GGPE. Furthermore, the relationship between the scale of utilization of farmers’ services (SUFS) and GGPE exerts a single-threshold effect. Among government environmental regulations (GERs), both constrained and guided regulation measures significantly positively moderate the relationship between SASs and farmers’ GGPE. We recommend that governments tailor SASs to address specific farmer needs; develop differentiated support policies for service utilization scales based on local conditions; and strengthen the environmental regulatory framework through a multi-pronged approach, by reinforcing constrained environmental regulations, refining incentive environmental regulations, and deepening guided environmental regulations, to consistently elevate farmers’ GGPE.