The effect of agricultural scale management on farmers' income from a dual-scale perspective: Evidence from rural China

The development of agricultural scale management is a common trend in the world. A new way of agricultural scale management has emerged in rural China, which we call the dual-scale coordinated management. This study theoretically analyzes the relationship between land scale management and service scale management in order to clarify the principle of the generation of the dual-scale coordinated management, and empirically estimates its effect on farmers' income, and further explores the mechanism using the data collected from 752 households in Liaoning Province of China in 2021. The results show that the characteristic of the relationship is “high coupling, low coordination”; the dual-scale coordinated management has a significant positive effect when the coupling coordination degree is above 0.46; it can increase the income of farmers by optimizing the allocation of land and labors; technical training, agricultural insurance, market development level, and village location can improve the coupling coordination degree of dual-scale management. The results imply that land scale management and service scale management are not opposed or divided, and the dual-scale coordinated management can be regarded as a third way for agricultural scale management. This study can provide new insights for the ways of farmers' production and management transformation.