The Impact of Agricultural Machinery Services on Food Loss at the Producer Level: Evidence from China

Reducing food loss can improve environmental sustainability, resource use, and food security. Agricultural machinery services have considerable advantages in enhancing the adaptability and competitiveness of farms, but little is known about its potential for addressing food loss. Here, this work attempts to reveal a strong yet under-discussed connection between agricultural machinery services and food loss. Using survey data covering 483 corn farmers in the Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning provinces of China from October to December 2024, this study examined the extent to which participation in agricultural machinery services reduced food loss. Our results confirmed the existence of this significant causal effect and estimated 0.864% and 0.862% reductions in weight and value losses in response to a 1% increase in the purchase of agricultural machinery services. The possible mechanisms driving this relationship, including factor allocation optimization and technology introduction, were further verified. A variety of robustness tests were conducted to validate the strength and reliability of the empirical results and address endogeneity issues. Also, to better contextualize the heterogeneous effects of agricultural machinery services on food loss, the differences across production links, land fragmentation, and service quality were explored. By highlighting the important roles of agricultural machinery services in reducing food loss, our analysis contributed to contemporary debates about the long-term linkage between the wide popularization of agricultural machinery services and achieving food security, particularly providing insights for developing countries.