From Farmland Improvement to Land-Enhancing Technological Change: Evidence from China’s High-Standard Farmland Construction

Abstract

High-standard farmland construction is a major land use policy aimed at improving farmland quality and strengthening the foundation of agricultural production. However, whether farmland improvement policies reshape the direction of agricultural technological change remains insufficiently understood. This study examines the impact of China’s high-standard farmland construction on land-enhancing technological change. Using provincial panel data from China, we construct two land-related biased technological progress indices—the capital–land and labor–land technological bias indices—based on a normalized factor-augmenting CES production framework, and further explore the underlying mechanisms through scale and price effects. The results show that high-standard farmland construction makes agricultural technological progress more inclined toward improving land factor efficiency, indicating a clear land-enhancing characteristic. Mechanism analysis reveals that the policy affects technological bias through both scale and price channels. In the capital–land relationship, both channels contribute to land-enhancing technological change, suggesting that capital inputs associated with farmland construction mainly function as land-supporting investments that improve land productivity rather than simply replacing land. In the labor–land relationship, the scale effect plays a dominant role, indicating that improved farmland conditions reduce dependence on traditional labor inputs and strengthen the productive role of land. Regional heterogeneity analysis shows that the land-enhancing effect is particularly evident in central China, while differences in agricultural development conditions and factor allocation structures lead to heterogeneous regional responses. This study extends the understanding of land use policies by revealing their role in shaping the direction of agricultural technological change. The findings highlight high-standard farmland construction as an important pathway for promoting sustainable land management and long-term food security.