Produce more or purchase more? Agricultural machinery use intensity and dietary outcomes

Abstract

Although agricultural mechanization is pivotal in improving production efficiency, crop yields, and farm income, its influence on rural households’ food consumption patterns, particularly those about self-production versus market purchase, remains underexplored. We examine the impact of agricultural machinery use (AMU) intensity in rice production on rice purchasing decisions and dietary diversity, drawing on survey data from Hubei Province, China. The AMU intensity was measured by the number of six production stages mechanized, including land plowing, sowing, fertilizer application, pesticide application, irrigation, and harvesting and transport. Instrumental Variable (IV) approaches—IV-Probit for binary outcome and IV-Poisson for count outcome—are employed to mitigate self-selection bias associated with machinery use. The results show that AMU intensity significantly decreases the probability of consuming rice exclusively purchased from the markets and improves household dietary diversity. Increasing AMU intensity significantly increases the market purchase of fruits and dairy products, yet negatively affects egg purchases. AMU intensity significantly affects rice purchasing decisions and dietary diversity solely when rural households use machinery across 5-6 production stages. These insights suggest that intensifying agricultural mechanization in rice farming enhances rice self-sufficiency and increases market-purchased consumption of other food items