Zhang Wenrui ^*

• College of Economics and Management, Faculty of Social Science, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China

In the context of the deceleration of farmland scale management, a crucial question arises in agricultural development theory and practice: will service-driven scale management in the production process become a viable alternative to farmland scale management, serving as the secondary pathway to achieve scale management in China? An empirical analysis on the impact of agricultural machinery services on farmland transfer was conducted in this article using data from the China Rural Revitalization Survey database comprising 302 villages and 2871 micro-farmers in 2020 by utilizing the ordinary least squares method and instrumental variable method. The findings indicated that the implementation of agricultural machinery services will increase the rate of farmland transfer in villages. The effect of agricultural machinery services on increasing the profitability of large-scale farmers surpasses its effect on smallholder farmers, thereby motivating smallholder farmers to transfer farmland to large-scale farmers, consequently fostering the consolidation of farmland. In addition, power-intensive service links are more effective in increasing the rate of farmland transfer and fostering the concentration of farmland transfer compared to control-intensive service links. The impact of agricultural machinery services on enhancing the rate of farmland transfer and fostering the consolidation of farmland transfer is more pronounced on the plain areas compared to the hillmountainous areas. Consequently, this article demonstrates that service-driven scale management and farmland scale management are not merely alternatives but rather complementary strategies that mutually reinforce each other. 30 acres of farmland 1 . Consequently, China's farmland transfer rate began to decline annually after peaking at 38.90% in 2018. These trends indicate that both currently and for the foreseeable future, China's grain production will primarily rely on smallholder farmers.