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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Land, Livelihoods and Food Security
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1528564

Does tillage system affect agricultural production and farmers' incomes? Evidence from 234 typical farms in 29 countries

Provisionally accepted
Jiamei Wang Jiamei Wang *Hui Zhou Hui Zhou Xiangdong Hu Xiangdong Hu
  • Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Investigating the impact of tillage system on agricultural production and farmer income, particularly in the face of global threats to food security and adverse environmental conditions, holds considerable importance for guiding policy formulation. This study employs a stochastic frontier analysis to estimate the technical efficiency of wheat production, utilizing data from 234 typical farms across 29 countries for the period 2012-2022. The technical efficiency range for wheat production varies from 0.257 to 0.976, with an average value of 0.830. Additionally, the impact of tillage system on technical efficiency and grain revenue is examined using propensity score matching. The findings indicate that there is no significant difference in technical efficiency between conservation tillage and traditional tillage. Furthermore, compared to conservation tillage, traditional tillage leads to higher grain revenue. Policymakers should evaluate technological adoption comprehensively, considering economic, social, and environmental aspects. Special attention should be directed towards assessing the economic benefits for farmers.

    Keywords: tillage system, Technical efficiency, Wheat production, typical farm, Propensity score matching

    Received: 15 Nov 2024; Accepted: 06 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Zhou and Hu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jiamei Wang, Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.