How does agricultural labour ageing affect sustainable intensification of cultivated land use? Evidence from Shenyang city, China

The cultivated land system faces a range of challenges that hinder its sustainability. Sustainable intensification of cultivated land use (SICLU) is widely viewed as a viable means of balancing rising food demand with constraints related to resources and the environment. Because farming households play a central role in cultivated land use decisions, examining the determinants of SICLU from the household perspective is particularly important. Using data from 309 farming household questionnaires in Shenyang City, China, we employed the super-SBM model to measure SICLU levels of sampled farming households and applied a moderated mediation model to analyse the pathways through which agricultural labour ageing affects SICLU. The moderating role of part-time farming was also examined. The results show that SICLU levels among the sampled farming households are mostly medium or low and tend to decline with increasing age. Agricultural labour ageing was found to reduce SICLU by restricting the scale of cultivated land transfer-in and increasing reliance on socialised agricultural services, exhibiting mediating effects of -0.148 and -0.112, which account for 32.615% and 24.622% of the total effect, respectively. Meanwhile, for farming households highly dependent on cultivated land, part-time farming can help mitigate the negative effects of agricultural labour ageing. Moreover, non-small-scale farming households were more severely affected by labour ageing than small-scale ones. This research deepens the understanding of the impact mechanisms linking agricultural labour ageing, part-time farming, and SICLU, and offers useful evidence for the design and implementation of land and rural policies.