The effect of cultivated land renting-in on sustainable intensification of cultivated land use: Analysis of the mediating effect of management scale and fragmentation level

Based on 526 survey data of farming households in Qufu and Juxian county, this paper comprehensively evaluates the sustainable intensification level of farming households' cultivated land use by carbon footprint and emergy analysis methods. Based on the analysis of the transmission mechanism of cultivated land renting-in affecting SICLU, we use the mediated effect model to test the mediated role of management scale and fragmentation of cultivated land. The results show that: (1) The SICLU level of cultivated land transferred to farming households is higher, producing better economic and social benefits, but its ecological efficiency needs to be improved. The economic benefit, ecological benefit, social benefit and the level of SICLU are 0.115, 0.067 and 0.081; 0.623, 0.630 and 0.628; 0.045, 0.043 and 0.044; 0.261, 0.247 and 0.251 for renting-in farming households, non-renting-in farming households and the whole sample, respectively. (2) Baseline regression shows that cultivated land renting-in has a significant positive effect on SICLU, which is still valid after a series of robustness tests. The average years of education and the ratio of family dependency are important factors affecting SICLU. (3) The mediated effect model shows that cultivated land renting-in has a significant positive effect on the management scale and the average land size. The cultivated land management scale whose mediating effect is 0.019 shows a significant positive and complete mediating effect, and the average land size shows a significant positive and partial mediating effect, whose mediating effect accounts for 43.021% of the total effect. All the mediating effects above pass the robustness test. (4) The results of farming households heterogeneity test show that cultivated land renting-in has a significant positive effect on the SICLU of farming households in the "high family dependency ratio" and "participating in agricultural insurance" group, but has no significant effect on the SICLU of farming households in the "low family dependency ratio" group and "not participating in agricultural insurance" group. The conclusion of this study is helpful to understand the impact of cultivated land renting-in on the SICLU and its mechanism, and has guiding significance for promoting the transformation of cultivated land use.