Impact Mechanism of Contracted Land Transfer on Agricultural Eco‐Efficiency in Metropolitan Areas: Shanghai as a Case Study

The metropolis Shanghai was selected as the research object for this study due to its high rate of land transfer. Based on theoretical analysis and using panel data from its nine suburbs from 2008 to 2018, the authors constructed a multiple intermediary model to describe the impact of the transfer of contracted land on agricultural ecological efficiency. The results show the direct impact of this land transfer to be insignificant, though two factors, planting structure and agricultural green production technology, both present a significant negative intermediary effect. The development of contracted land transfer has led to “non‐grained” planting, but also inhibits improvements from being made to the level of agricultural green production technology. In fact, it leads to decreases in agricultural ecological efficiency. In the process of promoting the transfer of contracted land, it is necessary not only to pursue a high rate of land transfer but also not to ignore the quality of transferred land. Therefore, the principle of green production and operation should be taken as the prerequisite for the transfer of contracted land. We recommend increasing the certification of green agricultural products and the construction of production bases, and controlling the “non‐grain” utilization of contracted land by adjusting and optimizing the planting structure so as to effectively improve the efficiency of agricultural production.