Exploring the poverty-reduction benefits of agricultural machinery socialization services in China: Implications for the sustainable development of farmers

Sustainable development is crucial for alleviating poverty among farmers. In this study, we examined the impact, and the mechanism underlying this impact, of the adoption of agricultural machinery services by farmers on their relative poverty from a multidimensional poverty perspective by employing the logit and ordered logit models and the Karlson–Holm–Breen (KHB) method. These results indicate that adopting agricultural machinery services can significantly reduce the probability of relative poverty among farmers, thereby expediting the sustainability of rural development. However, this poverty-reduction effect varies based on age and sex. The adoption of agricultural machinery services mainly reduces poverty by increasing farmers' human capital. Training in employment skills and non-agricultural work experience are the main transmission mechanisms. Therefore, the socialization of agricultural machinery services can be used as an effective policy tool to reduce relative poverty in developing countries, promote sustained improvements in farmers' incomes, and achieve sustainability in rural development.