The effect of intermediate input on the green transition of cultivated land use: A diagnostic analysis based on the U-shaped relationship

The green transition of cultivated land Use (GTCLU) is of great significance for building a new pattern of cultivated protection with coordinated development of water and soil resources under the background of global climate change, ensuring the quality and safety of agricultural products, and promoting green agricultural development. Based on field surveys of farmers in Shenyang, this study explores the conceptual connotation of GTCLU and estimate its level at the farmer household scale, and theoretically analyzes and empirically tests whether and how intermediate inputs affected the GTCLU. The results indicate that: (1) The GTCLU has established a composite mapping relationship of ''water, land, food, and carbon'', which has the development characteristics of resource conservation and efficiency, good production environment, product quality and safety, and ecological environment friendliness. (2) The GTCLU level of sample farmers is observed in the transition type III, and compared to small farmers, the proportion of large-scale households in transition type IV is relatively large. The higher the proportion of per capita household income and non-agricultural income, the lower the GTCLU level of farmers. With the improvement of rural digitalization level, the GTCLU level of farmers is gradually increasing. (3) There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between intermediate input and farmers' GTCLU level, that is, when the intensity of intermediate input exceeds 0.375, it will have a suppressive effect on farmers' GTCLU level. (4) Social norms have a positive moderating effect on the inverted U-shaped relationship between intermediate inputs and farmers' GTCLU levels. As social norm constraints continue to strengthen, the inverted U-shaped curve becomes steeper and the inflection point shifts to the left. The impact of environmental regulations on the inverted U-shaped relationship exhibits heterogeneity in business scale, meaning it does not affect large-scale households but has a significant effect on small-scale farmers. Therefore, it is necessary to further optimize the structure of intermediate inputs, enhance the soft constraint mechanism of social norms, fully utilize the combination of environmental regulatory tools, and promote the green transition of cultivated land use at the farmer household scale in a scientific and reasonable manner.