Can 'socialized services to stimulate manure and sewage resources (MSR) utilization' improve the green total factor productivity of livestock farming?——Evidence from 412 scale dairy farms in China

Promoting social services in dairy farming is pivotal to modernizing China's livestock industry, yet farms remain skeptical about their economic viability for manure and sewage management, hindering the development of specialized organization. Drawing on survey data from 412 large-scale Chinese dairy farms, this study utilizes a common frontier stochastic frontier model to compare the green total factor productivity (GTFP) of farms employing socialized services versus autonomous MSR management. Results show an inverted “U-shaped” relationship between MSR technology adoption intensity and production efficiency, indicating optimal benefits at moderate adoption levels. Independently adopting farms can mitigate efficiency losses through enhanced technical training and managerial experience, though limited supporting land often leads to excessive manure application. In contrast, farms utilizing socialized services achieve 8.7% higher GTFP, primarily driven by capital cooperation with service organizations, which reduces information asymmetry, shares risks, and professionalizes resource utilization.These findings highlight that socialized services, particularly through capital partnerships, offer a superior pathway for improving both environmental performance and farm profitability. Policy recommendations include providing initial subsidies to encourage service outsourcing, promoting capital cooperation between farms and specialized organizations, and strengthening punitive environmental regulations to ensure effective implementation.