Cooperative Quality Improvement Policy and Farmland Abandonment: Evidence from a Difference-in-Differences Analysis Based on Chinese Geospatial Data

Farmland abandonment has become an increasingly important challenge for the sustainable use of cultivated land worldwide. Although agricultural cooperatives can help mitigate farmland abandonment, their effectiveness has historically been limited in China due to their relatively weak organizational capacity and irregular development. This study argues that the County-wide Cooperative Quality Improvement Policy (CCQIP) improves the operational performance of agricultural cooperatives, thereby strengthening their capacity to mitigate farmland abandonment. Using geospatial data, we identify farmland abandonment at the county level in China and develop and test an analytical framework based on two mechanisms: increasing agricultural returns and improving service provision. The results show that the CCQIP significantly reduces the area of farmland abandonment. This effect is primarily achieved through three channels: promoting agricultural product branding, increasing the use of agricultural socialized services, and enhancing the vitality of the farmland transfer market. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that the policy has stronger effects in major grain-producing regions and in rice-dominant areas. Furthermore, the inhibitory effect of the CCQIP on farmland abandonment becomes stronger as the region’s comparative advantage in agriculture increases.