Does Agricultural Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Use Improve Grain Production Efficiency? Evidence from Rural China

Enhancing grain production efficiency (GPE) is critical for ensuring food security and promoting a more resource-efficient agricultural transformation, particularly in smallholder systems where conventional machinery faces scale and terrain constraints. China’s rapid adoption of agricultural Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offers an opportunity to assess whether digital machinery can improve efficiency without relying on farm expansion. Yet evidence on how UAV use intensity affects GPE, and on the conditions under which gains emerge, remains limited. Using data from 2,030 grain-producing households across nine provinces in the 2022 China Rural Revitalisation Survey, we measure GPE using a super-efficiency slacks-based measure model and estimate the effects of UAV use intensity. The results show a significant U-shaped relationship between UAV use intensity and GPE, with efficiency gains emerging only after UAV use intensity exceeds a certain threshold. UAV use affects GPE primarily through labour substitution and is nonlinearly associated with pesticide inputs. Besides, village-level agricultural service organisations strengthen the positive effects of UAV use, indicating that service provision complements the use of technology. The efficiency effects are stronger in western China and rice production systems, where conventional machinery is relatively constrained. These findings suggest that the benefits of agricultural UAVs depend not simply on adoption, but on sufficiently intensive use and supportive service institutions. Policies that expand access to UAV services and promote their effective integration into farm operations can improve factor allocation and grain production efficiency, especially in areas where conventional mechanisation is less adaptable. More broadly, these efforts can support agricultural digitalisation and sustainable agricultural modernisation.