Does the Agricultural Productive Service Embedded Affect Farmers’ Family Economic Welfare Enhancement? An Empirical Analysis in Black Soil Region in China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The topic chosen for your paper turns out to be interesting and, in essence, well addressed but, in my opinion, requires an additional little effort to make it truly appealing. Since the writing is “heavy” to read as an excessive number of abbreviations are used and the article is divided into too many subparagraphs. Therefore, it would be necessary to reduce its number in such a way as to “bind” the various parts of the text that make up the article itself, making writing and reading more linear, fluid and less schematized. In the methodological it should be better described the motivation of the choice of the methodology proposed with respect to the other tools, such as structural equation models, which are equally valid and effective.

Here are some more specific suggestions:

- line 18: please check the sentence (what did you mean by “only part”? maybe it should just be);

- keywords: please delete issues;

- It is necessary to use fewer abbreviations in the text, therefore it is better to alternate abbreviations with a full use of the same acronyms;

- Do not use abbreviations in the titles of paragraphs and sub-paragraphs (in the title it would be better to put it in full);

- indicate the data sources of the “numbers” expressed in the introduction (for instance in line 36-37);

- line 135: I think you can replace “is a model describing” with describe. Please check the sentence;

- in the test there are several repetitions, for instance: line 164: utility maximization to maximizing income; line 171: that the service provider provides supporting; line 176: agricultural mechanization, and mechanization has; line 186 - 187: technological is repeated; line 374: therefore only maize farming income, excluding maize farming income; line 586: of the study, this study …; line 690: On the other hand, all…; … please find different form;

- line 230: 6905 dollars in 2009 to 15740 dollars ... put the comma to the numbers (it must be 6,905); ... even beyond

- table 1: it is not clear how the percentages are calculated. Furthermore, I believe that one decimal place can be used. Finally, please align 982 with the samples column;

- line 329: Yin should be Y_in;

- too many times it is repeated that it has been used 16.0;

- line 480: where should be Where;

- lines 522 – 526: I think the question mark goes at the end of the question and not the point as it is now (for instance What changes exist in farmers' welfare levels when LA has an intervention effect?);

- tables 5 – 6: I believe you can remove “who” from all sentences (you understand what you want to indicate equally). If you don’t read the comment, it’s a little hard to understand what the numbers are inside. Therefore I would suggest adding, for example, (income) in the hearder of the columns “accept APS” and “reject APS”;

- line 552: perhaps “relative” can be replaced with “compared”. Please check the sentence;

- line 628: conform to the 2 previous headings of the sub-paragraphs… give space after the number;

- line 690: please delete “and positive”;

- line 751: leave a blank line between the text and “author contributions”;

- Finally, it would be advisable to also refer to the limits of the work and foresee a future evolution of the work carried out.

Author Response

Thank you for giving us a chance to improve the manuscript, entitled “Does the Agricultural Productive Service Embedded Affect Farmers' Family Economic Welfare Enhancement? An Empirical Analysis in Black Soil Region in China” (ID: agriculture-1965267). We appreciate the constructive comments from anonymous reviewers, which are very helpful for us revising and improving our paper. We have studied the comments carefully and have made necessary corrections accordingly. We believe the manuscript has significantly improved.

 

To better show what has been changed, we enclose the manuscript in "Track Changes" mode. In addition, we summarize the point-by-point response as below. Note that the Lines numbers mentioned in the following responses are according to the revised manuscript. And our responses are marked in Blue.

 

Detailed responses to the reviewer’s comments:

 

 

Point 1: Since the writing is “heavy” to read as an excessive number of abbreviations are used and the article is divided into too many sub-paragraphs. Therefore, it would be necessary to reduce its number in such a way as to “bind” the various parts of the text that make up the article itself, making writing and reading more linear, fluid and less schematized.

Response 1: We appreciate this comment. In order to increase the reader's fluency and comprehensibility, we have replaced the "redundant" abbreviations in the article and presented them in their full form in the text. Specifically, FFEW is replaced with Farmers' Family Economic Welfare, LA is replaced with labor allocation, and ESR is replaced with endogenous switching regression model to enhance the reading experience and the scientific quality of the article. Thanks!

Point 2: In the methodological it should be better described the motivation of the choice of the methodology proposed with respect to the other tools, such as structural equation models, which are equally valid and effective.

Response 2: Great idea! We appreciate this valuable comment from you. In this study, farmers' "welfare enhancement" falls into two consecutive decision stages. The first stage examines whether the farmer has signed up for APS; the second stage examines whether the farmer has made a varies of economic welfare. If farmers do not sign up in the first stage, they will not receive their corresponding incremental benefits at a later stage; only when farmers sign up for APS can the subsequent economy be collected effectively. The endogenous switching regression model can effectively reduce the impact of the sample self-selection problem. In this study, the sentence "Third, in this study, farmers' purchases of APS are immediate behaviors, which are counter-factual in character at a point in time. Therefore, welfare effect analysis using ESR model can effectively address the self-selection problem and endogeneity of the sample, while considering the effects brought by observable and unobservable factors." was deleted from lines 304 to 308 of the manuscript and the following sentence was inserted in line 346-351:

“Third, in this study, farmers' purchases of APS are immediate behaviors, which are counterfactual in character at a point in time. Using endogenous switching regression for welfare effects analysis can effectively address the self-selection problem and endogeneity of the sample, taking into account the effects brought by both observable and unobservable factors. This advantage compensates for the lack of counterfactual analysis capability of models such as structural equations, which have a more rigorous character.”

 

Point 3: line 18: please check the sentence (what did you mean by “only part”? maybe it should just be).

Response 3: Thank you for this valuable suggestion. In order to remove the ambiguity in the language, we have deleted the sentence "Second, under the effect of income, the "pulling power" of different forms of APS for FFEW varies significantly in strength, and the purchase of services in only part of the agricultural production chain brings farmers a greater incremental welfare effect" in lines 17-19 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence between lines 17-21:

“Second, with the income effect, there are significant differences in the strength of the "pulling power" of different forms of APS for farmers' family economic welfare. Compared with farmers who purchase APS for the entire production chain, farmers who purchase only some of the services are more likely to increase their welfare in the later stages.”

Point 4: keywords: please delete issues.

Response 4: Thanks for this suggestion. We have removed the word "issues" from the keywords.

Point 5: It is necessary to use fewer abbreviations in the text, therefore it is better to alternate abbreviations with a full use of the same acronyms.

Response 5: We appreciate this comment. We have removed the "cumbersome" acronym form of the manuscript and retained only the acronym APS (Agricultural Productive Services). This will make the manuscript much more readable and enhance the flow of the reading process. Again, we express our deep appreciation for your comments.

Point 6: Do not use abbreviations in the titles of paragraphs and subparagraphs (in the title it would be better to put it in full).

Response 6: Thanks. This is an important comment. We have replaced the abbreviated forms used within the headings at all levels in the manuscript with the corresponding full forms.

Point 7: Indicate the data sources of the “numbers” expressed in the introduction (for instance in line 36-37).

Response 7: Thank you for this comment. After collation and discussion by the research team, we have added the data sources and added the following notes in line 43 and 58:

“[Source: Statistical Yearbook of the National Bureau of Statistics]”

Point 8: line 135: I think you can replace “is a model describing” with describe. Please check the sentence

Response 8: We appreciate this valuable comment from you. After careful verification, some work has been done to help remove the ambiguity. We deleted the sentence "The theory of farmers' families model is a model describing farmers' behavior and the correlation between individual behaviors, which is similar to the principle of general equilibrium model and was first proposed by the Russian agricultural economist A.V." in lines 135-137 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 153 to 155:

“The theory of farmer family model, which mainly describes the correlation between the general and individual behavior of farmers, is similar to the principle of general equilibrium model and was first proposed by Russian agricultural economist A.V.”

Point 9: In the test there are several repetitions, for instance: line 164: utility maximization to maximizing income; line 171: that the service provider provides supporting; line 176: agricultural mechanization, and mechanization has; line 186 - 187: technological is repeated; line 374: therefore only maize farming income, excluding maize farming income; line 586: of the study, this study …; line 690: On the other hand, all…; … please find different form.

Response 9: Thanks. This is a very important comment. Through careful checking, we have corrected and eliminated language descriptions that are repetitive in nature. We have removed the sentence "For the purpose of analysis, this study assumes that farmers face a well-established regional factor market and simplifies the goal of utility maximization to maximizing in-come from agricultural production operations" from lines 162-165 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 186-188.

“For the purpose of the analysis, this study assumes that farmers face a well-established regional factor market and simplifies its objective to maximize the returns to agricultural production and operation.”

We have removed the sentence "The main reason is that the service provider provides supporting transportation services, distribution services, etc., which saves the input of agricultural production materials and labor" from lines 170-172 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 196-198.

“The main reason is that the servicer provides supporting transportation services, distribution services, etc., which saves the input of agricultural production materials and labor.”

We have removed the sentence "The production process of agricultural crops has strict requirements for farming time, and traditional manual sowing and harvesting are gradually eliminated in the process of agricultural mechanization, and mechanization has higher time and efficiency guarantee than manual" from lines 174-177 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 201-204.

“The crop production process has strict requirements for farming time, and traditional human sowing and harvesting are gradually eliminated in the process of agricultural mechanization, which has higher time and efficiency guarantees than manual labor.”

We have removed the sentence "The theoretical framework of biased technological progress provides the assumption that technological innovation is biased" from lines 185-186 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 217-218.

“The theoretical framework of biased technological progress provides an assumption that innovation is propensity-based.”

We have removed the sentence "To further analyze the intrinsic mechanism of the impact of APS embedding on FFEW, it is worth noting that this study focuses on APS in the single crop case, and therefore only maize farming income, excluding maize farming income, is analyzed in this study as income from labor" from lines 372-375 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 433-437.

“To further analyze the mechanisms underlying the impact of APS embedding on FFEW, it is worth noting that this study focuses on APS in a single crop scenario and therefore only corn farming income is analyzed in this study. Income not related to agricultural activities is treated as labor income.”

We have removed the sentence "from the perspective of the study" from lines 584-585 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 660-661.

“in terms of perspective setting”

We have removed the sentence "On the other hand, all variables at the family characteristics level have a positive and positive effect on farmers' welfare increase, regardless of whether farmers purchase services or not, but this pulling power increases significantly after the purchase of services" from lines 689-691 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 807-810.

“On the other hand, all the variables at the family characteristics level have a positive effect on the increase of farmers' welfare, but this pulling power increases significantly after the purchase of services.”

Point 10: line 230: 6905 dollars in 2009 to 15740 dollars ... put the comma to the numbers (it must be 6,905); ... even beyond.

Response 10: We agree. Thanks for this important comment. We have removed the sentence "6905 dollars in 2009 to 15740 dollars in 2020" from line 230 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in line 267.

“from 6,905 dollars in 2009 to 15,740 dollars in 2020.”

Point 11-1: table 1: it is not clear how the percentages are calculated.

Response 11-1: Thank you for this comment. We have added a note about the ratio calculation at the bottom of Table 1.

Point 11-2: Furthermore, I believe that one decimal place can be used.

Response 11-2: Thanks! After the collective discussion of the research team, we have treated the "proportion" column in Table 1 based on the retention of one decimal place.

Point 11-3: Finally, please align 982 with the samples column.

Response 11-3: Thanks! We have corrected the format of the last row of Table 1 to align "982" with the sample column.

Point 12: Line 329: Yin should be Y_in.

Response 12: Thanks! We have revised Yin in line 329 of the manuscript to Y_in in line 382.

Point 13: Too many times it is repeated that it has been used 16.0.

Response 13: Thanks! We have removed the repetitive emphasis on software attributes from the manuscript and have retained only the initial reference to this software in line 146.

Point 14: Line 480: where should be Where.

Response 14: Thanks for this important comment. We have revised the word "where" in line 547.

Point 15: Lines 522–526: I think the question mark goes at the end of the question and not the point as it is now (for instance What changes exist in farmers' welfare levels when LA has an intervention effect?).

Response 15: Thanks! We have removed the sentence "In the absence of intervention, i.e., without the influence of farmers working outside the home and without wage income, how significant is the impact of APS embedding on the enhancement of farmers' welfare. What changes exist in farmers' welfare levels when LA has an intervention effect. And how much difference exists between these two effects is the question that needs to be addressed in this study" from lines 522-527 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 590-595.

“To what extent does the embedding of APS bring about an increase in farmers' welfare in the absence of intervention, i.e., when farmers are not working outside the home and do not have the effect of wage income? What changes exist in farmers' welfare levels when there is an intervening effect on labor distribution? To what extent do these two effects differ? These doubts are the questions that need to be addressed in this study.”

Point 16-1: Tables 5-6: I believe you can remove “who” from all sentences (you understand what you want to indicate equally).

Response 16-1: Thanks! We have removed the word "who" from Tables 5 and 6.

Point 16-2: Tables 5-6: If you don’t read the comment, it’s a little hard to understand what the numbers are inside. Therefore I would suggest adding, for example, (income) in the hearder of the columns “accept APS” and “reject APS”.

Response 16-2: Thanks! We have added the note (Income) to the header section of Tables 5 and 6.

Point 17: line 552: perhaps “relative” can be replaced with “compared”. Please check the sentence.

Response 17: Thanks! We have removed the sentence "It is clear from this that the more pronounced the improvement in the welfare situation of the family after the purchase of the APS, the more significant the increase in income is for farmers who work outside the home relative to those who do not work outside the home" from lines 549-552 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 623-625.

“It can be clearly seen that, in comparison to the group of home-based samples, farmers who work outside have a more pronounced improvement in their family welfare situation and a more significant increase in income after purchasing the APS.”

Point 18: Line 628: conform to the 2 previous headings of the subparagraphs… give space after the number.

Response 18: Thanks! We have added a space in the subheading on line 703.

Point 19: Line 690: please delete “and positive”.

Response 19: Thanks! We have corrected the language expression in line 808

Point 20: Line 751: leave a blank line between the text and “author contributions”.

Response 20: Gratitude for your precious suggestions, sincerely. We have inserted blank lines between the body text and the author contribution modules in line 873.

Point 21-1: Finally, it would be advisable to also refer to the limits of the work and foresee a future evolution of the work carried out.

Response 21-1: Thanks! We have removed the sentence "This study also has the following areas for further improvement in the future. First, ……Second, …… Third, …… Therefore, there is still room for further expansion of the analysis only from the perspective of APS" from lines 628-649 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 704-740.

“This study also has the following deficiencies. First, there are still limitations in the selection of the research region. The research data used in this study are from three major grain-producing provinces within the Northeast China Plain region, and although this region is an important agricultural production base, however, the focus is still limited by focusing only on this area. The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River region as well as the North China Plain region in China are important grain-producing regions, and the maturation system differs from the high latitudes in the north, and the development of the APS industry is somewhat heterogeneous. Although some existing studies focusing on farmers' welfare similarly focus on the north-eastern region, the reliability of the findings is not compromised [82]. Second, the time factor is difficult to control; the impact of APS embedding on farmers' welfare still needs to be explored in depth because economic improvement is not a time-sensitive issue, but tends to be a slow but steady and continuous process. How does the impact of service embeddedness on welfare levels differ in the long run from the short run? Does this effect weaken or strengthen over time? Such questions require further discussion. Third, the focus of service links is weak. Due to the wide range, types and links involved in current APS, the heterogeneity of APS can have different effects on farmers' economic levels and labor allocation behavior. For example, types of services within the three stages of prenatal, intranatal and post-natal will affect the improvement of farmers' economic conditions to different degrees, and services with more labor-intensive characteristics will bring more obvious effects on labor allocation, etc.”

Point 21-2: It would be advisable to foresee a future evolution of the work carried out.

Response 21-2: Thanks! We have removed the sentence "In the design of the study for the coming period, considering the above-mentioned needed improvements, we can start an in-depth study and discussion in the following aspects. First, …… Second, …… Third, …… Enhanced interdisciplinarity and integration of disciplines can better clarify the mechanisms of welfare effects, identify the pathways and mechanisms affecting farmers' welfare, and better and more purposefully serve policy recommendations." from lines 650-670 of the manuscript and inserted the following sentence in lines 746-768.

“Improvements in future work. First, the research area should be expanded. In order to increase the comparability of the study, the selection of samples should be further enriched. Take the Jianghan Plain, Poyang Lake Plain, Jianghuai Region and Chengdu Plain along the Yangtze River Basin in China as examples, which are important commercial grain bases with crop types covering soybean, wheat, maize, rice and other varieties. In the future research, the team will move the research area from north to south. The southern region has more crop maturity periods in a year, with more stringent requirements for farming time and higher requirements for APS. The impact on farmers' welfare is also expected to be different with the service embedded. Therefore, the conclusions will be more rigorous when the southern and northern re-search regions are analyzed against each other. Second, ongoing follow-up research is conducted. The use of panel data will increase the consideration of time series factors, so that the issue of time point can be better controlled, thus enhancing the depth and breadth of the research. In the choice of research methods, the form can be optimized, such as combining pictures, videos, text, and other forms, or using randomized trials to control the interference factors more rigorously and improve the accuracy of the re-search. Third, future research can be analyzed from the perspective of multiple categories. APS industry has been developed in several agricultural production stages, mainly in the mid-production stage. In the next stage of research, the types of services, such as tilling, sowing and fertilization, will be further divided in more detail, as a way to examine the welfare-enhancing effects of different degrees of service heterogeneity issues. In addition, the focus on farmer heterogeneity will be more specific, further considering the extent to which farmer groups of different sizes and income structures respond to APS embedding.”

 

Special thanks to you for your good comments. We tried our best to improve the manuscript and made some changes in the manuscript. It is hoped that the correction will meet with approval.

Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions.

 

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors of the study should be praised for focusing on the micro level impact of the development of APS, emphasizing the growth of agricultural production efficiency and economic well-being (shown through the household income and expansion of their sources).

The advantages of agricultural modernization and large-scale production are obvious, but the study lacks specificity in defining agricultural productive services. The range of APS is large and their implementation can have different effects on farm modernization, income, and labor allocation.

The article assumes that farmers who choose to work outside the home after intervention APS have a larger increase in family welfare. But we must not forget that it is not easy to find low-skilled work in some regions. Sometimes agriculture is the field of activity that absorbs the unemployed, and work in agriculture is a kind of survival strategy.

Author Response

Thank you for giving us a chance to improve the manuscript, entitled “Does the Agricultural Productive Service Embedded Affect Farmers' Family Economic Welfare Enhancement? An Empirical Analysis in Black Soil Region in China” (ID: agriculture-1965267). We appreciate the constructive comments from anonymous reviewers, which are very helpful for us revising and improving our paper. We have studied the comments carefully and have made necessary corrections accordingly. We believe the manuscript has significantly improved.

 

To better show what has been changed, we enclose the manuscript in "Track Changes" mode. In addition, we summarize the point-by-point response as below. Note that the Lines numbers mentioned in the following responses are according to the revised manuscript. And our responses are marked in Blue.

 

Detailed responses to the reviewer’s comments:

 

 

Point 1: Does the introduction provide sufficient background and include all relevant references? -Can be improved.

Response 1: We appreciate this comment. To further flesh out the presentation of the background of the study, we have inserted the following sentences between lines 71 - 76. Thanks!

“In addition, agricultural production is an important means of sustaining livelihoods for a relatively low-quality group of farmers who lack skill-based knowledge and are in poor health. Although it is difficult for this group of farmers to earn off-farm income, the labor substitution effect generated in the process will increase their overall "leisure" time and effectively reduce the burden of living as the APS becomes more embedded.”

Point 2: Are all the cited references relevant to the research? -Can be improved.

Response 2: Thanks! We appreciate this valuable comment from you. In order to more appropriately express the citation of existing research results, we have reviewed and sorted out the use of references and corrected inappropriate ones.

We replace the 7th citation "Chen, L., Li, Z., Lv, M., & Xiong, M. Intelligent prediction algorithm of economic trend index based on rough set support vector machine. Journal of Intelligent & Fuzzy Systems 2020, 38, 147-153. https://doi.org/10.3233/JIFS-179389" with "Wang, Q., Jiang, R. Is China's economic growth decoupled from carbon emissions?. Journal of Cleaner Production 2019, 225, 1194-1208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.03.301" in lines 906-907.

We have removed the 14 citation "Su, Y., Hua, Y., & Liang, X. Toward job or amenity?: evaluating the locational choice of internal migrants in China. International Regional Science Review 2019, 42, 400-430. https://doi.org/10.1177/0160017619863476" and corrected it to "Li, F., Feng, S., Lu, H., Qu, F., D’ Haese, M. How do non-farm employment and agricultural mechanization impact on large-scale farming? A spatial panel data analysis from Jiangsu Province, China. Land Use Policy 2021, 107, 105517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105517" in lines 923-925.

We have removed the 19th、21th and 62th citation from the text.

 

Point 3: Is the research design appropriate? -Can be improved.

Response 3: Thank you for this valuable suggestion. In this study, farmers' "welfare enhancement" falls into two consecutive decision stages. The first stage examines whether the farmer has signed up for APS; the second stage examines whether the farmer has made a varies of economic welfare. If farmers do not sign up in the first stage, they will not receive their corresponding incremental benefits at a later stage; only when farmers sign up for APS can the subsequent economy be collected effectively. The endogenous switching regression model can effectively reduce the impact of the sample self-selection problem. In the next phase of our study, we will use structural equation modeling and Heckman two-stage modeling with Amos software for path analysis and regression analysis. In this way, we will use the advantageous features of different research approaches to make a choice for further research questions. Thanks again for your suggestions!

Point 4: Are the methods adequately described? -Can be improved.

Response 4: Thanks for this suggestion. In order to describe the research methodology more clearly and after a rigorous discussion, we have further refined the expression of the methodological part in the paper. The sentence "Third, in this study, farmers' purchases of APS are immediate behaviors, which are counter-factual in character at a point in time. Therefore, welfare effect analysis using ESR model can effectively address the self-selection problem and endogeneity of the sample, while considering the effects brought by observable and unobservable factors" was deleted from lines 304 to 308 of the manuscript and the following sentence was inserted in line 346-351:

“Third, in this study, farmers' purchases of APS are immediate behaviors, which are counterfactual in character at a point in time. Using endogenous switching regression for welfare effects analysis can effectively address the self-selection problem and endogeneity of the sample, taking into account the effects brought by both observable and unobservable factors. This advantage compensates for the lack of counterfactual analysis capability of models such as structural equations, which have a more rigorous character.”

Point 5: Are the results clearly presented? -Can be improved.

Response 5: We appreciate this comment. We have made a clearer presentation design for the results section in the text, with the following improvements:

We have added a note about the ratio calculation at the bottom of Table 1.

We have removed the word "who" from Tables 5 and 6.

We have added the note (Income) to the header section of Tables 5 and 6.

In addition, we revised the fluency and clarity of expressions and removed ambiguous expressions to make the experience of reading the text more enjoyable.

Point 6: The advantages of agricultural modernization and large-scale production are obvious, but the study lacks specificity in defining agricultural productive services. The range of APS is large and their implementation can have different effects on farm modernization, income, and labor allocation.

Response 6: Thanks. This is an important comment. The limitations of this study are to some extent reflected in the still lack of exhaustive delineation of the categories of productive agricultural services, such as tilling, fertilizing, harvesting, etc. The different segments of the service, as you mentioned, are the ones that have an impact on the farmers' welfare level and resource allocation. In future research, our team will further dig deeper into the different effects arising from service heterogeneity and farmer heterogeneity, and further expand the study area. On the expression of limitations in the text, we inserted the following sentence in lines 735-740.

“Third, the focus of service links is weak. Due to the wide range, types and links involved in current APS, the heterogeneity of APS can have different effects on farmers' economic levels and labor allocation behavior. For example, types of services within the three stages of prenatal, intranatal and post-natal will affect the improvement of farmers' economic conditions to different degrees, and services with more labor-intensive characteristics will bring more obvious effects on labor allocation, etc.”

Point 7: The article assumes that farmers who choose to work outside the home after intervention APS have a larger increase in family welfare. But we must not forget that it is not easy to find low-skilled work in some regions. Sometimes agriculture is the field of activity that absorbs the unemployed, and work in agriculture is a kind of survival strategy.

Response 7: Good point! This study only considers the welfare of the farmers' group in general, and more detailed investigation of the farmers' sample will be carried out in the future work. In the next phase, farmers' differential endowments will be considered and farmers' welfare issues will be further analyzed in the framework of sustainable livelihoods. In order to elaborate more completely the issue of heterogeneity of farmer groups, we have inserted the following sentence between lines 71 - 76.

“In addition, agricultural production is an important means of sustaining livelihoods for a relatively low-quality group of farmers who lack skill-based knowledge and are in poor health. Although it is difficult for this group of farmers to earn off-farm income, the labor substitution effect generated in the process will increase their overall "leisure" time and effectively reduce the burden of living as the APS becomes more embedded.”

Thanks for your constructive comments—which helps us a lot to improve the manuscript. We tried our best to address your concerns.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx