How can high-standard farmland construction promote the integrated development of rural industries: based on the "three-in-one" protection of cultivated land

The purpose of this study is to analyze the influencing mechanism of high-standard farmland construction (HFC) on the integrated development of rural industries (IDRI) based on the quantity, quality and ecological protection of cultivated land. The difference-in-difference model was adopted to reveal the effect of HFC on IDRI. The baseline regression results showed that HFC could significantly improve IDRI. After conducting a series of robustness tests, the regression conclusions remained valid. The influencing mechanism analysis showed that HFC effectively promotes IDRI by promoting the large-scale operation of cultivated land, the improvement of cultivated land quality, and the ecological protection of cultivated land. Farmer survey data from some counties and cities in Hubei Province were taken as samples to explore the effect of HFC on IDRI by using difference-in-differences model. The heterogeneity analysis showed that the effect of HFC on IDRI varies with different types of farmers and landforms: moderate-scale farmers outperform small-scale farmers significantly and plain areas outperform hilly areas significantly. HFC should take the construction of a new pattern of "three-in-one" protection of cultivated land as the core concept to continuously enhance the guarantee ability of cultivated land elements to promote IDRI. In addition, HFC should give full play to the leading role of moderately large-scale farmers in small-scale farmers, and take the road of differentiated, green, and characteristic rural industrial integration and development according to local conditions.