Abstract:Increasing farmers’ income is critical for ensuring grain output stability. Previous studies have shown that grain crop planting isn’t conductive to increase farmers’ income and non-grain production has higher economic benefits. However, the impacts of grain and cash crop planting scales on farmers’ income have not been thoroughly evaluated. Based on a panel data in China from 2000-2019, this paper examined the impacts of grain and cash crop planting scales on farmers’ income by a panel instrumental variable method. Results show that expanding grain and cash crop planting scales has a comparable positive effect on farmers’ total income at the national level, which the impact of the two is similar. The increasing effect of grain crop cultivation on farmers’ total income comes from the increase of transfer income such as agricultural subsidies. The cash crop planting scale has a great contribution to farmers’ operating income and wage income. Expanding grain crop planting scale increases the operating income in major grain-producing areas, and the cash crop planting scale has a great contribution to farmers’ operating income, wage income, and the total income. Therefore, this paper suggests to promote the implementation of differentiated non-grain treatment measures, to optimize grain subsidy rules, to increase the added values of grain products, and to implement the grain production responsibility in non-major grain-producing areas.