AUTHOR=Feng Jingyue , Zhang Wenbo , Wang Lin , Hu Bo , Xie Fengjie 

TITLE=Spatial spillover effects of swine insurance policy on swine production efficiency in China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2025.1636598

DOI=10.3389/fsufs.2025.1636598

ISSN=2571-581X

ABSTRACT=IntroductionIn light of growing resource constraints and global calls for sustainability, the efficiency of swine production has become a strategic concern in China. China’s swine insurance policy serves as a key institutional mechanism for strengthening risk mitigation and resilience, rigorously evaluation of the policy’s impact on swine production efficiency is essential for optimizing agricultural insurance mechanisms and advancing sustainability in the swine industry.MethodsThis study treats the pilot implementation of the swine insurance policy as a quasi-natural experiment, drawing on panel data from 30 Chinese provinces over the years from 2005 to 2021, it employs a spatial difference-in-differences (SDID) model and a mediation effect model to empirically examine the impact of the swine insurance policy on swine production efficiency.ResultsThe results reveal that the swine insurance policy significantly improves swine production efficiency in the implementing provinces and generates substantial spatial spillover effects, the boundary of spatial effect decay is 250 km. Additionally, the policy enhances swine production efficiency by expanding production scale, encouraging structural upgrading, and promoting technology adoption. The heterogeneity analysis by functional swine production regions and farming scale reveals that the effects of swine insurance policy are particularly pronounced in the major production region and among large scale farms.DiscussionThis study investigates the role of China’s swine insurance policy in enhancing swine production efficiency under current resource constraints. Due to data availability constraints, the inability to use more granular data at the city or county level may limit the precision of policy effect identification. Overall, this study is grounded in the practical development needs of China’s swine industry and provides solid theoretical foundations and policy recommendations. The results indicate that swine insurance serves as a vital policy instrument, improves the production efficiency through promoting scale expansion, facilitating structural upgrading and increasing technology adoption. The study offers a new perspective for the sustainable development of the swine industry.