Xinfeng  Ren¹ , Yaqin  Ren^1,2

1 Shaoxing Shangyu Weilu Ecological Agriculture Development Co., Ltd., Shaoxing, 312352, Zhejiang,China
2 Zhejiang Agronomist College, Hangzhou, 310021, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
Bioscience Methods, 2026, Vol. 17, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/bm.2026.17.0013
Received: 13 Apr., 2026    Accepted: 18 May, 2026    Published: 02 Jun., 2026

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Ren X.F., and Ren Y.Q., 2026, Discussion on the operational model of modern agricultural service centers in socialized rice production services, Bioscience Methods, 17(3): 169-187 (doi: 10.5376/bm.2026.17.0013)

Modern agricultural service centers are becoming increasingly important in China’s rice sector because they help solve a practical problem that many rural regions now face: rice production still matters, but the traditional household-based way of organizing it is under growing pressure from labor transfer, aging farm populations, fragmented land, tighter operation windows, and rising quality requirements. Focusing on Mashan Agricultural Service Center in Shangyu District, Zhejiang Province, this paper discusses how a modern agricultural service center operates in socialized rice production services and why such a model matters for contemporary agricultural modernization. The study combines policy documents, recent academic literature, and descriptive case materials from Mashan, including project briefs and field-based operational records. Rather than treating the center as a simple site for machinery storage, the paper analyzes it as a regional service platform that links centralized seedling cultivation, machinery dispatch, full-process trusteeship, drying and postharvest handling, technical guidance, and market-oriented branding. The results suggest that the practical value of a modern agricultural service center lies in organizational coordination. Its core contribution is to connect small-scale farmers with standardized, timely, and professionally managed production services without requiring every household to independently invest in costly facilities and equipment. The Mashan case shows that such centers can improve production efficiency, reduce labor burdens and transaction costs, strengthen emergency response under typhoon and harvest pressure, support greener and more standardized production, and create a foundation for regional rice brands. At the same time, their operation still faces constraints, including high capital intensity, shortages of skilled technical personnel, uneven service uptake across different farmer groups, limited digital management capacity, and growing climate risks. The paper argues that future development should focus on stronger regional coordination, useful digital tools, systematic talent training, deeper integration of postharvest and branding functions, and more explicit emergency-service design. In this sense, the modern agricultural service center is not just a service facility. It is an institutional bridge between smallholder farming and a more resilient, efficient, and quality-oriented rice production system.

Modern agricultural service center; Socialized agricultural services; Rice production; operational model; Zhejiang Province