Abstract: Climatesmart agriculture (CSA) is a novel agricultural approach developed by the United Nations. CSA aims to actively respond to climate variability and ensure sustainable crop production. Carbon reduction is an important goal in the development of CSA. Chinese agriculture is largely composed of smallholder farmers. Thus, it is important to develop CSA practices tailored to their specific characteristics. Using data from major rice production areas in the Hubei Province, this paper employs a directional distance function approach to measure low-carbon production efficiency and marginal carbon abatement costs for small scale farming. Additionally, we examine the impact of land transfer and agricultural socialization services on low carbon production efficiency and marginal carbon abatement costs. Our results show that (1) the efficiency of low carbon rice production for small-scale farmers is relatively low with the potential for average improvement of 56% in low carbon production efficiency. In addition, the average marginal carbon abatement cost is 30.64 RMB/kgCE. This indicates that low carbon rice production is costly for smallholder farmers in central China. (2) Although land circulation does not improve rice low carbon production efficiency, it reduces marginal carbon abatement costs. (3) Employment services and agricultural extension services have significant and positive impacts on rice low carbon production efficiency and marginal carbon abatement costs. Low-carbon production efficiency achieved through agricultural socialization services still faces the challenges of division of labor and transaction costs. Finally, based on our findings, we discuss policy recommendations in the development, promotion and implementation of CSA practices among smallholder farmers.