Reducing agricultural emissions is vital for climate mitigation, yet evidence on green finance’s potential to facilitate agricultural decarbonization—particularly in China—remains scarce. Leveraging China’s Green Finance Reform and Innovation Pilot Zones as a quasi-natural experiment, this study employs a staggered difference-in-differences design and complementary Callaway-Sant’Anna estimates. Using a balanced panel of 282 prefecture-level and above cities spanning 2012–2022—a window covering five pre-policy years before the initial 2017 pilot rollout and sufficient post-policy years to capture dynamic effects for the 2017, 2019, and 2022 cohorts—this study assesses the policy impact on agricultural carbon emission intensity. The findings reveal that the pilot policy reduces emission intensity by approximately 9.2% on average. This result is robust across event-study analyses, placebo tests, PSM-DID, policy interference checks, and alternative outcome specifications. Channel-consistent evidence suggests that the effect operates through three mechanisms: greener credit allocation, stronger green technological innovation, and lower-carbon adjustment of the agricultural production structure. The effect is larger in eastern China, major grain-producing regions, and cities with higher levels of financial development, and exhibits a strengthening trend over time. By analyzing China’s city-based pilot approach, this study demonstrates how financial policy can support agricultural decarbonization in settings characterized by dispersed emitters, imperfect environmental monitoring, and strong food-security constraints. The findings extend beyond China to inform other developing economies seeking non-price-based pathways to greener agriculture.

Ensuring food security under binding land constraints is a central challenge for many developing economies. Using a county-level panel dataset for China from 2000 to 2022, this study examines how agricultural technological innovation affects grain yield under land scarcity. We construct quality-adjusted patent stocks of grain-related technologies based on patent microdata and distinguish between input-oriented innovation and field-management innovation. By integrating patent data, business registration records, and official agricultural statistics, we empirically examine the effects of agricultural technological innovation on grain yield. The results show that agricultural technological innovation significantly increases grain yield: a doubling of the quality-adjusted stock of grain-related patents is associated with an approximately 1.10% increase in grain yield. However, its effects differ sharply by innovation type. Input-oriented innovation exhibits limited or even negative effects, whereas field-management innovation consistently enhances grain yield. Heterogeneity analyses show stronger yield effects in major grain-producing regions, areas with broader technological coverage and greater patent collaboration, and lower-yield counties. Mechanism analyses indicate that production organization and agricultural socialized services are key channels through which innovation translates into yield gains. Overall, the findings suggest that productivity gains in land-scarce agricultural systems depend less on input intensification than on effective production management and supportive institutional arrangements, with broader implications for other land-constrained developing economies.

PurposeChina's grain subsidy policy was implemented nearly 20 years ago, and there have since been several changes in the subsidy content and methods. This study examines the impact of direct payment subsidies (DPS) on the economic effects of grain production for farmers.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses an instrumental variable fixed effect model to analyze the impact of DPS on the economic effects of grain production, based on data from the China Survey for Agricultural and Rural Economy from 2013 to 2020.FindingsThe results indicate that DPS significantly enhance the economic effects of grain production for growers. The elasticity value of DPS and grain output, and DPS and technical efficiency (TE) of grain production are 0.636 and 0.073, respectively. These impacts exhibit significant heterogeneity across different age, income and planting scale. DPS also efficiently improve the structure of input factors to boost the economic effects of grain production. Our results indicate that these effects became more pronounced after agricultural policy reform, especially for large-scale farmers.Originality/valueThis study measures the economic effects of grain production in two ways: grain output and TE. DPS has increased farmers' enthusiasm for grain input and improved the structure of factor inputs, thereby promoting the economic effects of food production. The research results also confirm the positive effectiveness of China's grain subsidy policy.

Ensuring food security while enhancing agricultural sustainability remains a critical challenge in Africa. China's rice technology transfer has emerged as an important external driver to address this issue, yet its comprehensive impacts remain underexplored. This study uses panel data from 40 African countries (2000-2022) and utilizes Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centers (ATDC) as a quasi-natural experiment to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of China's rice technology transfer, as well as its role in promoting production convergence across African nations. Results reveal the following: (1) China's rice technology transfer significantly increased total rice output, cultivation area, and yield, while effectively reducing methane emission intensity, highlighting its dual benefits of economic and environmental outcomes; (2) The impact of China's rice technology transfer is more pronounced in African countries with higher levels of agricultural technology and governance performance; (3) The analysis also identified a natural convergence trend in African rice production, with China's technology transfer accelerating this process, suggesting its potential as a tool to foster regional integration and reduce inequalities. These findings provide valuable insights and practical guidance for the sustainable development of China-Africa agricultural cooperation.

The prolonged reliance on excessive resource utilization and unsustainable production methods has resulted in significant environmental issues in China, posing serious challenges to the sustainable development of agriculture. While the digital economy offers new opportunities for enhancing agricultural sustainability, its rapid and unregulated growth could also lead to negative effects. Therefore, exploring the relationship between the digital economy and sustainable agriculture development (SAD), along with clarifying the mechanisms involved, is of paramount importance. This study uses the EBM-GML index to calculate AGTFP as a representation of SAD and empirically tests the impact and mechanism of the digital economy on SAD. Additionally, it explores the moderating role of government behavior, specifically Agricultural fiscal support and digital policies. The main findings are as follows: (1) During the observation period, SAD showed a steady upward trend, but regional disparities widened, forming a contiguous agglomeration pattern. The decentralization of the digital economy weakened, trending towards unipolarization and homogenization, with a north-to-south diffusion. (2) The impact of the digital economy on SAD presents an inverted "U" shape, indicating a "double-edged sword" effect. This relationship remains significant after robustness and endogeneity tests. Additionally, the digital economy exhibits significant spatial effects, maintaining an inverted U-shaped relationship with SAD in neighboring areas. (3) Regional heterogeneity shows that coastal provinces are in digital economy suppression or alert areas, while inland regions are in enhancement areas. During the study period, the number of suppression and alert areas did not significantly increase, but there was a trend of shifting from coastal to inland regions. (4) When below the threshold, the digital economy promotes agricultural green technology innovation, optimizes resource allocation, and fosters synergetic agglomeration of agriculture with the secondary and tertiary industries, enhancing SAD. However, surpassing the threshold negatively impacts these mechanisms. (5) Fiscal support for agriculture smooths the inverted "U" curve, mitigating the negative impact of excessive digital economy growth on SAD. Conversely, digital policies steepen the inverted "U" curve, exacerbating these negative effects. The findings highlight the need for balanced digital economic development to support sustainable agricultural growth.

In the context of global rural decline, fostering endogenous momentum through rural transformation to increase farmers’ incomes is a challenge that nations worldwide must address. This study utilizes the 2022 “China Rural Micro-Economic Data” to construct a multidimensional rural transformation index system at the village level, encompassing demographic, land, industrial, social, digital, and ecological transformations. This study evaluates the levels of rural transformation across 15 surveyed provinces in China. Furthermore, it empirically examines the impact of rural transformation on farmers’ incomes, the underlying mechanisms, and the heterogeneity of different transformation models. The findings are as follows: (1) Coastal economically developed regions exhibit higher levels of rural transformation, while inland agricultural provinces show significant lag; (2) Rural transformation effectively promotes the upgrading of agricultural value chains, increases farmers’ market participation, and enhances their access to financial services, thereby boosting farmers’ incomes; and (3) The impact of different transformation models on farmers’ incomes varies significantly; industrial, social, and demographic transformations contribute most prominently to income growth. While digital transformation shows some positive effects, it remains relatively limited. Land and ecological transformations have yet to demonstrate a significant positive impact on farmers’ incomes.

党的二十大报告对社会主义市场经济体制下的企业创新作出了"强化企业科技创新主体地位,发挥科技型骨干企业引领支撑作用"的重要定位与论述.进一步明确"加强企业主导的产学研深度融合,强化目标导向,提高科技成果转化和产业化水平"是企业创新的有效路径和重要目标.

自主创新是涉农企业构建技术壁垒的重要途径,但存在长周期、高风险等问题,单纯依靠市场调节难以实现帕累托最优,必须发挥政府的调控作用.基于此,本文使用SSBM网络-DEA模型测算了我国9959家涉农企业的科技成果转化效率,进而实证检验自主创新对科技成果转化效率的影响,并探究政府行为(政府补助与创新政策)的调节效应.研究结果显示:(1)自主创新对涉农企业科技成果转化效率的影响呈倒"U"型.(2)政府补助与创新政策均正向调节自主创新未超过阈值时对科技成果转化效率的正向影响.但创新政策有助于缓解自主创新超过阈值后对科技成果转化效率的负向影响,而政府补助却未起到相应的缓解作用.研究结论不仅提供了涉农企业开展自主创新活动的证据,还为政府与涉农企业优化自主创新提供了支撑.

[目的]中国是西瓜甜瓜生产和消费大国,其产业发展对于保障城乡居民鲜果消费和带动农户增收非常重要.[方法]文章系统梳理了1961年以后中国西瓜和甜瓜产业变迁史,运用重心模型分析中国西瓜和甜瓜生产重心演变轨迹及优势主产区变化,解析其区域布局变迁背后的影响因素.[结果](1)1961年以来中国西瓜甜瓜产业发展划分为缓慢发展期、快速发展期、全面增长期和结构调整期4个阶段.(2)20世纪90年代以来,中国西瓜生产重心整体比较稳定,向西南移动了196.82 km,中国甜瓜生产重心变化剧烈,整体向西移动了545.64 km.(3)进入21世纪以来,中国西瓜和甜瓜东北优势区地位逐渐下降,西北优势区发展快、潜力大.(4)自然禀赋、科技创新、产业政策及消费需求升级是中国西瓜和甜瓜产业区域布局变化的主要影响因素.[结论]针对中国西瓜甜瓜产业发展面临的现实需求与制约瓶颈,提出未来要提升农业生产"三品一标"能力,加大产业科研资金投入,创新绿色技术,提高机械化水平,加快产销模式变革和业态功能创新,推动西瓜甜瓜产业高质量发展.

Agricultural technology transfers are generally considered an effective means of solving persistently low yields in sub-Saharan Africa. This study assesses the impact of the Chinese agricultural training program on farmers' productivity and income using ex-post non-experimental data from Ogun State, Nigeria. Our empirical approach is based on marginal treatment effect models. We find that the returns for individuals who participated in Chinese agricultural technology training indicated a 68.5% increase in yield and a 45.3% increase in agricultural income. Furthermore, we show that the program targets farmers from advantaged backgrounds, who may benefit less from attending the program than disadvantaged farmers, who experience a lower incentive to participate. Finally, we suggest sufficient awareness and incentives to encourage highly resistant farmers to participate in such programmes.

Recently, COVID-19 pandemic, locust plague, drought and conflict have seriously affected the development of agriculture in Africa, which make Africa countries difficultly to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1 and 2. As the cornerstone of agricultural development, technological progress has made brilliant contributions to achieving food security and nutrition improvement in African countries. And as the largest economic and trade partner of Africa, analyzing the agricultural technology gap between China and African countries and exploring optimal paths also has great significance for achieving SDGs 8 and 9. Therefore, the paper used the Meta-frontier SBM model to measure the agricultural technology gap between China and African countries from 2003 to 2019, and explores sources of the gap. On this basis, 24 African countries were taken as samples to identify multiple paths for narrowing the technology gap between China and Africa with the help of the configuration analysis method of the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results showed that the overall agricultural technology gap between China and Africa was narrowing, which was mainly caused by the reduction of pure technical inefficiency. However, sources of technology gap in African countries with different economic development levels were different. Configuration analysis found that agricultural technology innovation and institutional environment were the key conditional variables to narrow the agricultural technology gap between China and Africa. Five paths had been formed around two key conditional variables, and further summarized into three driving modes: “technology-environment” driving mode, “technology-organization” driving mode and “organization-environment” driving mode. Furthermore, this paper explored the multiple concurrent causality of narrowing the technology gap, which overcomes the deficiency of using regression methods. The paper highlights the importance of enhancing the integration of technical, organizational, and environmental conditions in African countries to collectively advance agricultural scientific and technological progress

The improvement of agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) is crucial to achieve sustainable agricultural development. By matching China’s provincial digital financial inclusion index and agricultural production data from 2011 to 2020, and on the basis of using the DEA–Malmquist productivity index to measure AGTFP, the fixed effect model and Mesomeric effect model are used to empirically test the impact and mechanism of digital financial development on China’s AGTFP. Our research found that from 2011 to 2020, China experienced consistent improvement in AGTFP, which was largely attributed to advancements in technology. Interestingly, the AGTFP in non-major grain-producing areas surpassed that in major grain producing areas. Additionally, digital finance has proven to be an effective tool in boosting China’s AGTFP, the coverage subdimension, the depth of use subdimension and the digitization subdimension all significantly promote the AGTFP. Digital finance can significantly promote the efficiency and progress of agricultural green technology, which shows that digital finance promotes AGTFP in a “dual wheel” driven manner. However, the impact of digital finance on agricultural green technology efficiency and progress is more pronounced in major grain-producing areas than in non-major areas. The impact mechanism demonstrates that digital finance has the potential to stimulate AGTFP in two key ways. First, it can improve the mismatch of agricultural production resources; second, it can promote agricultural technology innovation. Therefore, it is necessary to further promote the rapid development of digital finance, optimize the rational allocation of financial resources, and formulate tailored digital finance development strategies to promote green development of agriculture.

Researchers and policymakers are concerned about the substantial and increasing yield gap between sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world. High-yielding improved varieties are widely perceived as a means to close this gap. This study combines impact evaluation and production analysis techniques, which mitigate estimation biases stemming from observed and unobserved heterogeneity, to estimate the effects of improved varieties on maize productivity using a unique, recent, and nationally representative household survey. A linear endogenous treatment–effect model based on a matched sample obtained from propensity score matching indicated that the improved maize varieties increased yield by 38.7%. Simultaneously, selectivity-corrected and stochastic metafrontier approaches show that the yield advantage of improved varieties is mainly due to technological change; however, the technical efficiency of improved varieties is similar to those of traditional varieties.

Rural Revitalization and urbanization construction have the consistency of objectives and the unity of development, which is an important point to achieve the integrated development. At present, there are many relevant literature studies about that, but few research results are comprehensively and systematically summarized and analyzed. This paper sorts out 1114 documents on urbanization development under the background of the implementation of the Rural Revitalization from 2017 to 2022, research shows that:（1） After the Rural Revitalization Strategy was put forward for the first time in 2017, the number of documents showed an increasing trend year by year, but the relevance of the authors and the issuing institutions was small, which reflected that the content gradually became a fertile soil for scholars to study;（2） The research hotspot shows a concentrated and detailed development trend, and the integration is the focus of the research, while the economic development level, industrial structure and other influencing factors become the main content of the detailed research;（3） Put forward the corresponding research prospects combine with the county urbanization policy guidance.

本文从要素体现式技术进步理论视角强化农业科技进步贡献率测算的理论基础,针对农业科技进步贡献率测算存在的问题,对测算模型和估计方法进行优化调整,进一步将农业技术进步细化分解为中性技术进步、要素增强技术进步等部分,以此来解析中国农业科技进步贡献率结构特征及演变规律.结果显示,1990-2020年中国农业技术进步速度为2.44％,其中中性技术进步速度呈快速上升趋势,并已成为驱动中国农业科技进步的主导力量,物质增强技术进步呈现明显下降趋势,劳动增强技术进步保持平稳上升态势;当前中性、物质、劳动技术进步在农业技术进步中的比重分别为50.7％、32.3％和17.3％,其技术进步贡献率分别为31.3％、23.1％和10.4％;2000-2020,中国农业科技进步贡献率从35％快速上升至超过60％水平,表明我国农业科技工作取得显著成效,农业发展方式已逐步实现由早期的要素依赖型向科技驱动型转变.最后,从加快科技创新步伐、重构农业科技推广体系、加大农业支持保护力度等方面,提出促进中国农业科技进步贡献率水平提升的实现路径.

为厘清农业全要素生产率的演变过程,解决当前关于农业全要素生产率概念不明晰,计算农业全要素生产率时测算方法选择偏误、投入产出指标选取不合理等问题,从农业全要素生产率的概念出发,梳理了农业全要素生产率的演变过程,归纳了非生产前沿面方法、生产前沿面方法及微观核算方法等农业全要素生产率的主要测算方法,并对各种方法的优缺点与适用条件进行了说明,进而提出了现有研究的不足与未来展望.

The carbon trading system affects all aspects of the economy and society profoundly. Agriculture, as a high-carbon-emitting industry, has been hard-hit. China’s agricultural activities will emit about 820 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, accounting for 7% of the country’s total carbon emissions. In order to develop a green and low-carbon economy and control greenhouse gas emissions, China officially launched the pilot carbon emissions trading policy in 2013. The effects and mechanism of this on agricultural carbon emissions are still unclear. Herein, this paper uses China’s provincial panel data from 2000 to 2019 to measure agricultural green total factor productivity regarding the implementation of China’s carbon emissions trading pilot policy in 2013 as a quasi-natural experiment, and uses PSM-DID robustness analysis to evaluate the effect of China’s carbon emission rights trading pilot policy on agricultural green total factor productivity in pilot areas. The propensity score method is a type of statistical method that uses nonexperimental or observational data for intervention-effect analysis, which reduces the effects of bias and allows for more reasonable comparisons between treatment and control groups. “Difference in difference” is an approach to policy-effect evaluation based on a counterfactual framework to assess the change in the observed factors in both cases of policy occurrence and nonoccurrence. PSM-DID is a combination of PSM and DID using the PSM method to match each treatment group sample to a specific control group sample, which can solve the problem of self-selection bias in the DID method and assess the policy implementation effect more accurately. This study found that China’s carbon emissions trading pilot policy has significantly improved China’s agricultural green total factor productivity. Further impact mechanism tests show that China’s carbon emissions trading pilot policy will improve agricultural green total factor productivity through environmental protection policies and technological innovation. Finally, this paper puts forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions based on the research results.

十九届五中全会提出要实施乡村建设行动,村庄基础设施建设对于实现农业农村现代化具有重要意义.目前,中国村庄基础设施建设水平与发展要求有较大差距,二十世纪六七十年代,面临相似困境的韩国,通过新村运动开展村庄基础设施建设,实现村庄基础设施的现代化,助推韩国农村实现高质量发展.本文将韩国村庄基础设施建设分为五个阶段,总结韩国村庄基础设施的建设经验为:政府引导并撬动社会资本,为建设和管护提供强力资金支持;正向激励和培育农民素质相结合,畅通农民意见表达机制;设立建设管护带头人,建立村庄数据库,避免村庄代理问题等.中国村庄基础设施正处在提质增效发展阶段,应提高政府对农村基础设施的资金支持力度,深化农村金融改革;建立正向激励机制,提高农民组织化程度;发挥村庄热心公益乡贤的带头作用,加强政策宣传和提高工作透明度等.

俄乌冲突引发世界对能源安全和粮食安全的担忧,短期内已经导致全球油气、化肥等资源品的供应紧张和价格上涨.我国肥料、管道天然气和原油对俄依赖度较高,分别达27.9％、17.3％和15.5％.这一影响将传导至国内农业生产资料市场及农业生产环节,进一步抬升农业生产成本,挤压农民种粮收益,给我国粮食稳产保供带来潜在的外部冲击.因此,需密切关注俄乌冲突持续升级给国内农资供应及粮食安全造成的短期和长期影响,审时度势、化危为机,立足国内保供稳价,实施进口来源和消费多元化,将外部风险置于可控范围内,让饭碗始终牢牢端在我们自己的手上.

Rice has become the most rapidly growing staple food crop in Nigeria. Despite the country favorable rice production ecology, there is still a huge gap between domestic rice production and consumption patterns. This study uses a two-step stochastic metafrontier model to estimate the performance of rice farms from 2010 to 2019, considering the differences between the North and South rice farms. The results indicate heterogeneity in production technology across farms located in different regions, and that both regions have low technical efficiency. However, Nigeria’s South rice farms were ranked better based on managerial issues rather than technological gaps. To attain self-sufficiency in rice production as proposed in its national plan, there is room for improvement of technical efficiency and output production at current production levels in the country’s rice farms.