A Win–Win Scenario for Agricultural Green Development and Farmers’ Agricultural Income: An Empirical Analysis Based on the EKC Hypothesis

Yuanying Chi,Xu Wang,Feng Jin,Yangmei Xu,Jialin Li

doi:10.3390/su13158278

Abstract

Due to severe resource and environmental constraints, agricultural green development is a vital step for the low-carbon development of China. How to achieve the goal of a win–win scenario that simultaneously improves agricultural green total factor productivity (GTFP) and farmers’ agricultural income was the main focus of this study. Based on the panel dataset for 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2018, this study calculated the agricultural GTFP using the global Malmquist–Luenberger (GML) index to measure the green development of agriculture. Furthermore, this study investigated the relationship between the agricultural GTFP and agricultural income in an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) framework, together with the key factors affecting agricultural GTFP. The main results show that, first, driven by technical progress, the agricultural GTFP gradually increased across the country, while there existed a certain degree of heterogeneity in the growth of different regions. Second, the relationships between the agricultural GTFP and agricultural income exhibited a significant U-shape for the whole country and the four regions, indicating that a win–win scenario can be achieved between green development and income level. Third, industrialization and urbanization negatively affected agricultural GTFP, capital deepening played a positive role, and due to the mediated effect of capital deepening, the outflow of the agricultural labor force did not cause substantial harm to agricultural GTFP. The findings of our study provide useful policy implications for the promotion and development of agriculture in China.

Highlights

Multiple achievements were obtained by China’s agricultural reform, making significant contributions to the development of the world’s agriculture
For the purpose of measuring the environmental pressure caused by agricultural production, ECR-greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were calculated for each type of energy consumption, including the production or use of diesel oil, electricity, agricultural machinery, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, and plastic films
The results indicate that technical progress had a positive impact on the overall agricultural green total factor productivity (GTFP), and the loss of technical efficiency played a negative role

Summary

Introduction

Multiple achievements were obtained by China’s agricultural reform, making significant contributions to the development of the world’s agriculture. The early stage of development of China’s agricultural sector mainly relied on the substantial consumption of fossil fuels, which brought a large amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and environmental degradation. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) highlighted that the agricultural sector accounts for 30% of GHG emissions due to human activities [1]. China’s agricultural sector accounts for approximately 11% of global agricultural.

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Discussion

Conclusion