Towards sustainable development: research on the green growth effect of digital agriculture in China.

Abstract

With the rapid development of the Internet, modern agricultural digital technology will play a more critical role in the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture. In this paper, we used China's provincial data to examine the impact factors of digital transformation of agriculture and agricultural green total factor productivity indicators using the entropy value method and the SBM-GML index method from 2013 to 2019. We investigated the impact of digital agriculture on green agricultural growth using methods such as the fixed effects model and mediated effects model. Our findings suggest that green growth in agriculture is driven by the digital transformation of agriculture. It significantly enhances green technology innovation, agricultural scale operation, and agricultural cultivation structure optimization, thus contributing to green growth. Notably, the digital agricultural infrastructure and industrialization level catalyzed green agricultural development, while the role of digital agricultural subject quality could have been more significant. Therefore, strengthening the rural digital infrastructure and improving rural human capital promote sustainable agricultural development.