What influences the formation of China’s agricultural collaborative innovation network? An ERGM approach

As driving forces in agricultural development, science and technology, along with innovation in agricultural science and technology, are crucial to food security and socioeconomic development. The National Modern Agricultural Demonstration Zone is a major initiative of the Chinese government to promote the modernization of agriculture with Chinese characteristics and aims to improve the level of regional agricultural development through policy guidance and financial support. However, few studies have explored the impact of the National Modern Agricultural Demonstration Zone on agricultural science and technology innovation from a policy perspective. In this context, this study is based on the panel data of 696 regions in China from 2007 to 2017. Difference-in-differences is used to study the impact and mechanism of the National Modern Agricultural Demonstration Zone on agricultural science and technology innovation. The results show that the National Modern Agricultural Demonstration Zone policy can significantly improve the level of agricultural science and technology innovation, and the impact effect is more significant in regions with high fiscal autonomy, western regions, and those with better transportation infrastructure. Mechanism analysis shows that the National Modern Agricultural Demonstration Zone enhances agricultural science and technology innovation mainly through increasing financial resource allocation, improving financial support for agriculture, and increasing human capital. This study evaluates the policy effects, provides theoretical support for the public value of the National Modern Agricultural Demonstration Zone, and offers lessons for agricultural science and technology innovation in similar economies in China and worldwide.

Collaborative innovation: a technological perspective

The innovation of Agricultural Science and Technology is the key factor in agricultural development, and agricultural technological innovation needs financial support. The current reality difficulties of lacking funds in agricultural technology transformation in China, urgently need to establish a suitable agricultural technology innovation fund, which perfect fit with the reality. This paper compared the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Agency and relevant national Fund and other development trends from the international perspective, and put forward evolutionary path of Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Fund (ASTIF) in China. We think they must deepen three paths for Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Fund in raising, supporting and regulation aspect in China.

At present, the fundamental development way of agricultural production lies in science and technology to achieve the agricultural sustainable and stable development and ensure the effective supply of agricultural products for a long time. Many Chinese scholars had done many researches about the agricultural science and technology innovation. Numerous scholars got much valuable research conclusions for improving the construction of agricultural science and technology innovation system. However, there were still some problems existing in the current agricultural science research system, such as that the agricultural science and technology studies were divorced from the agricultural production, the mechanism of the market was still imperfect, there was an unreasonable layout in the agricultural science and technology. Therefore, we wanted to know the dynamic and the evolution path of the international agricultural science and technology innovation. What is more, we wanted to know whether there was a significant difference between the domestic and overseas agricultural science and technology innovation and if the international experience was good for the development of the Chinese agricultural science and technology innovation. So, there was analysed the research theme, the hot-spots and frontiers of international agricultural science and technology innovation based on the Citespace III to get the situation and character of the relevant international research.

In view of various problems emerged from operation mechanism of the Beijing-Hebei intelligent agricultural science and technology collaborative innovation, combined with the characteristics of product-education-research work, UML modeling technology was adopted to study the corresponding software system for Beijing-Hebei intelligent agricultural science and technology collaborative innovation. First of all, through analyzing the main target function of the system, the role and users of every participant, including universities, scientific research institutions, enterprises, towns and villages, governments and system administrators, were designed by use case diagram. Then, the data flow and interaction between each other was deeply analyzed and described by E-R diagram, , including 8 aspects: "user- role- authority" mechanism model, "product-education-research" collaboration model, experimental field and data collection model, scientific achievements and research team model, teaching feedback model, "project-technology-product" model, policy interpretation model, management model. Finally, the architecture diagram of the system was constructed, which provides the design basis for the software platform development.

In the face of increasingly severe resource and environmental constraints, accelerating the transformation of agricultural green development through agricultural science and technology innovation is an effective measure to reduce agricultural pollution and improve agricultural production efficiency. From the perspective of multidimensional proximity, this paper expounds the mechanism of agricultural science and technology innovation on agricultural green development through spatial spillover from two perspectives: factor spillover path and product spillover path. Based on panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2019, using the gray correlation analysis method, the level of agricultural green development in China was measured, and its spatial–temporal evolution trend was analyzed. The spatial economic matrix was selected as the spatial weight matrix, and the spatial econometric model was used to analyze the spatial spillover effect of agricultural science and technology innovation on agricultural green development. The results showed the following: (1) Agricultural green development had distinct spatial characteristics. The development level of green agriculture in eastern and northwestern China showed a trend of fluctuation decline, while that in southwest China showed a trend of fluctuation increase. The overall spatial distribution of green agriculture was high in the east and low in the west. (2) The spatial distribution of agricultural science, technological innovation and the agricultural green development level showed a significant positive global spatial autocorrelation, and the local spatial pattern characteristics of a number of provinces showed high-value agglomeration (HH), low-value agglomeration (LL), low-value collapse (LH) and high-value bulge (HL) as the auxiliary local spatial distribution. (3) Under the economic matrix, the improvement of the agricultural science and technology innovation level not only had a significant promoting effect on agricultural green development within each province but also promoted agricultural green development in neighboring provinces through positive spillover effects. This study provides insights that can help make up for the lack of regional agricultural science and technology investment, formulate scientific regional agricultural science and technology innovation policies and promote agricultural green development.

In order to achieve sustainable development of agriculture, people have gradually begun to attach importance to the development of low-carbon agriculture and to regard green agricultural technology innovation and promotion as increasingly more important. Taking the Anhui Province of China as an example, this study analyzed the impact of green agricultural science and technology innovation resource allocation on rural revitalization by constructing an econometric model. We found that the overall efficiency of the overall allocation of agricultural science and technology innovation resources in Anhui Province increased in the sample period, but the scale efficiency level was relatively low. The key path to improving the overall efficiency of allocation was to improve the scale efficiency level. The allocation of agricultural science and technology innovation resources in 16 cities and prefectures performed well in terms of pure technical efficiency, but there were significant differences in scale efficiency, which further affected the overall allocation efficiency of different regions. Among them, the allocation efficiencies of agricultural science and technology innovation resources in Hefei and Fuyang were at the leading level in Anhui Province. Similar to the overall situation of the province, the improvement path of areas with low comprehensive efficiency lay in the improvement of scale efficiency. In view of this, from the policy level, we need to optimize the relationship between the government and the market, speed up the construction of platforms and carriers, attach importance to the construction of the agricultural science and technology talent training system, and improve the open sharing mechanism.

Based on the perspective of the value chain of agricultural science and technology innovation, in this paper, we divided the process of agricultural science and technology innovation into two stages: the Research and Development (R&D) of agricultural technology and the application of agricultural technology. We took the efficiency of agricultural science and technology innovation of the two stages as a comprehensive index measure for the development of agricultural science and technology innovation in China. On this basis, we used social network analysis to establish a two-stage spatial correlation network for the innovation development of agricultural science and technology in China. The spatial-temporal evolution trends, structural characteristics, and influencing factors of the network were analyzed from the three aspects of the overall, local, and individual network structure. The results show that: a. The development of agricultural science and technology innovation in China demonstrated a clear spatial correlation and spillover effect, and the spatial correlation network was in a connected state. b. The network had the distribution characteristics of ‘core-edge’ and strong stability, and the hierarchical structure of the members of each province in the network was gradually broken. c. The differences at the market level in agricultural science and technology, the differences in government support for agriculture, the geographically adjacent relationships, and the level of agricultural economic development were important factors affecting the spatial correlation of agricultural science and technology innovation. This study provides a policy reference to use a cross-regional coordinated development mechanism to solve the uneven and asymmetry problem of the distribution of elements in various regions in China.

Contemporary agricultural science and technology is under great scrutiny. Understanding the past and current trends of Agricultural science and technology is crucial. Fuyang city is one of the Chinese traditional big agricultural cities and the largest city in terms of population in Anhui province, China. In the study, an index system for the development and innovation levels of agricultural science and technology was established and the regional innovation of current agricultural science and technology in Fuyang city was empirically evaluated and analyzed by using the index system based on the existing annual data available. The purpose of this study was to make an objective analysis and evaluation of the sub-area innovation levels among urban districts and counties in Fuyang city. All the data was processed and transformed simultaneously based on the same scales of social-economic index and next analyzed based on the methods of factor analysis in view of dimension reduction. Finally, the comprehensive evaluation was carried out and the scores was ranked as followed by Linquan county, Yingshang county, Funan county, Taihe county, Jieshou county, Yingzhou district, Yingquan district and Yingdong district. It is concluded that the innovation level of Fuyang city is unbalanced with two main features. Firstly, on the whole, the city’s innovation is rather active with supports from subordinate districts and counties, but the innovation levels of subordinate counties are better than those of urban districts in view of the quantities and activities of agricultural science and technology innovation. Higher levels of agricultural science and technology innovation are seen in the natural growing zones. Secondly, in consideration of agricultural science and technology innovation, the different indicators of counties and districts in Fuyang city have shown their own advantages and disadvantages, especially on specific negative principal component score which shows that the corresponding defects on specific principal components. That is, the district or county are relatively backward in corresponding index of agricultural science and technology innovation and even some of the principal component factor have become the bottleneck of these districts or counties for innovation and sustainable development.

It is urgent for China to introduce a series of institutional and policy supports to realize the goals of the roadmap for agricultural science and technology by 2050. To enable the agricultural science and technology in China to develop smoothly in line with the proposed roadmap and achieve the expected results in the five major areas of science and technology: plant germplasm resources and modern breeding, animal germplasm and modern breeding, saving resource uses, agriculture production and food safety, and modernization and intelligentization. To realize the overall goals of the roadmap for agricultural science and technology by 2050, it is urgent for China to establish a new agricultural science and technology innovation system, increase investment in agricultural science and technology, improve the investment priority in agricultural science and technology, and cultivate a large number of talented and innovative teams to enhance the autonomy of agricultural science and technology innovation. Specifically, the existing institutional and policy system of agricultural science and technology development needs reform, adjustment and improvement in the following areas.

This study focuses on 19 provinces in the Yangtze River Basin of China. It gathers relevant data indicators from 2010 to 2021 and constructs an evaluation index system centered on agricultural science and technology innovation. The study evaluates the relationship between agricultural “science and technology innovation-economy-ecology” systems and identifies key obstacle factors using the obstacle degree model. The study draws the following conclusions: Firstly, the comprehensive development level index of the agricultural science and technology innovation system shows an overall linear upward trend (values range from 0.121 to 0.382). Secondly, the comprehensive development level index of the agricultural economic system exhibits an upward trend but with a relatively small overall magnitude (values range from 0.248 to 0.322). Thirdly, the comprehensive development level index of the agricultural ecological system demonstrates significant overall fluctuations, with notable regional disparities (values range from 0.384 to 0.414). Fourthly, the overall agricultural SEE (Science and technological innovation, Economy, Ecology) complex system exhibits a characteristic of “high coupling, low coordination”, identifying the main obstacle factors influencing agricultural SEECS based on a formulated approach. Subsequently, the following policy recommendations are proposed: Firstly, enhance the agricultural technological innovation system and promote green and efficient agricultural technology research and development. Secondly, to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of modern agriculture, achieving green and high-quality development of the agricultural economy. Thirdly, to strengthen agricultural ecological environment protection, laying a solid foundation for the healthy and sustainable development of agriculture.

Agricultural science and technology policies (ASTPs) have played a pivotal role in shaping agricultural innovation, sustainability, and cleaner production practices. Understanding how ASTPs diffuse is essential for optimizing policy design and advancing the green transition in agriculture. This study aims to investigate the diffusion of ASTPs in China, using a quantitative citation-based approach. The goal is to explore diffusion patterns, topic characteristics, and historical trajectories of ASTPs, thereby providing insights into policy transmission mechanisms that can inform future policy improvements. We analyze 3207 ASTP documents, focusing on policy citation links to examine the distribution, diffusion characteristics, and dynamics of policies. The analysis includes tracking topic evolution and identifying key policies while estimating the main diffusion paths. The results show that the top-down diffusion model is the dominant pattern of policy transmission, exhibiting the highest diffusion speed and both short- and long-term impacts. ASTPs have progressively expanded toward industrialization, informatization, and green development, with increased policy transmission efficiency. The diffusion process has formed three primary pathways: (i) enhancing agricultural innovation capacity, (ii) accelerating the transformation of technological achievements, and (iii) improving the agricultural science and technology innovation system. These pathways are critical to advancing sustainable and cleaner agricultural production. This study provides valuable insights into the diffusion of ASTPs and highlights key pathways for policy optimization. The findings suggest that enhancing policy frameworks and improving policy implementation efficiency will be crucial for facilitating the transition toward sustainable, low-carbon, and environmentally friendly agricultural practices. Future research should refine data sources and incorporate semantic analysis to capture more detailed policy transmission mechanisms.

To explore the conducive to China’s agricultural science and technology park of input and output of the related strategy and promote agricultural supply side structural reform in China, we use cobb-douglas production function model, combined with stepwise regression and principal component regression method, the analysis of 2015–2017 China national agricultural science and technology park enterprise data. We summarized the relationship between the input and output by cobb-douglas production function. The investment of labor force and capital investment and the annual output value were positive correlation, but the elasticity coefficient of labor input three years to show the trend of increasing year by year. Elasticity coefficient of capital in three years presents a decreasing trend year by year. By stepwise regression and principal component regression method, you can see that is not the total amount of investment. The greater the output, the more technology innovation factors will become the future main factors influencing the development of the national agricultural science and technology park. Therefore, China should strengthen agricultural science and technology innovation, cultivate agricultural science and technology talents. Develop agricultural science and technology innovation projects, so as to promote China’s agricultural supply-side structural reform.

Agricultural technology is key to ensuring food security. Innovation in agricultural technology plays a vital role in increasing national food production. Collaborative innovation has become an essential form of technological innovation in the new era. Although there has been a large body of literature exploring the influencing factors on technological innovation, how tie strength dispersion within inter-organizational networks affects agricultural technological innovation has not been systematically studied. In this research, we use a cooperative network to investigate how relational divisive faultlines caused by the uneven distribution of the strength of inter-organizational relationships affects agricultural technological innovation through the subgroup structure, and the moderating role of position embeddedness. This article uses the Derwent Innovations Index to select agricultural technology joint patent applications from 2000 to 2018 to build a cooperation network, and uses multiple linear regression to conduct an empirical analysis. The empirical results show that the relational divisive faultlines have a positive effect on the subgroup structure. There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between the subgroup structure and agricultural technological innovation. The initial stage of subgroup formation can transmit the information between the subgroups in time and promote the efficiency of agricultural technological innovation. However, as the degree of subgroup cohesion increases, the phenomenon of “in-group” and “out-of-group” will be formed, which will inhibit information exchange, having a negative impact on agricultural technological innovation. In addition, positional embeddedness has a significant positive moderating effect between relational divisive faultlines and agricultural technological innovation. This research provides a theoretical basis for understanding how the overall network relationship strength distribution affects technological innovation by exploring the micro-process of the structural changes of the cooperation network. Moreover, it has specific guiding significance for the organization to participation in a cooperation network to improve the efficiency of agricultural technological innovation.

Construction and Empirical Analysis of Agricultural Science and Technology Enterprises Investment Risk Evaluation Index System