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Increasing agricultural productivity and reducing carbon emissions are two major challenges that China faces. This paper explores how agricultural insurance affects agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) that addresses these two challenges. First, we adopt DDF-GML to measure AGTFP, and the Dagum's Gini decompositions results show the large differences in AGTFP, with transvariation between subregions contributing the most. Second, we find the U-shaped effect of agricultural insurance on AGTFP in a large country context. The result remains robust after adjusting for time, sample and estimation method of AGTFP. We also construct instrumental variables from the minimum distance from the centroid of counties within a province to the 45 ports in China and two-stage lagged agricultural insurance penetration (AIP) for AIP, and their squares as instrumental variables for AIP2. The conclusion remains robust in 2SLS model. Third, the findings confirm three channels for agricultural insurance to influence the AGTFP: environmentally friendly production, labor inputs and operation scale. We further propose policy advice to promote China's agricultural modernization and point out further research directions in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is one of the three major industries in China, and its level of development occupies an important position in the development of the national economy. At present, China vigorously promotes the strategy of rural revitalization, which provides new opportunities for agricultural modernization. Since modern agriculture and regional economy are coupled in a mutually influencing and constraining relationship, this paper constructs a coupled and coordinated evaluation index system of agricultural modernization and regional economic development. Using the entropy value method and coupled coordination degree model, the comprehensive development level and coordinated development degree of agricultural modernization and regional economic development of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and cities in China from 2011 to 2020 were evaluated, revealing the time evolution and spatial distribution characteristics of the two systems. The results show that: (1) In the past decade, China's agricultural modernization and regional economy have made some progress in terms of their respective development levels and the degree of coupling and coordination between them. (2) In terms of spatial evolution, there are obvious regional differences between the two systems, and the coupling coordination degree shows a "ladder" distribution pattern from the east to the central, northeastern, and western parts of the country. (3) Regions with a high level of regional economic development also have a relatively high degree of coupling and coordination between agricultural modernization and regional economic development. Our results provide insights into the economic effects of agricultural modernization in China and provide useful insights into the future direction of agricultural development programs in countries around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper adopts the data of 30 provincial-level regions in China from 2000 to 2016 (in which the data of Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Tibet are not collected), builds the "fourmodernization" (industrialization, informatization, urbanization, agricultural modernization) index system, calculates the four- modernization index, and conducts regional fourmodernization evaluation. Through the OLS and GMM regression models, the influence of the development of the four modernizations on the water footprint intensity is investigated, and the interaction between the four modernizations is set to identify the interaction between the four indicators. The main conclusions of this study are as follows: Firstly, from the perspective of regional development differences at the level of four modernizations, the level of China's four modernizations generally shows that the eastern region is better than the central region, and the central region is better than the western region. The distribution of water footprint intensity is similar. There may be a correlation between the level of development and the intensity of water footprint. Secondly, the econometric model shows that the improvement of the four modernizations has a positive impact on the improvement of water footprint intensity, but the impact of each modernization is different. Thirdly, the influence of the four- modernization interaction on the water footprint intensity is positive, indicating that the improvement effect of the four- modernization development on the water footprint intensity gradually converges. Therefore, priority is given to raising the level of the four modernizations in the backward areas. The improvement of the level of the four modernizations promotes the reduction of water footprint intensity and can effectively reduce the overall water footprint intensity level in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture, countryside and peasantry have been priority concerns of the Chinese government, with land and agriculture being the most crucial. With a growing population, less arable land and often relatively low-quality land, Chinese peasant agriculture has been undergoing a form of modernization. While peasants enjoy land-contract rights as a result of the Household Responsibility System ( HRS), the state has been promoting transfer of land-use rights in order to promote modern agriculture. This paper seeks to understand recent developments in land and agriculture, particularly exploring the transitions of land and agricultural institutions since 1949 and land transfers since the HRS. In so doing, this paper reveals that the state has been strategically responding to various challenges in order that land institutions and policies are always geared to achieving agricultural modernization. During the state's continual drive for modernizations, particularly agricultural modernization, peasants' livelihood is impacted and needs to be protected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of dual economic structure, there occurs shift of numerous rural surplus labors in China. As a special group lingering about in the edges of urban and rural areas, the new generation farmers become a hot spot of research. How to help them smoothly become successors of China's agricultural modernization construction is a focus of academic circles. Based on literature review, this paper analyzed connotation of development capability of new generation farmers from agricultural modernization, thinking ability construction, system and policy, and new farmers. Finally, it came up with prospect for development of new generation farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid-2000s, rural development and politics in China has entered a new phase that revolves around what the central government calls 'agricultural modernization'. Transforming the once-dominant smallholding, family-based agriculture has become a focal point of the government's programme of rural rejuvenation, where a range of economic changes unleashed by urbanization and industrialization also converge. We argue that in this new context, agrarian change has become the key vantage point from which to study rural China. We review key contributions of the papers in this special issue and highlight their insights on rural differentiation, land politics and rural livelihoods. We discuss how studying the ' Chinese path' of agrarian transition can contribute to ongoing debates on key themes in agrarian studies, including both the agrarian questions of capital and of labour, and how agrarian political economy offers unique perspectives on the overall processes of capitalist development in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the survey on agricultural technolog extension system in Hanjiang District of Yanghou City, this paper analyzed possible problems in the agricultural technolog extension system. Combining with newly revised Agricultural Technology Extension Law and modem agricultural extension theory, it discussed the new development direction. Finally, it came up with approaches and measures for establishing the agicultural technolog extension system in Hanjiang District. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expanded agricultural trade deficit in recent years concern about the international competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products. In this paper, guided by Michael Porter's diamond model theory, based on agricultural production and trade data in China and the world from 1986 to 2011, we use principal component analysis, cointegration and vector error correction model, to perform an empirical analysis of the impact of agricultural modernization , economic growth and industrialization on the international competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products. The results show that China's agricultural modernization is slow, the demand for agricultural products caused by economic growth is increased, and excessive rural labor transfer due to industrialization leads to decline in the international competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products. China should increase its efforts to promote the modernization of agriculture and level of industry nurturing agriculture ; use WTO rules to create a good international and domestic environment for the development of China's agriculture and improvement of the international competitiveness of agricultural products; give full play to the role of demand n boosting the industrial upgrading of domestic agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the data related to the Chinese and world agricultural production and trade from 1986 to 2011, this paper uses the principal component analysis, cointegration and vector error correction model to perform the empirical analysis of the impact of processing, import and export of agricultural products on the agricultural modernization in China. The results show that the processing and export of agricultural products play a role in promoting the agricultural modernization in China, while the import of agricultural products has some negative effects on the agricultural modernization in China. The negative effects of the import of agricultural products are from the limitations of farmers' small-scale operation and foreign trading partners' protectionism. China should further develop the processing industry of agricultural products, and strengthen the role of downstream industries in promoting the agricultural modernization; improve the level of large-scale and intensive operation, and make good use of WTO rules, in order to provide the necessary market conditions for the agricultural modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Powerful forces of agrarian change are at work in western China while the government has stepped up efforts to “modernize” agriculture. Major components of the modernization process are to disseminate improved crop and livestock breeds and adjust changing agricultural structures including a shift from staple food crops to more specialized crop-livestock systems. This paper explores the changing role of agriculture and the impacts of new agricultural structures on household livelihoods through a detailed model of farm households. The model aids understanding of the complex dynamics and choices faced by farm households that consume much of their own food production but who are under great pressure to specialize and engage in more commercial activities both on- and off-farm. The model draws on detailed information and case studies in Tibet, a region that reflects the marginal productivity, ethnic diversity, rudimentary market systems and development challenges of much of western China. The model results demonstrate that even in the context of agrarian change, agriculture continues to play a significant role in the livelihoods of these Tibetan farm households. They also highlight how mooted specialization paths, despite significantly increasing household returns, fundamentally change the nature of these farm and household systems and risks faced by these households. The detailed modelling enables identification of tight labour constraints, feed gaps and other changes to farm and household systems brought about by the specialization. Such information is crucial in guiding refinements to marketing systems and institutional and policy settings needed to strengthen and smooth out the process of agrarian transition in western China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper examines the political trajectory of agribusiness firms called 'dragon head enterprises' in China's ongoing agri-food transformations. It starts from the premise that state and private elites in China are working together to consolidate a robust domestic agribusiness sector, as both an arena for national-level rural and economic development, and a new frontier for access to resources and markets abroad. Through analyses of policy documents, market share data and ethnographic materials, I explore the organization and operation of dragon heads in the pork sector. My findings reveal that agribusiness development in China's pork sector is largely domestic, has a mixed state-private form and tends to marginalize the foreign-based TNCs that have been the most powerful actors in the global agri-food system to date. I argue that China is not only a destination for 'external' transnational capital, but also a site of agribusiness development in its own right. This has important implications for analysing capitalist transformations and for engaging global agri-food politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]