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Many of the world's less developed regions may not be able to improve the well-being of rural residents through agricultural revitalization because of their remoteness from agricultural markets. Using the county-level data set of China's underdeveloped old revolutionary base areas from 2010 to 2021, this paper takes the policy planning of rural e-commerce as event intervention to investigate the driving role of the digital product market on agricultural economic development. Empirical results show that rural e-commerce planning policy has significantly promoted the agricultural added value of the pilot counties, and the digital market is the key driving factor of the agricultural economic growth in these underdeveloped areas. Both food production and livestock output have increased significantly as a result of e-commerce policies. Considering the potential bias of the bidirectional fixed effect estimators of staggered differences-in-differences (DID), this study uses heterogeneous robust estimators to verify the growth effect of the agricultural economy. Specifically, digital agricultural markets have significantly promoted agricultural mechanization and significantly improved agricultural total factor productivity. Moreover, empirical evidence does not support transmission mechanisms for off-farm employment and agricultural entrepreneurship. The findings can help less developed countries and regions develop policies to expand the agricultural markets with digital dividends, thereby promoting the development of the agricultural economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of the green transformation of the national economy, this paper takes Jiangsu Province as a case study to explore spatiotemporal characteristics of cultivated land utilization green transformation (CLUGT) and its impact on agricultural economic growth (AEG). In this study, a composite index method and a panel regression model are employed, and the findings of this study indicate that: (1) From 2001 to 2021, the CLUGT index exhibited a modest upward trend, registering an average annual growth rate of 7.12%. (2) The CLUGT displayed significant spatial heterogeneity in the study area. High and medium-high-level areas demonstrated significant clustering, primarily concentrated in the central and northern regions of Jiangsu, while low and medium-low-level areas were primarily located in the southern part of the province. (3) The CLUGT exerted a positive impact on AEG. Specifically, for each one-unit increase in the CLUGT index, the AEG index rose by 0.575. Further analysis indicated that for every one unit of increase in the functional and mode transformation dimensions of CLUGT, the AEG index increased by 0.391 and 0.368, respectively, whereas a one-unit increase in the spatial transformation dimension of CLUGT was associated with a 0.169 decrease in the AEG index. Based on these findings, the study advocates for policies that champion the functional and pattern transformation of CLUGT and prioritize the spatial governance of cultivated land to enhance the contribution of CLUGT to AEG. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effectively implementing innovations in agri-food supply chains (AFSCs) is contingent upon stakeholders' preferences. Using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), the objective of this research was to ascertain the degree of willingness among farmers, consumers, and various stakeholders (including processing companies, restaurants, and retailers) in the tomato supply chain of Catalonia (Spain) to shorten the chain and promote local procurement. Based on a set of social, economic, and environmental criteria encompassing sustainability in AFSCs, the results showed that economic factors, particularly profitability and affordability, were the key driving factors in the decisions of stakeholders. However, the considerable importance placed on strategic attributes, including local production, environmental sustainability, and product quality, particularly among consumers, seemed to present a chance to advocate for sustainable alternatives, such as short food supply chains (SFSCs). The AHP methodology facilitates differentiation with respect to the criteria of the decision-making process and serves as a valuable instrument for evaluating the reception of innovations within the AFSC and categorizing the stakeholders who exhibit the greatest interest in them. In order to improve the sustainability of agri-food systems, our findings may be incorporated into strategic plans developed by policymakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is a crucial resource for agricultural development in the Yellow River Basin. However, the effects of water shortages on the region's agricultural development are becoming increasingly evident, creating a need to examine the relationship between agricultural water use (AWU) and the agricultural economy. This study uses panel vector autoregression to analyze the relationship between AWU and the agricultural economy in the Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River Basin from 1998 to 2018. The results indicate the following: (1) AWU in the Inner Mongolia section of the Yellow River Basin significantly declined during the study period, showing clear differences in the AWU's effectiveness among regions; (2) agriculture in the region stabilized after significant growth, and the share of primary-sector industries in the national economy also stabilized after significant decline; (3) in the long run, AWU and the agricultural economy become cointegrated with the AWU Granger-causing agricultural economy. By deepening our understanding of agricultural water demand in the Yellow River Basin, these findings provide theoretical justification for establishing water-conserving irrigation systems and making sustainable use of water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of agricultural technologies in developing economy countries has the potential to reduce poverty through sustainable intensification. Mechanized farming can also improve perceptions of farming and mitigate rural out-migration. However, many traditional farmers do not have access to machinery and/or machinery is cost prohibitive. The objective of this paper is to quantify how the use of machinery affects costs, revenue, net-profits, and returns on investment for a case study of farmers in Sudan, Africa. A treatment control study (N = 36) was performed across the 2019 (baseline), 2020, and 2021 farming seasons, where the treatment group was provided tractors. ANOVAs and t-tests were used to compare financial values between these groups across the farming seasons, to quantify economic differences associated with farming machinery. We show that all farmers had similar net-profits when farming without machinery, while mechanized farming yielded significantly higher net-profits (USD 16.61/acre more in 2020, USD 27.10/acre more in 2021). Our study also finds that the volatility of the black-market exchange rate and labor shortages have a significant impact on farming net-profits. These results provide a quantified difference between farming with and without machinery, which can provide a financial basis for purchasing and borrowing models, machinery design requirements, and educational value to farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global warming by 2 °C or above will frequently see weather beyond the critical tolerance threshold for agricultural extreme high temperatures. If so, people will have to more accurately evaluate the opportunities and risks posed by future climate change while adjusting the structure of agricultural production. However, accurate assessment results of the impacts of climate change on crop yield are absent in the current studies on the impact of climate change on the agricultural economy. To address this gap, this paper sets forth a comprehensive evaluation method using a crop model coupled with a computable general equilibrium model. According to research findings, future climate change may continue with the trend of the continued decline of grain planting areas and the continued growth of cash crop planting areas in ecologically vulnerable regions. This will make grain security more difficult. On one hand, perennial crop planting broadens the eco-space for future economic and social development in ecologically vulnerable regions. Therefore, attention should be paid to grain security. The cash crop planting area should not be excessively expanded. On the other hand, it is advised to plant perennial crops in those areas which are unsuitable for planting cash crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation and deployment of digital technologies throughout the agro-food system contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goal nine. However, various digitalization studies offer limited insight into the policy issues and solutions around emerging technologies and big data systems in agriculture. There is a need for an additional understanding of how agricultural policymaking should respond to the usage of digital technologies in the agri-food sector. Furthermore, evidence is limited on how existing agricultural government programs such as land reform can be linked with digitalization policy. This systematic review of literature sought to determine the transformation that is needed in the political and economic environment for the digital revolution to take place within South African land reform agriculture. A thematic analysis of data sampled from ProQuest Central, Scopus, Dimensions, and Google Scholar reveals five areas of intervention from agricultural policymaking. The digital revolution in agriculture can be brought about by transforming digital infrastructure, data interoperability and governance, digital markets, the compatibility of government incentives with the private sector, and the digital cultural landscape. This essay contributes to agricultural policy and decision-making dialogues that pay attention to digital technologies and land reform programs in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2011 to 2020, this paper first constructs an index system through the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) model and conducts a comprehensive evaluation of China's agricultural environment according to the entropy weight TOPSIS model. Second, a coupling coordination degree model is established to calculate the degree of coupling coordination between the agricultural economy and the environment in each province. Finally, a spatial Durbin model is established to analyze the influencing factors of China's agricultural economy. Results show that: ① the overall environment in the eastern region has little change, and the overall level is relatively backward; the agricultural environment in the central region is uneven; the agricultural environment in the western region is quite different from north to south. ② The regions with a high level of coupling coordination are mainly concentrated in the central and southern regions, and the performance is relatively intensive. The agricultural economy and the environment in the western region are extremely uncoordinated, and as is the overall coupling coordination between the agricultural economy and the environment in the eastern region in general. Further improvement is also needed. ③ Fixed asset investment, total power of agricultural machinery, rural electricity consumption, rural population, and rural per capita disposable income all have important influences on China's agricultural economy. ④ The rural population size has a positive and the largest effect on the agricultural economy, whereas rural per capita disposable income has a negative effect on the agricultural economy. Moreover, improving farmers' enthusiasm for farming is one of the key issues to be solved urgently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drip irrigation has long been proven beneficial for fruit and vegetable crops in Pakistan, but the only barrier in its adoption is the high cost of installation for small landholders, which is due to overdesigning of the system. In the present study, the cost of a conventional drip irrigation system was reduced by redesigning and eliminating the heavy filtration system (i.e., hydrocyclon, sand media, disc filters (groundwater source), pressure gauges, water meters, and double laterals).Purchasing the drip system from local vendors also reduced the cost. Field trials were conducted during 2015 and 2016 to observe the productive and economic effects of low-cost drip irrigation on vegetables (potato, onion, and chilies) and fruits (olive, peach, and citrus). The low-cost drip irrigation system saved 50% cost of irrigation and increased 27–54% net revenue in comparison with the furrow irrigation system. Further, water use efficiency (WUE) was found from 3.91–13.30 kg/m3 and 1.28–4.89 kg/m3 for drip irrigation and furrow irrigation systems, respectively. The physical and chemical attributes of vegetables and fruits were also improved to a reasonably good extent. The present study concluded that low-cost drip irrigation increased the yield by more than 20%, as compared with traditional furrow irrigation, and thus, it is beneficial for the small landholders (i.e., less than 2 hectares). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural labor force, agricultural economy, and farmland use are momentous components of sustainable development in rural areas, as well as essential causes of drastic changes in the urban–rural transformation. This paper studies the spatial–temporal characteristics of the labor–farmland–economy coupling structure from 2000 to 2018 in rural areas of Chongqing using spatial analysis technology. The study has four main results. First and foremost, not only has the average annual rate of the agricultural labor force in Chongqing reduced by 3.73%, but the reduction rates in Jiangbei District, Dadukou District, Nan'an District, Shapingba District, and Yubei District have exceeded 15%. Then, the average annual rate of the agricultural economy has increased by 9.32%, but it has been in a downward trend in Dadukou District, Jiangbei District, and Shapingba Districts. Furthermore, the average annual decline rate of farmland area is 0.34% with larger reduction occurring in the nine of the central urban districts, Chengkou County and Wushan County. Ultimately, there have been 33 districts and counties with the temporal–spatial characteristics of labor–farmland–economy coupling above primary coordination, which includes 16 districts and counties reaching a high coordination. This provides theoretical and methodical supports for the coordinated development of human and land industries in different regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid expansion of agricultural areas in semi-arid China over the past decades has aggravated the imbalance of the agroeconomy and agroecological environment. To further understand the coupling relationship between the two, this paper, taking Yulin as a case, develops an integrated index system for evaluation of the agricultural economy and the agroecological environment, and a model of the coupling coordination degree for evaluation of the dynamic coupling relationship between the two. Based on that, we have investigated the coupling coordination by comparing the differences of the development index of the two sub-systems at different periods. Subsequently, we further clarified the internal interaction and coupling relationship between the two sub-systems with a cross-impact analysis. The results suggested that the weights of ecological environmental conditions and agricultural development input are respectively0.5908 and 0.3570. From 1997 to 2016, a high-level interactive coupling existed between the agroecological environment and agricultural economy, and the coupling coordination degree of the two sub-systems grew slowly. Overall, the degradation of the agroecological environment impeded the coordinated development of the agricultural economy and the level of coupling coordination improved from basic coordination in the beginning to superior coordination in the end. The agricultural economy grew rapidly, at the expense of the degradation of the agroecological environment. Furthermore, more attention should be paid to improving agricultural development input for promoting economic and ecological benefits, and coupling coordination degree of the two sub-systems. These findings are important for boosting sustainable development of the agricultural economy in semi-arid areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the agricultural economy has brought the agricultural pollution, and agricultural pollution has restrained the growth of the agricultural economy and endangered public health. Since the Economic Reform opened up, China has promulgated many policies that have benefited farmers, developed the agricultural economy, and improved agricultural material levels. However, the growth in the agricultural economy has also resulted in significant environmental pollution from pesticides, agricultural fertilizers and agricultural plastic film. Agricultural pollution can affect public health, therefore it is necessary to study the relationship between agricultural economy and agricultural pollution. In this paper, the relationship between the agricultural economy and agricultural pollution is studied by using decoupling index method, taking Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China as an example, and verified by the data of 2008-2017 years of Chengdu. It was found that the decoupling index for pesticide use and per capita gross agricultural production showed "strong decoupling" ideal states in six years. From 2009-2017, the value of it increased from 0.065743-1.597385, and its decoupling state gradually transited to stable strong decoupling. The chemical fertilizer use was found to have a "strong decoupling" ideal state in five years. The value of it decreased from 1.028854-(-0.512702), while its state gradually changed to strong decoupling. However, agricultural plastic film only has one "strong decoupling" state with its value of decoupling index changed from -0.380824-(-0.250250). The increased use of plastic film has resulted in increased agricultural pollution. The research results show that growing with the development of Chengdu's agricultural economy, the use of pesticides and fertilizers has been decreasing. Chengdu's agricultural economy and agricultural pollution were found to have a healthy and coordinated development. The development of agricultural economy has not caused much damage to the agricultural environment. In addition, with the decline of agricultural pollution, public health problems will also be reduced., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.