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This paper systematically explores the impact of the digital economy on the resilience of food production and its mechanism of action based on panel data from 30 provincial-level administrative regions in China from 2011 to 2022. This study shows that the digital economy significantly enhances the ability of the food production system to cope with external shocks by improving resource allocation efficiency and mitigating factor mismatch. Specifically, the digital economy directly improves the stability and resilience of food production through the widespread application of digital technology; at the same time, it indirectly contributes to the enhancement of food production resilience by alleviating the mismatch of labor and capital factors. Heterogeneity analyses show that there are regional differences in the impact of the digital economy, in which the main food-producing regions benefit more significantly due to their agricultural resource advantages and policy support, and the improvement of food production resilience in the central region is particularly prominent. This study provides an important theoretical basis and practical reference for exploring the potential of the application of digital economy in agriculture and formulating policies to enhance food production resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pesticide application has significantly aided global agriculture, but the overuse of pesticides also poses a threat to sustainable agriculture development in the future. The application of outsourcing services in the pesticide application process is a good way to promote pesticide reduction, but the actual effect is not satisfactory. The possible reason is ignorance of the regulatory role of supervision and land management scale. Based on the data of 1490 corn growers, this research investigates how outsourcing service application affects pesticide application intensity through the principal–agent theory through the instrumental variable method and examines the moderator effect of supervision and land management scale. The study found that: (1) Farmers who applied outsourcing services during pesticide application process constituted 15% of the farmers in the sample, and the average pesticide cost per 0.000667 km2 was USD 7.59; (2) The use of outsourcing services in the pesticide application process can lower the pesticide application intensity; (3) The application of outsourcing services in the pesticide application process has received the regulatory role of supervision and land management scale in reducing the intensity of pesticide application. Specifically, supervision can play a positive regulatory role, and land management scale plays a negative regulatory role. The research is helpful to deepen the understanding of the correlation between outsourcing service adoption and pesticide application reduction and provide decision-making reference for the formulation and improvement of pesticide reduction-related policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internet development and urbanization are widely perceived to have a significant impact on the economy and sustainability in China. However, existing studies fail to consider their interaction patterns and directions with economic growth in China's Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). This study applies a bootstrap panel Granger causality test to examine the causal relationships between Internet development, urbanization, and regional economic growth for the YREB's 11 provinces. The main findings are as follows: (1) Internet development, urbanization and regional economic growth exhibit cross-sectional dependence and province-specific heterogeneity in the YREB. (2) Granger causality from Internet development to economic growth exists in most provinces, while Granger causality from economic growth to Internet development and two-way Granger causality are only observed in economically developed provinces, such as Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Chongqing. (3) Granger causality from urbanization to economic growth exists in nine provinces, except for Hubei and Guizhou. However, the reverse Granger causality is only confirmed in Jiangsu, Anhui, and Hubei. This suggests that urbanization significantly improves economic growth efficiency, but the effect of economic growth on urbanization is restricted by regional bias policies. Therefore, the local government should implement tailored economic policies and establish an interactive mechanism to help China leverage its potential for economic growth and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]