This paper reviews the long-term impact of public investments on irrigation and agricultural research and development along with other control variables, including physical capital, irrigated area, fertilizer consumption, level of mechanization, and CO₂ emissions on China’s agricultural output from 1986 to 2017. This study applied various econometric methods such as the ARDL bound-testing approach and Johansen co-integration procedure to determine the long-term co-integrating connection amid the variables. The empirical outcomes from the ARDL bound-testing method confirm a long-term co-integrating connection among the variables. The long-run results demonstrated that public investment in agricultural research and development and irrigation have a substantial positive effect on agricultural productivity. Furthermore, results revealed that physical capital and fertilizer consumption also have a significant positive effect on agricultural output; however, CO₂ emissions have a substantial negative effect on agricultural production. These findings therefore suggest that the policy makers of China should initiate more effective policies to increase irrigation and agricultural research and development investments. Increasing irrigation and agricultural research and development investments will enhance agricultural productivity by ensuring food security in the country.

Increasing food production is crucial for attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG#2) by 2030 through supplying agricultural credit and improved inputs. Thus, the present study examined the roles of agricultural credit, applications of fertilizer, usage of pesticides, farming area, and agricultural employment in enhancing wheat production in the developing economy (Pakistan) from 1990 to 2020. This study applied the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) regression method for the empirical analysis. The empirical findings from the ARDL regression technique revealed that agricultural credit can significantly enhance wheat production, while improved inputs, including fertilizer and pesticide usage, also positively contribute to wheat production. Notably, agriculture credit plays a vital role in assisting farmers to purchase advanced farm inputs and indirectly increases the wheat yield. Consequently, this study suggests that the banking sector should supply agricultural credit to farmers under flexible lending conditions; therefore, farmers can easily access credit and adopt modern technologies to enhance food production and ensure food security.