The production mode of “high input, high yield and high waste” in the agricultural system poses a serious threat to the environment and the quality of agricultural products. Accelerating the adoption of green agricultural technology (GAT) by farmers is an emergency measure. However, according to microsurvey data, many farmers give up GAT within a year after adopting it. The implementation of this measure has been anticlimactic. Based on a survey of 1138 kiwi growers in Shaanxi Province, China, this paper builds a theoretical model and conducts empirical exercises to gain insight into the effects of perceived value, government support and their interaction with kiwi growers’ sustainable application of GAT. We find that perceived value and government support have a significant impact on the sustainable application of GAT. Government support plays a moderating role in the influence of perceived value on the sustainable application of GAT. Furthermore, in order to overcome the potential endogeneity problem caused by the two-way causal relationship between subjective variables, “owning a smartphone” was selected as the instrumental variable. The 2SLS model was used for endogeneity analysis, and the OLS model was used for the robustness test. This paper discusses the relevant theories and policy implications of environmental management.

The scientific evaluation of water pollution in the Yellow River Basin was directly related to the sustainable utilization of water resources and the green development of the agricultural economy in this region. In this study, we focused on the planting industry, and measured the agricultural grey water footprint of 73 prefecture-level cities in the Yellow River Basin from 2000 to 2019. We used spatial autocorrelation analysis to reveal temporal and spatial differentiation characteristics, and we used the path analysis method to study the factors influencing the temporal evolution and spatial distribution. Taking 2015 as the study period, the agricultural grey water footprint showed a trend of first rising and then falling. The values and growth rates of the agricultural grey water footprint in different regions were quite different. According to the natural breakpoint method, the agricultural grey water footprints were divided into low, middle, high, and very high groups. There were obvious spatial differences in the agricultural grey water footprints, and these differences gradually decreased. Generally, the H–L and the L–L types were dominant. From 2000 to 2019, most prefecture-level cities maintained the same transition changes as those in the neighboring regions. Crop yield, economic scale, population scale, urban and rural structure, and technological innovation were found to be the key elements of spatiotemporal variation in the agricultural grey water footprint.

Happiness is the ultimate goal of everyone working and earning wealth. At present, in the vast rural areas of China, the excessive and unscientific application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is raising serious concerns for environmental protection. The Chinese government has strongly promoted agricultural green production as an alternative to the previous agricultural paradigm that sacrificed the environment. A shift towards agricultural green production has become imperative. However, will it bring “happiness” to farmers who partake in this shift? Using data from 1138 farmers in Shanxi, Northwest China, throughout 2022, this article examines the relationship between the adoption of agricultural green production and farmers’ happiness. The empirical findings indicate that the adoption of agricultural green production can considerably increase farmers’ happiness and that the more types of agricultural green technologies that are implemented, the greater the happiness of farmers. Further mediating effect analysis suggests that this mechanism occurs through raising the absolute and relative income, mitigating agricultural pollution, and elevating the social status. The findings shed new light on the effect of farmers’ economic behavior on their happiness and underline the necessity of implementing relevant policies.

Improving the green efficiency of agricultural water use is a key way to promote the sustainable utilization of agricultural water resources and sustainable development of economy and society. This work calculated and analyzed the evolution trend, regional differences and driving factors of the green efficiency of agricultural water use in China from the perspective of the water footprint. The results show that the green efficiency of agricultural water use in China shows a fluctuation trend of first declining and then rising from 1997 to 2020, after which the average efficiency dropped from 0.538 in 1997 to 0.406 in 2009, and then rose rapidly to 0.989 in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of about 3.6%. From a regional perspective, the green efficiency of agricultural water use in the eastern region was the highest (0.594), above the national average (0.538), followed by the western region (0.522), with the central region in last (0.491), with significant regional differences. The spatial differences in the green efficiency of available agricultural water in China shows a fluctuating downward trend. The Gini coefficient fluctuated from 0.271 in 1997 to 0.182 in 2020, with an average annual growth rate of about −1.4%. The main source of this regional difference was super-variable density, followed by the difference between the eastern and the central regions. The influence of urbanization level, water-saving level and agricultural trade on the green efficiency of agricultural water use was always positive and the influence of industrialization level was always negative; among them, the urbanization level, water-saving level and industrialization level had a greater impact on Northeast China, and agricultural trade had a greater impact on Southeast China. Therefore, this work puts forward relevant policy recommendations.

Based on the panel data of 283 prefecture-level cities in China from 2010 to 2021, this paper takes the pilot policy of “Broadband China” as a natural experiment to evaluate the impact of digital infrastructure construction on urban ecological welfare performance and its mechanism by using a progressive difference–difference model. The results show that China’s digital infrastructure construction will significantly reduce the performance of urban ecological welfare. Through the analysis of input and output, it is found that the construction of digital infrastructure can significantly reduce resource consumption and increase welfare output, especially economic welfare, but at the level of environmental pollution, it will significantly increase the discharge of industrial wastewater, which may be the main reason for the negative effect of digital infrastructure construction. Through the group analysis, it is found that the overall negative impact of digital infrastructure construction on ecological welfare performance may be caused by the ecologically fragile western region and the unreasonable industrial structure. Through the adjustment model, it is found that innovation investment can positively regulate the negative impact of digital infrastructure on ecological welfare performance. The grey model (GM) is further used to forecast the data for 2022–2025, and it is found that while the negative impact of digital infrastructure is decreasing, it is still significant. This study provides empirical evidence for accurately understanding the effect and mechanism of digital infrastructure construction on ecological welfare performance.

Unsafe use of pesticides and fertilizers is a concern in rural areas of China, resulting in serious threats to environment and the quality of agricultural products. Many works have studied the factors influencing the adoption of green agricultural technology by farmers. However, few studies have explored the factors that lead to a farmer’s sustainable use of green agricultural technology. Based on a survey of 1,138 kiwi growers in Shaanxi province of China, this paper builds a theoretical model to look at this issue and conducts a series of empirical exercises to gain insight into the effects of perceived value, government support and their interaction on kiwi growers' sustainable application of green agricultural technology. We find that (1) Perceived monetary and non-monetary benefits positively affect the sustainable application of green agricultural technology by farmers while perceived monetary and non-monetary risks affect it negatively. In addition, such influence would be enhanced with an increase in the intensity of perceived value and vary with the type of green agricultural technology. (2) Both agricultural extension service and ecological subsidy, as two main forms of government support, have a positive and significant effect on the sustainable application of green agricultural technology. (3) There is also a role for the interaction effects between the influence of perceived value and government support on the sustainable application of green agricultural technology. Therefore, it has been proposed in this paper that the government should expand relevant publicity, education, training, and guidance, offer compensatory incentives for producers, and adopt guiding methods corresponding to different green agricultural technology, so as to promote the sustainable application of green production modes by farmers.