This study investigates the factors that affect farmers’ access to Food Security and Agricultural Credit (FSAC) services for the farmers of Pakistan who have no access to banking but have a feasible farm business. Using multiple regressions and logistic analysis, the authors revealed the determinants of farmers’ financial literacy and analyzed the variables which affected the farmers’ accessibility to FSAC. Results indicated that the average financial literacy of respondents was at a moderate level. It was affected by the age of respondents, length of their education, distance to nearby cities, ownership of bank accounts, annual income, and financial education experience. The FSAC accessibility was also impacted by the area of cultivated land, interest rate, collateral, farms’ income, financial literacy index, credit accessibility experiences, the legal status of farmer groups, and the amount of a loan. Some of the issues that prevent farmers from having widespread access to the FSAC include the lack of loan need, lack of FSAC awareness, lack of collateral, loan usury perspective, loan rejection experience, fear of borrowing from the bank, and inactive farmer groups. The study contributes to the existing literature on the determinants of farmers’ access and choice of credit sources by using a primary data set.

Urbanization has become a global phenomenon that affects the food system. Some studies revealed that urbanization increases income/capita, thus transforming food consumption from cereals to animal products, vegetables, and fruits. Urbanization, particularly in developing countries, not only produces economic benefits but also various issues that might lessen peoples’ capacity to afford food. This study aims to analyze the impact of urbanization on food consumption, food composition, as well as farming performance. Series of consumption data since 1976 and statistical descriptive approaches were employed. The results showed a trend of declining the share of food expenditures, especially in urban areas, which is commonly regarded as a sign of increasing prosperity. Surprisingly, food composition remained stable, dominated by rice, due to lower-income and higher non-food expenditures of urban inhabitants mainly for housing, transportation, water and energy. The stagnancy of food composition provides less incentive for farmers; thus, farming is dominated by low-revenue paddy fields, uneducated laborers, and older farmers. Based on these findings, some recommendations can be suggested: (1) incorporating food composition and farming performance into food security policies, instead of merely focusing on the compliance of food supply and demand, (2) linking food issues with non-food issues, especially with urban planning, housing development, and transportation management to increase the income capacity of the society to purchase a greater variety of food, and (3) developing food diversification served by urban food vendors to support the benefits of the farming business.

Firstly, based on the data of China’s noncompetitive input–output tables from 2002 to 2017, this paper comprehensively grasps the integration trend of China’s agriculture-related industries and digital economy industries by constructing integration contribution and interaction indicators. Secondly, the correlation between the two industries is analyzed more intuitively with the help of the APL (Average Propagation Length) model. Finally, it analyzes the coordination of the digital economy industry and the transformation of the agriculture industry with the help of the grey correlation method. The results show that the digital economy industries contribute the most in absolute terms, compared to other industries, to the agro-processing industry and have the highest degree of integration and interaction with the agricultural product transportation and marketing industry. In terms of the breakdown of the digital economy industries, digital product manufacturing is weakly linked to agriculture-related industries, but the coordination among the transformation and upgrading of agriculture is gradually improving. Compared to digital product manufacturing, the digital technology application industry has a higher direct contribution to the agriculture-related industry. After 2012, the overall driving and pulling effect on the agriculture-related industry is basically the same, and the coordination with agricultural transformation and upgrading is optimal. The contribution of the digital factor-driven industry to agriculture-related industries experienced an explosive period after 2012, with the highest overall contribution and strongest industrial linkage between the two, while coordination with the transformation and upgrading of agriculture decreases. Therefore, in combination with the No. 1 document of the Central Government in 2022, which specifically calls for the implementation of the “digital business to promote agriculture” project and the promotion of e-commerce in the countryside, this paper puts forward suggestions to give full play to the role of digital technology in the sustainable development of agriculture-related industries.

The unceasingly augmenting emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) has contributed substantially to the degradation of the key environmental parameters and the deterioration of performance of the agricultural sector globally. The food insecurity problem has been aggravated consequently. Due to a variety of economic and social issues, many farmers in developing economies use low-efficient and environmentally unfriendly agricultural practices. Adopting innovative technologies and practices linked with sustainable farming remains a complex issue across the developing world. In particular, financial exclusion and low financial literacy are commonly cited as the critical obstacles to achieving sustainable development. To contribute to resolving this development problem, the study attempts to investigate the effects of financial inclusion and literacy on establishing a sustainable performance of farms. A structured questionnaire was used to collect the data from 220 farmers within the Central Punjab region of Pakistan. Small-scale farms demonstrated a potential to sustain their performance by improving financial inclusion and financial literacy. Trust in extension services for agriculture plays a significant role in moderating the impact of eight independent variables (knowledge, skills, attitude, behavior, access, usage, quantity, welfare) on sustainable farm performance. The study implies that increased trust in financial services is essential for improving sustainable performance in the agricultural sector. The effect imposed by financial actors is crucial for establishing trust in financial services linked to sustainability within the agricultural industry.

China and Pakistan signed a free trade agreement in 2006. In this study, the impact of the China–Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA) on trade of agricultural products is explored by using the gravity model. Two Panel data sets, one for agricultural exports of China and one for agricultural exports of Pakistan were used. This contains data for agricultural exports and other macro-economic factors of China and Pakistan with 110 partner countries from 2001 to 2014. The Poisson Pseudo Maximum-Likelihood (PPML) technique of the gravity model was employed to analyze this data. The results suggest that CPFTA had a strong trade creation effect on agricultural exports of Pakistan. It helped provide an exponential increase in the agricultural exports of Pakistan to China. However, CPFTA was not found very effective for Chinese agricultural exports to Pakistan. This study contributes to the literature by determining the potential effects of the CPFTA on agricultural trade. Policy makers will find the results of this study useful because they point out impact of a bilateral trade agreement on trade of agricultural products.