Optimizing factor allocation is the premise of promoting high-quality development of agriculture. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2004 to 2020, this paper examines the relationship between factor mismatch and high-quality agricultural development. We found that the high-quality development level of China’s agriculture shows a state of fluctuation and improvement, but the overall level is relatively low and the inter-provincial difference is expanding. Factor mismatch significantly inhibited the improvement of agricultural high-quality development, and the inhibition effect showed obvious temporal and spatial heterogeneity. We also found that the allocation of factors in extreme cases will lead to a 0.01% inter-provincial difference in the high-quality agricultural development. However, with the optimization and upgrading of the agricultural industrial structure and the improvement of the agricultural science and technology, the inhibitory effect of factor mismatch on high-quality agricultural development is constantly weakening. The above conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. The conclusions of this paper enrich the theoretical literature on the influencing factors of high-quality agricultural development, and provide an empirical reference for the policy maker of reducing factor mismatch and promoting high-quality agricultural development.

This study was conducted to promote the construction of China’s ecological civilization; to reduce harm to the environment; to quantify the performance of agricultural green development (GD); and to truly achieve green, sustainable, and healthy agricultural development. From the perspectives of resources and the environment, first, information communication technology and the panel space measurement (PSM) model were adopted to analyze relevant indicator data from 2000 to 2019 in China’s 30 provinces. Second, China’s agriculture was measured to explore the overall characteristics, temporal changes, and regional differences of agricultural development. A panel data measurement model was constructed using the generalized least squares method, and the main factors affecting performance development were analyzed, which were verified by giving examples. Third, the governance countermeasures and improvement directors were proposed for agricultural GD in China. It is found that the driving force of performance of agricultural GD in China mainly depends on technological progress and that technological efficiency determines the speed of agricultural development. The regional differences in performance of agricultural GD are obvious in China. The growth in the performance of agricultural GD in the eastern region is much higher than that of the central, western, and northeast regions. In addition, the results show that the performance of agricultural GD is extremely positively correlated with the agricultural economic level, fiscal support for agriculture policy, and the industrialization process and that it is extremely negatively correlated with the level of opening-up, adjustment of agricultural structure, and the environmental regulatory capability of the government. As a result, this study can provide some ideas for the realization of agriculture GD in China.

As the most important driving force for ensuring the effective supply of grain in the country, the production stability of the major grain-producing areas directly concerns the national security of China. In this paper, considering the “water–soil–energy–carbon” correlation, water, soil and energy resource factors, and carbon emission constraints were included in an index system, and the global common frontier boundary three-stage super-efficient EBM–GML model was used to measure the grain production resource utilization efficiency of the major grain-producing areas in China from 2000 to 2019. This paper also analyzed the static and dynamic spatiotemporal characteristics and the restrictions of utilization efficiency. The results showed that, under the measurement of the traditional data envelopment analysis model, the grain production resource utilization efficiency in the major producing areas is relatively high, but there is still room to improve by more than 20%, and grain production still has enormous growth potential. After excluding external environmental and random factors, it was found that the utilization efficiency of grain production resources in the major producing areas decreased, and the efficiency and ranking of provinces changed significantly. External factors inhibit pure technical efficiency and expand the scale efficiency. The utilization efficiency of Northeast China was much higher than that of the Huang-Huai-Hai region and the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River region, and its grain production resource allocation management had obvious advantages. The total factor productivity index of food production resources showed an upward trend as a whole, and its change was affected by both technological efficiency and technological progress, of which technological progress had the greater impact. Therefore, reducing the differences in the external environment of different regions while making adjustments in accordance with their own potential is an effective way to further improve the utilization efficiency of food production resources.

Due to climate, resource endowment, planting habits, policy publicity, subsidies, and constraints, there have been many problems in the utilization of straw resources in the cold, main grain-producing areas in northern China. Based on the theory of value perception, an analytical framework was constructed, and the ordered logistic model was used to form an empirical analysis of the questionnaire data of more than 60 townships in 7 cities of Heilongjiang Province, trying to analyze the problems existing in the utilization of straw resources. The results show that the external factors include policy subsidy, policy punishment, and transportation convenience. Among the internal reasons, farmers’ personal characteristics, production habits, and perception of technical effectiveness and convenience have a significant impact on the application of straw resource utilization technology. Therefore, improving the intensity and precision of subsidies, strengthening the intensity of punishment, improving the popularization of technology, strengthening the ideological education of farmers to clarify the ecological value of straw resource utilization, and strengthening the construction of infrastructure to improve the convenience of transportation are effective means to promote straw resource utilization technology and promote the green transformation of agriculture.

Contemporarily, the promotion and application of straw-to-field technology plays an important role in developing high-quality green agriculture, alleviating agricultural non-point source pollution and realizing the double carbon target. As the main subject of straw-to-field, a farmers’ willingness directly determines their straw-to-field behavior. To explore the influencing factors of farmers’ straw-to-field willingness and to improve the comprehensive utilization level of straw, this paper researches the relationship between government regulation, farmers’ subject cognition and straw-to-field willingness based on the survey data of 733 farmers in Heilongjiang province, and it examines the mediating role of farmers’ cognition in the process of government regulation affecting farmers’ willingness of straw-to-field. The results evidence that policy incentives and administrative constraints affect farmers’ willingness of straw-to-field by influencing ecological and technical cognition. However, farmers’ cognition of the cost and benefit of straw-to-field is biased; thus, this factor cannot effectively transform the willingness of straw-to-field into action.

Increasing agricultural output by reducing capital misallocation is a capital-saving strategy, as it does not require the usage of additional inputs. Based on the panel data of 36 prefecture-level cities in Northeast China from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses the spatial Durbin model to test the impact of capital mismatch on agricultural output and its mechanisms. We found that capital misallocation is prevalent in prefecture-level cities, showing a spatial distribution characteristic of “north-south confrontation and central collapse”, with a significant spatial spillover effect. A one-unit increase in capital misallocation leads to a 16.00% decrease in local agricultural output and a 1.80% decrease in adjacent areas. However, with the optimization and upgrading of the agricultural industry and agricultural technology progress, the inhibitory effect of capital misallocation on the growth of agricultural output is constantly weakening. The above conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. The conclusion of this paper provides policy inspiration for promoting the rational allocation of factors between cities and regions, coordinating regional coordinated development, and then promoting the sustainable growth of agricultural output.