Based on the value of agricultural farm products produced by different subsectors in China, the foregoing analysis reveals the dynamic character of agricultural diversification by which, this study seeks to examine the evolutionary process of Chinese agriculture through a quantitative study of agricultural diversification at both national and provincial levels. In the initial stages of reform and opening up, the degree of agricultural diversification in the southwest was relatively high; then the center of agricultural diversification gradually moved to the southeast of China; finally, the degree of agricultural diversification in the economically developed eastern provinces was obviously higher than those in other regions in 2019. It was seen that some provinces in the eastern and central south regions moved toward increasing diversification in one direction, and other provinces changed direction, first moving toward diversification and later toward concentration or vice versa. These oscillations implied that there was a cyclic tendency of agricultural diversification along with an increase in per capita GDP. Generally speaking, the patterns of diversification differed across regions due to diversified agricultural subsectors resulting from different natural and socio-economic circumstances. In particular, in less developed regions with lower agricultural diversification levels, farming agriculture persistently dominated the leading position with relatively more resistance to modernizing trends in other aspects of agriculture. It is urgent for the Chinese government to figure out ways off reconciling agricultural productivity with environmental quality through the ecological intensification of agriculture.

The national environmental quality has maintained a momentum of improvement, while the tension between the performance evaluation system and local officials’ behavior has been a significant concern. Based on panel data from 224 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2018, this paper examined the impact of the characteristics of officials on environmental pollution governance using a fixed-effect model. The empirical results demonstrate an incentive for officials to reduce pollution emissions and improve environmental protection when their native place coincides with the province where they work. The reverse incentive occurs when their native place coincides with the prefecture-level city where they work. Given the fact that eco-policy is the transmission mechanism, a more reasonable assessment system should pay more attention to officials’ characteristics, such as younger female officials are more likely to implement environmental policies, party school education may not be helpful for pollution governance, education level, professional background and working experience has little correlation with environment. Besides, a significant mediating effect shows that officials with hometown identity are encouraged to do more in environmental protection. An official incentive framework on ‘working effort’ should be employed to enhance the effectiveness of environmental governance.