Cultivated land utilization around the world is accompanied by the cultivated land fragmentation, which is a significant agricultural feature of countries with economies in transition. Thereby, governments of the PRC have successively promulgated a series of relevant policies to promote the cultivated land transfer (CLT) and stimulate the transformation of cultivated land utilization to be both green and efficient. In the context of large-scale CLT and the implementation of a rural revitalization strategy for China, it is of great significance to explore the effect of CLT on cultivated land green utilization efficiency (CLGUE). In this work, 30 provinces of China were selected as the objects of investigation; the super-efficiency SBM model was used to evaluate CLGUE; the mediation effect model and threshold regression model were used to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the CLT’s influence on CLGUE. According to the results of this study, the following conclusions were drawn. First of all, the CLGUE in China as a whole showed an upward trend improvement from 2005 to 2019. Due to the different natural and economic conditions, the CLGUE trends showed significant spatial disparities at both the grain functional areas level and provincial level. Secondly, the CLT could promote CLGUE directly, and the mediation regression results demonstrated that CLT was able to enhance CLGUE indirectly through the mediator of cultivated land management scale. Thirdly, the threshold effect test confirmed the existence of a single threshold, indicating that when the level of CLT gradually crossed the threshold, the promotion effects of CLT on CLGUE would slow down. Lastly, the heterogeneity analysis indicated that the promotion effects of CLT on CLGUE in different geographical location areas and grain functional areas were positive, and that there were significant differences in regression coefficients.

Digital financial inclusion (DFI), characterized by digitalization and inclusiveness, has generally been recognized as a significant promoter of efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of agricultural production. Simultaneously, cultivated land green utilization efficiency (CLGUE), which is the significant guarantees of food security, social stability and environmental protection, has attracted increasing attention in the recent decades. In practice, DFI seems to be a vital antecedent of the improvement of CLGUE. However, in the academic field, research on whether and how DFI can affect CLGUE is scarce. In this case, based on triple bottom line theory, this paper theoretically and empirically investigates whether and how DFI can reinforce CLGUE through the mediator of cultivated land transfer (CLT). Using Chinese provincial panel data from 2011 to 2020 and structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis in STATA 16.0, this paper identified the following: (1) DFI can directly facilitate CLGUE; (2) DFI can indirectly improve CLGUE through CLT. (3) DFI has regional heterogeneity in the improvement of CLGUE. Compared to the central and western areas, the positive relationship between DFI and CLGUE in the eastern areas is more obvious; (4) compared with main grain producing and main grain producing and marketing balance areas, the positive relationship in the main grain marketing areas is more obvious. Our research is one of the first to explore the mediating mechanism between DFI and CLGUE from the perspective of CLT.

Decoupling of carbon emissions from agricultural land utilisation from economic growth in China | Min Zhou, Bixia Hu | Agricultural Journals

The cultivated land green utilization efficiency (CLGUE) is closely related to high-quality agricultural development (HAD), but the evolutionary characteristics of the relationship between HAD and CLGUE have received little study. In the context of the rural revitalization strategy and high-quality development in China, it is important to ensure food security and cultivated land system security through coordinating HAD and CLGUE. In this study, 31 Chinese provinces were used as the research object, and the entropy weight TOPSIS model and SBM-Undesirable model were used to measure HAD and CLGUE, respectively. In addition, the coupling coordination degree model and the geographical analysis model were used to investigate the development of coordination degree concerning HAD and CLGUE from both geographical and temporal perspectives. The following findings are the result of this study. Firstly, both China’s overall HAD and CLGUE exhibited an upward tendency, with average annual growth rates of 4.35% and 4.08%, respectively. Secondly, there was a volatility upward trend shown by the level of coordination degree regarding HAD and CLGUE in China. Additionally, the coordination degree showed significant spatial-temporal disparities across the 31 provinces due to the variance in the natural endowment of agricultural development resources. Lastly, the coordination degree concerning HAD and CLGUE throughout China showed obvious patterns of spatial agglomeration at the provincial level. However, the geographical aggregation and dispersion of the provinces with high or low coordination levels have diminished somewhat. Furthermore, there was a conversion from hot spot aggregation regions in MGPAs to cold spot aggregation regions in GPMBAs. The conclusions of the present study enrich the theoretical literature on the relationship between HAD and CLGUE, and provide an empirical reference for the policy maker of the developing pathway of “high HAD and high CLGUE”.

In many parts of the world, the shortage of cultivated land and the food crisis are worsening on a continued basis. Hence, the central and local governments of the PRC have successively issued various related policies to encourage the practice of farmland transfer, promote the eco-friendly utilization of cultivated land, and ameliorate the efficiency of cultivated land utilization. Under the context of large-scale farmland transfer and rural revitalization strategy in China, it is significant to ensure agricultural sustainability through the coordination of farmland transfer and the amelioration of cultivated land green utilization efficiency (CLGUE). In the present study, 30 Chinese provinces were taken as the research object, with the super-efficient SBM model, the coupling coordination degree model and the spatial analysis model applied in combination. Based on the measurement of CLGUE, a thorough analysis was conducted to explore the evolution of coordination degree in regard to farmland transfer and CLGUE in China from both spatial and temporal perspectives. The conclusions drawn from this study are as follows. Firstly, the overall CLGUE exhibited an upward tendency in the PRC, from 0.440 in 2005 to 0.913 in 2019, with a yearly growth rate of 5.47% on average. However, there were significant spatial disparities in CLGUE between different regions and provinces. Secondly, there was a steady increasing trend shown by the level of coordination degree regarding farmland transfer and CLGUE across China. Further, due to the variation in natural and economic conditions, there were significant spatial–temporal disparities in the coordination degree among these 30 provinces. Lastly, there were obvious spatial aggregation patterns at the provincial level regarding the coordination degree in farmland transfer and CLGUE across China. However, there was a declining trend in the level of spatial aggregation patterns for coordination degree.