Introduction: Food security is the lifeblood of national security and an important cornerstone for world 15 peace, stability, and development. In this context, the study of the impact of land transfer (TF) on food security (FS) provides a new perspective for land resource optimization.Methods: Based on the empirical data of 30 provinces and regions in China from 2010 to 2022, this paper used the two-way fixed effect model to explore the causal relationship and the intermediary relationship between the two. Moreover, quantile regression is used to further explore the heterogeneity. In addition, the spatial Durbin model is used to analyze the spillover effect.Results: First, land transfer has a significant promoting effect on food security. Secondly, land transfer has obvious heterogeneity to food security. Third, environmental regulation and green technology innovation play an intermediary role in land transfer to food security. Fourth, land transfer has a spatial spillover effect on food security.Discussion: This paper not only enriches the theoretical research on the impact of land transfer on food security, but also provides empirical evidence. It provides an important reference for deepening China’s land transfer policy system, optimizing land transfer resources and ensuring the safety of grain industry.

Introduction: The rise of digital technologies has reshaped rural development strategies, offering new opportunities for industrial revitalization in agricultural regions. In China, the rural digital economy—spanning both infrastructure and digital service adoption—has emerged as a critical driver of localized innovation. This study explores the mechanisms through which digital transformation influences rural industrial upgrading. Using a structured survey in a major navel orange production area, the study examines how hardware and software elements of digitalization affect farmers’ innovation intentions, entrepreneurial behaviors, and outcome perceptions. By identifying heterogeneity across business models and farm scales, the study provides empirical insights into the role digital inclusion plays in revitalizing rural economies.Methods: This study draws on 1,042 survey responses from a representative navel orange-producing region in China. Key variables reflect three dimensions of rural industrial revitalization: innovation intentions, entrepreneurial action, and perceived outcomes. The independent variables reflect the development of the digital economy through two dimensions: digital infrastructure and service usage. Ordered Probit and OLS models were applied to estimate relationships, with robustness checks performed using instrumental variables to address endogeneity. Instrument relevance and validity were confirmed through standard econometric tests. Heterogeneity was further examined by disaggregating impacts across production types and farm sizes.Results: Findings demonstrate that both infrastructure (hardware) and service use (software) aspects of the rural digital economy significantly enhance farmers’ innovation intention, entrepreneurial engagement, and outcome perception. These effects remain statistically significant and become more pronounced after addressing endogeneity. While hardware shows limited effects across different business types, software-related digital adoption significantly benefits most producers. Additionally, the digital economy’s impact on entrepreneurial action and outcomes is more pronounced among medium- and large-scale farms than smaller producers. Three mechanisms—employment, income growth, and improved well-being—mediate this effect.Discussion: The results highlight the transformative potential of rural digital economy development in advancing industrial revitalization. Tailored digital infrastructure, training, and inclusive service access are critical to unlocking innovation capacity at the household level. To enhance equitable digital transformation in agriculture, policies should prioritize narrowing digital divides in underdeveloped regions and facilitate the adoption of adaptable digital farming models, including smart production systems and agricultural traceability platforms. Beyond infrastructure, broader institutional, household, and community efforts—ranging from financial literacy to organizational participation—must complement digital investment. Future studies should expand the scope, adopt longitudinal designs, and explore institutional drivers to deepen the understanding of sustainable rural transformation.

Introduction: The transformation of environmental protection fees into environmental protection taxes in China reflects a broader commitment to ecological civilization. This reform aligns fiscal instruments with environmental objectives, aiming to internalize environmental costs and incentivize greener industrial behavior. However, empirical evidence on its actual impact on industrial green development remains limited. This study addresses this gap by investigating how the reform affects green total factor productivity (GTFP) in key industrial sectors.Methods: We build a Difference-in-Differences model to assess the causal impact of the 2018 environmental tax change, using it as a quasi-natural experiment. A-share listed companies in industries with high levels of pollution from 2013 to 2022 are included in the sample. To further explore the transmission mechanism, we use mediation effect models to test whether the reform influences GTFP through changes in the degree of resource misallocation and green technological innovation. Multiple robustness checks, including parallel trends test, propensity score matching and placebo test, are conducted to ensure result validity.Results: The results indicate that the reform significantly improves industrial green development, as measured by firm-level GTFP. In state-owned and highly polluting businesses, the effect is particularly noticeable. According to mechanism testing, the policy effect is communicated through a decrease in the degree of resource misallocation and more investment in green innovation. These findings are robust across alternative model specifications and variable definitions.Discussion: This study offers new insights into how environmental tax policies contribute to sustainable industrial transformation. It highlights the importance of fiscal policy tools in steering firm behavior toward greener practices. Policymakers should focus on refining tax enforcement and complementing it with innovation incentives to amplify the reform’s effectiveness. The evidence underscores the critical role of institutional design in aligning industrial growth with environmental goals.

Climate change and increasingly severe weather pose dual pressures on agriculture: to reduce carbon emissions and to manage climate risk. These pressures challenge the transition to green, low-carbon development. On the basis of panel data from 31 provinces in China from 2003 to 2023—a period selected for data continuity and to capture the implementation of major national agricultural and environmental policies—in this study, an evaluation index system for agricultural green and low-carbon development (GAC) was established. This study aims to analyze the impact of climate change risks (CPRI) on GAC, focusing on the moderating role of agricultural insurance (INS) and spatial spillover effects. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions: (1) What is the direction and magnitude of CPRI’s effect on GAC? (2) Can INS mitigate this effect? (3) Does CPRI exhibit spatial spillover effects on GAC? Using data from the NOAA and Chinese statistical yearbooks, by employing a model with two-way fixed effects, moderating effect analysis, and the spatial Durbin model, the mechanisms underlying the spatial spillover effects of CPRI and regional heterogeneity were examined, as well as the moderating function of INS. CPRI was found to significantly inhibit GAC, as extreme weather events triggered short-term decision-making among farmers and constrained investment in green technologies. These events reduced the capacity of the soil to sequester carbon. This inhibitory effect was greater in nonmajor grain-producing regions and in eastern China. INS helped reduce negative impacts by providing effective risk transfer mechanisms. Furthermore, CPRI was found to exert harmful spillover effects across different regions, with greater indirect effects than direct effects. In conclusion, CPRI significantly hinders agricultural green transition, a process moderated by insurance and characterized by spatial spillovers. On the basis of these observations, we recommend several policies, including the development of regionally tailored adaptation strategies, the achievement of innovation in agricultural insurance products, and the establishment of collaborative governance frameworks that span regions to address these challenges.