The agriculture sector plays a significant role in the development of the national economy and providing raw materials to the industrial sector. Trying to get more agricultural productivity, most farmers ignored the adverse effects of agricultural chemicals or pesticides that have a negative impact on the environment. So, the importance of agricultural ecological efficiency needs to be understood. This study attempts to explore whether agriculture, as an important source of carbon dioxide production, can have an effective impact on the agricultural ecological efficiency of carbon trading pilot policies in the context of the global implementation of carbon trading. This study evaluated the agricultural ecological efficiency (AEE) and its spatial distribution characteristics of 31 provinces in China, the data period was from 2000 to 2018. By applying the spatial difference-in-difference (SDID) approach, the study investigates the effects of low-carbon policies on agricultural ecological efficiency in pilot areas. The results demonstrate that low-carbon trading pilot policies have a significant impact on agricultural ecological efficiency. At the same time, the effects of regional economic development, population growth, urbanization, and urban innovation on efficiency are also significant. The improvement of agricultural ecological efficiency requires not only the full implementation of low-carbon trading pilot policies but also the development of regional economy and high-quality agriculture. The findings provide further policy recommendations for high-quality agricultural development.

The faster development of the agriculture sector has led to the excessive waste of agriculture resources and that development causes serious damage to the ecological environment. So, ecological agriculture has become an important topic to understand the relationship between agriculture and the environment. This study tries to examine the impact of agricultural fiscal expenditures on agricultural ecological efficiency. In the first step, the researcher found the ecological efficiency of agriculture. The second step tries to examine the agricultural fiscal expenditure impact on agriculture’s ecological efficiency. The study used data from 30 provinces of China from 1998 to 2018. For the empirical results, the researcher used the super-efficiency DEA window analysis in the first step. Moreover, we used the spatial Durbin model in the second step. The results of the study revealed that China’s agricultural ecological efficiency shows a downward trend to an upward trend. The efficiency value of the eastern region is higher than the central region’s efficiency value, which is lower than the national average level. The western region’s efficiency value is equal to the national average level, and the differences between regions vary with the time period. The nuclear density of agricultural eco-efficiency in China showed a trend of “left-shift rising—double peaks—right-shifting decline”. In terms of space, China’s agricultural ecological efficiency has a significant positive spatial spillover effect, especially in the eastern and western regions. The results of the spatial Durbin model revealed that agricultural fiscal expenditures have a significant role in promoting China’s agricultural ecological efficiency. While agricultural governance has shown a significant spatial crowd-out effect. Therefore, it is proposed to promote the development of inter-provincial agricultural cooperation, and the formulation of agricultural financial support strategies should be green-oriented and should consider regional heterogeneity.

This article aims to highlight the importance of climate and environmental challenges for agricultural economics and policy. Empirical research based on the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method determined the average technical efficiency and...

Solving the problem of agricultural water use efficiency is an effective means to understand the agricultural ecological civilization and food security. In order to balance the relationship between agricultural water efficiency and regional economic size, this study examines the agricultural water use efficiency in China based on the Super-SBM model of unexpected output. At the same time, the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) was introduced to analyze the spatial spillover effect and try to find ways to improve agricultural water use efficiency from the perspective of influencing factors. The present study used the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 1998 to 2018 to obtain empirical results. The results show that (1) China's agricultural water resources’ utilization efficiency in 21 years has not remained high: the results showed that it was 0.496 in 1998, 0.572 in 2008, and 0.657 in 2018, but it is slowly rising which explains that the low efficiency is mainly caused by the low pure technical efficiency. (2) The overall agricultural water use efficiency in China is in a situation of spatial agglomeration but there has been a trend of shifting positive correlations to negative correlations among neighboring provinces. It found that in 1998, the sum of the number of `High-high agglomeration type' and `low-low agglomeration type' provinces was 20, and the sum of `low-high agglomeration type' and `high-low agglomeration type' provinces was 10. In 2018, the total number of `high-high agglomeration type' and `low-low agglomeration type' provinces decreased to 12, while the total number of `low-high agglomeration type' and `high-low agglomeration type' provinces increased to 18, which specifically manifested as a negative spillover effect. (3) During the research period, the province's agricultural fixed asset investment, fiscal expenditure on agriculture, forestry, and water affairs, the number of years of education of rural residents and the increase in crop sown area have positive impacts on the efficiency of agricultural water use in the province. Meanwhile the transfer of labor and increase in the disposable income of rural residents reduced the efficiency of agricultural water use in the province. Fixed agricultural investment, labor transfers, and financial expenditures for agriculture, forestry, and water affairs in neighboring provinces have negative impacts on the province's agricultural water use efficiency. The impact is specifically manifested as a negative spatial spillover effect. As a result, China's agriculture will move towards healthy and green development. Therefore, the efficiency of agricultural water use needs to be comprehensively improved.

Low insurance participation rate and low willingness to insure among farmers have always been major problems in the sustainable development of agricultural insurance in China. This paper attempts to examine the peer effect on farmers’ agricultural insurance buying decisions and explore its mechanism. We have established an IVprobit model, using the survey data of 9452 farmers in the karst regions in China. The empirical results show that: (1) Peer effect has a significant influence on farmers’ participation in agricultural insurance. A 10% increase in farmers’ neighbors’ participation in agricultural insurance increases the likelihood of farmers’ participation by 3.25%. (2) Peer effect promotes farmers’ participation by enhancing farmers’ risk perception and insurance cognition. (3) Peer effect is asymmetrical: male and larger-scale farmers have more significant effects on their peers and probably lead the participation in agricultural insurance. The results of the study have the following policy implications: (1) Increasing policy publicity and enforcing policy advocacy would magnify the positive impact of peer effect. (2) Increasing the participation rate of male and larger-scale farmers by policy interventions, which would give full play and a positive demonstration effect of specific groups. (3) Innovating insurance publicity methods to enhance farmers’ risk awareness and insurance cognition. (4) More concentration should be focused on the primary-level governance in rural China. We should advance the stock of rural social capital on all fronts to leverage the role of peer effect within rural areas.

The study’s main aim is to find out the environmental livestock and poultry pollution. The study used data from 31 provinces in China from 2007 to 2019. This paper used two steps for empirical findings. In the 1st step, it conducted an initial analysis of the farmland pollution burden and water pollution that arises from the livestock and poultry industry. After this, through the fair distribution index researcher, the study analyzed the inequity of the environmental pollution burden on the livestock and poultry industry. Finally, by constructing a frontier spatial matrix and spatial econometric model, the study has analyzed the impact of economic development on the inequity of the environmental pollution burden. The econometrical analysis has provided the following conclusions: (1) China’s arable land is facing a serious pollution burden due to livestock and poultry manure. The results show that the livestock and poultry manure burden value is greater than 1. This value explained the serious environmental threat in 13 areas of China. Water pollution showed a fluctuating trend in four areas of China, while the threat of farmland pollution showed a downward trend. (2) The environmental equity index of the livestock and poultry industry in many regions of China is less than 1. This means one region is producing more pollution than its capacity. So, the pollution has crowded out the environmental capacity of other regions, resulting in an unfair environmental burden. This unfair environmental burden is especially prominent in the western region of China. (3) The phenomenon of environmental pollution-burden inequality has a spatial correlation. The environmental pollution burden inequality of a region has a significant spatial crowding out effect on the surrounding areas at the level of 1%, and the coefficient of spatial effect is −0.909. (4) The per capita GDP of the surrounding areas has a significant “inverted U-shaped” indirect impact on the environmental distribution equity index of the region, with an inflection point of 33,500 yuan/person. The research points out that clear property rights, guidance to regulate emissions trading, control blind pollution transfer, moderate industrial structure adjustment, improving rural residents’ education level, etc., are beneficial to the improvement of the environmental livestock and poultry pollution.