Environmental regulation and high-quality agricultural development.

UNLABELLED

The key trend for future agricultural growth is efficient, green and sustainable high-quality development, and it is crucial to sort out the factors influencing high-quality agricultural development.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study is to dissect whether environmental regulation has a catalytic effect on quality rural development, through which paths it is driven and whether there is a threshold effect to be further clarified.

METHOD

In this study, the panel data of 34 provinces in China from 2012 to 2018 are used, and 17 variables are used to construct an evaluation index system, covering four dimensions: agricultural endowment, agricultural output level, agricultural green degree and social sustainability. The high-quality development of agriculture is measured by entropy method. And further, using a baseline regression model and a mediating effects model, we empirically investigated the impact of environmental regulation on high-quality agricultural development and its mechanism of action, and empirically assessed the nonlinear effects of environmental regulation using a threshold regression model.

RESULTS

Environmental control, as noted in the study, considerably assists in the establishment of high-quality agriculture; at the same time, large-scale land management plays a role in mitigating the influence of both. There is a single income threshold impact on rural households between high-quality agricultural growth and environmental regulation, and once that threshold is reached, the influence of high-quality agricultural growth grows. Contribution: According to the research findings, recommendations are made for the design of scientific environmental regulation policies, the establishment of a sound service system for large-scale rural land management, and the establishment of a stable mechanism for rural residents to sustain their income, in order to strengthen the effect of environmental regulation and realize high-quality agricultural growth in China. The marginal contribution of this paper is to enrich the study of the relationship between environmental regulation and high-quality agricultural development, which has theoretical and practical implications for promoting sustainable agricultural development.