ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Econ.
Sec. Agricultural Economics
Volume 4 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frevc.2025.1525531
This article is part of the Research TopicHarnessing the Potential of Agriculture 4.0: the double challenge of food security and climate changeView all 5 articles
The Impact of New Digital Infrastructure on Agriculture Green Development: Evidence From China
Provisionally accepted
- 1Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China
- 215191927191@163.com, Yangling, Shanxi, China, China
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The rapid development of new digital infrastructure (NDI) has emerged as a critical enabler for advancing agriculture green Development (AGD). Utilizing provincial panel data from 2006 to 2022, this study constructs comprehensive evaluation systems for NDI and agricultural green total factor productivity , systematically examining the mechanisms through which NDI drives green agricultural transformation. The findings reveal three key insights: First, NDI demonstrates a statistically significant positive impact on AGD, a conclusion robust to endogeneity adjustments and heteroscedasticity tests. Second, mediating effects analysis identifies technological innovation and farmland quality enhancement as dual pathways through which NDI facilitates AGD improvement. Third, labor quality exerts a moderating influence, amplifying the mediation effect of technology level and farmland quality—higher labor quality strengthen NDI's capacity to boost AGD via technology and farmland factors. Furthermore, geographical heterogeneity analysis indicates more pronounced effects in China's northwest regions and areas characterized by lower marketization, stricter environmental regulations, and greater resource dependency. This research provides empirical evidence clarifying the NDI-AGD nexus and offers actionable policy recommendations for spatially differentiated strategies to accelerate ecological agriculture transitions.
Keywords: new digital infrastructure, Agriculture green development, Policy environment, Market environment, Agriculture environment
Received: 09 Nov 2024; Accepted: 09 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Zhao and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanru Zhao, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China
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