Spatial–Temporal Heterogeneity and Driving Factors of Rural Residents’ Food Consumption Carbon Emissions in China—Based on an ESDA-GWR Model

Food Consumption Structure and Food Security-Through Mediating Effect Analysis of Agricultural R&D and Agricultural Investment

Food security is the cornerstone that ensures the stable development of a country. Based on panel data of 31 provinces (including autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 2015 to 2019, we use the mediating effect model to explore the mechanism by which food consumption structure affects food security. The results indicate that grain consumption has a significant promoting effect on food security, while plant and animal food consumption have significant inhibiting effects on food security. Furthermore, agricultural R&D and investment play mediating roles in the impact of food consumption structure on food security. Obvious differences exist in the relationship between food consumption structure and food security between urban and rural areas, as well as between Eastern, Central, and Western regions. Animal food consumption had a negative and significant impact on food security, with a stronger effect on rural residents than on urban residents. Compared with the central and western regions, grain consumption and animal food consumption in the eastern region had a stronger marginal impact on food security. This paper enriches and expands the research on influencing factors of food security from the perspective of consumer demand, which has important theoretical value and practical significance for ensuring food security.

High-Quality Development of Chinese Agriculture under Factor Misallocation

Optimizing factor allocation is the premise of promoting high-quality development of agriculture. Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2004 to 2020, this paper examines the relationship between factor mismatch and high-quality agricultural development. We found that the high-quality development level of China's agriculture shows a state of fluctuation and improvement, but the overall level is relatively low and the inter-provincial difference is expanding. Factor mismatch significantly inhibited the improvement of agricultural high-quality development, and the inhibition effect showed obvious temporal and spatial heterogeneity. We also found that the allocation of factors in extreme cases will lead to a 0.01% inter-provincial difference in the high-quality agricultural development. However, with the optimization and upgrading of the agricultural industrial structure and the improvement of the agricultural science and technology, the inhibitory effect of factor mismatch on high-quality agricultural development is constantly weakening. The above conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. The conclusions of this paper enrich the theoretical literature on the influencing factors of high-quality agricultural development, and provide an empirical reference for the policy maker of reducing factor mismatch and promoting high-quality agricultural development.

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Influencing Factors of the Rural Natural Capital Utilization Efficiency: A Case Study of Chongqing, China

The efficient utilization and optimal allocation of natural capital play an important role in economic development and human well-being. The production process of natural capital is the input and output processing of its ecological resources and the environment. Improving the rural natural capital utilization efficiency (RNCUE) is an important goal of natural capital investment, and the efficient utilization of natural capital is an important factor for the efficient operation of the regional economy and society. This study uses the super slack-based measure (SBM) model based on undesirable outputs to measure the RNCUE, combines the exploratory data analysis method (ESDA) and spatial Markov transfer matrix to analyse the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of efficiency, and analyses the influencing factors of the change of the RNCUE in Chongqing through a spatial econometric model. The results show that: (1) The RNCUE in Chongqing is still at a low level as a whole and there is a large space for efficiency improvement and efficient operation. There is a certain spatial dependence on the interaction of efficiency between adjacent districts and counties. (2) High-high agglomeration is concentrated in the western area of Chongqing One-hour Economic Circle, and low-low agglomeration is concentrated in Southeast and Northeast Chongqing. The probability of a large change in the RNCUE in consecutive years is small, and it is easy to form the phenomenon of “club convergence” in space. (3) The RNCUE in Chongqing has been affected by rainfall, temperature, NDVI, the per capita GDP, proportion of fixed asset investment, expenditure for agriculture, and proportion of primary industry and rural population. The influencing factors show that the spatial heterogeneity is significant. The RNCUE has a negative correlation with forest coverage and the expenditure for agriculture, is not significantly positive or negative with the proportion of the primary industry and is positively correlated with the rural population density. This study points out that we can improve the RNCUE in Chongqing by optimizing the spatial differentiation control mechanism, clarifying property rights, enhancing liquidity, and strengthening scientific and technological innovation.