Assessing the impact of China's National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone policy on agricultural carbon emissions

The global focus on the relationship between digitisation and agricultural carbon emissions remains high. However, research on the systemic ramifications of comprehensive digital policy implementation remains limited. Against the backdrop of China's pursuit of carbon neutrality and carbon emission peaking targets, we employed the difference-in-differences method to investigate the impact of applying a digital policy on agricultural carbon emissions. Our findings indicated that the implementation of the National Big Data Comprehensive Pilot Zone policy could effectively mitigate agricultural carbon emissions, resulting in a sustained positive influence. The intermediary mechanism test results validated the beneficial effects of financial expenditures on science and technology, as well as the number of information practitioners. The regional heterogeneity analysis results revealed that the policy effect was obvious in the major grain-producing areas but not in the major grain-selling areas or production-marketing balance areas. Additionally, differences in policy effectiveness were observed across different crop types. This study not only offers valuable insights for agricultural carbon reduction in China but also provides robust case data and guidance for other developing countries worldwide in the formulation and execution of digital policies aimed at promoting agricultural carbon emission reduction.