IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i18p8450-d1754061.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Agricultural Green Development on Farmers’ Income Quality in China

Author

Listed:
  • Nan Chen

    (College of Economics and Management, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China)

Abstract

As China’s agriculture transitions toward high-quality development, reconciling agricultural green transformation with improved farmers’ income quality has become critical. This study seeks to investigate the effects of agricultural green development on the quality of farmers’ income from three dimensions: direct impact, structural influence, and heterogeneous characteristics. Leveraging provincial panel data from China spanning the period 2011 to 2022, a mixed-methods research design is adopted to conduct empirical analysis. First, the entropy weight method is applied to evaluate the comprehensive development level of agricultural green development and the quality of farmers’ income, along with their respective temporal variation features. On this basis, a two-way fixed effects model is then constructed to examine three core issues: the overall impact of agricultural green development on farmers’ income quality, as well as the structural heterogeneity and spatial heterogeneity characteristics inherent in this impact relationship. The results show that agricultural green development has significantly promoted farmers’ income quality in China, with improved resource utilization efficiency and output quality being the core driving factors, while environmentally friendly practices exhibit a negative effect in the short term. Specifically, agricultural green development significantly enhances income adequacy and structure but has a short-term inhibitory effect on income growth, with no significant impact on knowledge-based income. Regional heterogeneity analysis shows the strongest positive effect in the western region, followed by the eastern region, a negative impact in the northeastern region, and an insignificant effect in the central region. The income-increasing effect of green development is more significant in regions with poor natural resource endowments and low fiscal support for agriculture but is weakened in regions with high market vitality. This study provides a theoretical and practical basis for formulating differentiated agricultural green development policies and improving farmers’ income quality. These findings enrich the theoretical interface between agricultural green transformation and rural income improvement and offer actionable, region-specific policy insights by clarifying the constraints, key links and heterogeneous effects involved.

Suggested Citation

  • Nan Chen, 2025. "The Impact of Agricultural Green Development on Farmers’ Income Quality in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-50, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:18:p:8450-:d:1754061
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/18/8450/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/18/8450/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jikun Huang & Scott Rozelle & Xinkai Zhu & Shiji Zhao & Yu Sheng, 2020. "Agricultural and rural development in China during the past four decades: an introduction," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(1), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Zhiyan Ma & Guanghua Qiao, 2024. "Can Creating an Agro-Product Regional Public Brand Improve the Ability of Farmers to Sustainably Increase Their Revenue?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-22, May.
    3. Qinghao Wang & Chentao Zhang & Mingyue Gong & Beiqi Zhu, 2024. "Village Organization and Sustainable Growth of Farmers’ Income: An Empirical Study Based on Dynamic Survey Data of the Labor Force in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-25, October.
    4. Wei Xie & Anfeng Zhu & Tariq Ali & Zhengtao Zhang & Xiaoguang Chen & Feng Wu & Jikun Huang & Kyle Frankel Davis, 2023. "Publisher Correction: Crop switching can enhance environmental sustainability and farmer incomes in China," Nature, Nature, vol. 618(7966), pages 26-26, June.
    5. Bazyli Czyżewski & Andrzej Czyżewski & Łukasz Kryszak, 2019. "The Market Treadmill Against Sustainable Income of European Farmers: How the CAP Has Struggled with Cochrane’s Curse," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-16, February.
    6. Armand Kasztelan & Anna Nowak & Joanna Hawlena, 2019. "Green Growth in Agriculture in the European Union: Myth or Reality?," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 35-48.
    7. Armand Kasztelan, 2017. "Green Growth, Green Economy and Sustainable Development: Terminological and Relational Discourse," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2017(4), pages 487-499.
    8. Meiyuan Wang & Bin He & Jinsong Zhang & Yanan Jin, 2021. "Analysis of the Effect of Cooperatives on Increasing Farmers’ Income from the Perspective of Industry Prosperity Based on the PSM Empirical Study in Shennongjia Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-18, November.
    9. Hatice Parlakçı Doğan & Mustafa Hakkı Aydoğdu & Mehmet Reşit Sevinç & Mehmet Cançelik, 2020. "Farmers’ Willingness to Pay for Services to Ensure Sustainable Agricultural Income in the GAP-Harran Plain, Şanlıurfa, Turkey," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-16, May.
    10. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    11. Rong Zhao & Xiaolu Qiu & Shaozhi Chen, 2021. "Empirical Study on the Effects of Technology Training on the Forest-Related Income of Rural Poverty-Stricken Households—Based on the PSM Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-12, June.
    12. Reardon, Thomas & Barrett, Christopher B., 2000. "Agroindustrialization, globalization, and international development: An overview of issues, patterns, and determinants," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 195-205, September.
    13. Ruining Li & Yanli Yu, 2022. "Impacts of Green Production Behaviors on the Income Effect of Rice Farmers from the Perspective of Outsourcing Services: Evidence from the Rice Region in Northwest China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-27, October.
    14. Tingting Huang & Bin Xiong, 2022. "Space Comparison of Agricultural Green Growth in Agricultural Modernization: Scale and Quality," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-17, July.
    15. Haiyuan Wan & Yangcheng Yu, 2023. "Correction of China's income inequality for missing top incomes," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(3), pages 1769-1791, August.
    16. M. Chilundo & W. de Sousa & E. W. Christen & J. Faduco & H. Bjornlund & E. Cheveia & P. Munguambe & F. Jorge & R. Stirzaker & A. F. van Rooyen, 2020. "Do agricultural innovation platforms and soil moisture and nutrient monitoring tools improve the production and livelihood of smallholder irrigators in Mozambique?," International Journal of Water Resources Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(S1), pages 127-147, October.
    17. Stefan Dercon, 2002. "Income Risk, Coping Strategies, and Safety Nets," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 17(2), pages 141-166, September.
    18. Qiuqin Zheng & Xiaoting Wen & Xintian Xiu & Qiuhua Chen, 2023. "Income Quality and Organic Food Purchase Intention: The Chain Mediating Role of Environmental Value, Perceived Consumer Effectiveness," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, December.
    19. Xiaohua Wang & Meilan Chen & Xi He & Fangfang Zhang, 2018. "Credit Constraint, Credit Adjustment, and Sustainable Growth of Farmers’ Income," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-15, November.
    20. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    21. Qiuyi Huang & Xiaoping Zheng & Ruimei Wang, 2022. "The Impact of the Accessibility of Transportation Infrastructure on the Non-Farm Employment Choices of Rural Laborers: Empirical Analysis Based on China’s Micro Data," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-15, June.
    22. Yugang He & Jingnan Wang & Xiaodan Gao & Yinhui Wang & Baek Ryul Choi, 2021. "Rural Tourism: Does It Matter for Sustainable Farmers’ Income?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-16, September.
    23. Yalin Mo & Dinghai Sun & Yu Zhang, 2023. "Green Finance Assists Agricultural Sustainable Development: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-15, January.
    24. Sinn, Hans-Werner, 2012. "The Green Paradox: A Supply-Side Approach to Global Warming," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262016680, December.
    25. Zhang, Chen & Yu, Yangcheng & Li, Qinghai, 2023. "Top incomes and income polarisation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    26. Danni Lu & Xinhuan Zhang & Degang Yang & Shubao Zhang, 2025. "What Affects Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity in China? A Configurational Perspective Based on Dynamic Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-25, January.
    27. Yun Xia & Guozhang Xu, 2025. "Can Digital Financial Inclusion Promote the Sustainable Growth of Farmers’ Income?—An Empirical Analysis Based on Panel Data from 30 Provinces in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-22, February.
    28. Alex Bowen & Cameron Hepburn, 2014. "Green growth: an assessment," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 30(3), pages 407-422.
    29. Yuanying Chi & Yangmei Xu & Xu Wang & Feng Jin & Jialin Li, 2021. "A Win–Win Scenario for Agricultural Green Development and Farmers’ Agricultural Income: An Empirical Analysis Based on the EKC Hypothesis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-21, July.
    30. Chengze Li & Dianwei Zhang & Qian Lu & Jiajing Wei & Qingsong Zhang, 2024. "Production Process Outsourcing, Farmers’ Operation Capability, and Income-Enhancing Effects," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Armand Kasztelan, 2020. "Towards Green Growth: A Taxonomic Analysis Based on the Headline Indicators," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 1), pages 749-759.
    2. Vlada Vitunskienė & Lina Lauraitienė, 2025. "Green Growth in Agriculture: Long-Term Evidence from European Union Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-24, January.
    3. Alexander Klemm & Stefan Parys, 2012. "Empirical evidence on the effects of tax incentives," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(3), pages 393-423, June.
    4. Emilie Caldeira & Martial Foucault & Gregoire Rota-Graziosi, 2015. "Decentralization in Africa and the nature of local governments’ competition: evidence from Benin," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(6), pages 1048-1076, December.
    5. Elisabetta Lodigiani & Sara Salomone, 2015. "Migration-induced Transfers of Norms. Political Empowerment?The case of Female Political Empowerment," Working Papers 2015:19, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    6. Gaudeul, Alexia & Giannetti, Caterina, 2011. "The role of reciprocation in social network formation, with an application to blogging," MPRA Paper 34094, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Bazart, C. & Bonein, A., 2014. "Reciprocal relationships in tax compliance decisions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 83-102.
    8. Feng Zhou & Chunhui Wen, 2023. "Research on the Level of Agricultural Green Development, Regional Disparities, and Dynamic Distribution Evolution in China from the Perspective of Sustainable Development," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-47, July.
    9. Duy Linh Nguyen & Trung Thanh Nguyen & Ulrike Grote, 2023. "Shocks, household consumption, and livelihood diversification: a comparative evidence from panel data in rural Thailand and Vietnam," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 3223-3255, October.
    10. Pervin Ersoy & Gülmüş Börühan & Sachin Kumar Mangla & Jorge Hernandez Hormazabal & Yigit Kazancoglu & Çisem Lafcı, 2022. "Impact of information technology and knowledge sharing on circular food supply chains for green business growth," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 1875-1904, July.
    11. Caldeira, Emilie, 2012. "Yardstick competition in a federation: Theory and evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 878-897.
    12. Clark, Andrew E. & Etilé, Fabrice, 2011. "Happy house: Spousal weight and individual well-being," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 1124-1136.
    13. Hema Yoganarasimhan, 2012. "Impact of social network structure on content propagation: A study using YouTube data," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 111-150, March.
    14. Georganas, Sotiris & Laliotis, Ioannis & Velias, Alina, 2022. "The best is yet to come: The impact of retirement on prosocial behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 589-615.
    15. Simmons, Rob & Berri, David J., 2011. "Mixing the princes and the paupers: Pay and performance in the National Basketball Association," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 381-388, June.
    16. Massimiliano Agovino & Giuliana Parodi, 2015. "Human Development and the Determinants of the Incidence of Civilian Disability Pensions in Italy: A Spatial Panel Perspective," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 122(2), pages 553-576, June.
    17. repec:lan:wpaper:3551 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Kurosaki, Takashi & Khan, Hidayat Ullah, 2011. "Vulnerability of Microfinance to Strategic Default and Covariate Shocks:Evidence from Pakistan," PRIMCED Discussion Paper Series 10, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    19. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "R&D and productivity: the unfinished business," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 25(2 Year 19), pages 145-160, December.
    20. Yanan Li & Ravi Kanbur & Carl Lin, 2019. "Minimum Wage Competition between Local Governments in China," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(12), pages 2479-2494, December.
    21. Aidt, Toke S. & Jensen, Peter S., 2014. "Workers of the world, unite! Franchise extensions and the threat of revolution in Europe, 1820–1938," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 52-75.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:18:p:8450-:d:1754061. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.