Influence of Agricultural Mechanization Development on Agricultural Green Transformation in Western China, Based on the ML Index and Spatial Panel Model

The agricultural mechanization development can promote the high-quality development of agriculture, but the agriculture which faces the huge environmental pressure also needs to transform to the green sustainable development. Based on agricultural panel data of 30 provinces in China from the year 2008 to 2017, this paper measures the level of agricultural green transformation using the Malmquist–Luenberger (ML) index. Furthermore, the spatial panel econometric model is used to empirically investigate the impact of agricultural mechanization development on this green transformation. It concludes that the agricultural green transformation in western China shows an upward trend in fluctuations, with its overall transformation level still lower than the national average level. Besides, the agricultural mechanization operation level in the western region has a positive role in promoting the green transformation of agriculture, while the agricultural mechanization equipment level shows the opposite force. Compared with southwest China, the agricultural mechanization operation level in northwest China has a more positive impact. The improvement of farmers’ income and agricultural technology has positive impacts on agriculture green transformation in the whole western region, while agricultural human capital shows an opposite impact on the northwest and southwest.