Does the Belt and Road Initiative Promote the Status of Global Agricultural Trade Network?

Agricultural security stands as a critical cornerstone of national security and a key domain for global sustainable development. Using export trade data of agricultural products from the 1995–2021 FAOSTAT database, we construct a global agricultural product trade network via complex network analysis. We employ a staggered DID method to examine the BRI's impact on the intensity of agricultural product trade networks and explore its underlying mechanisms. The key findings are as follows: (1) The BRI can significantly enhance the position of participating countries within agricultural product trade networks; (2) the benefits of the initiative are particularly prominent among the least developed countries and low‐income, food‐deficit countries; (3) through three main channels—an inclusive development effect, cross‐border capital allocation effect and agricultural production efficiency effect—the BRI plays multiple roles in boosting the intensity of participating countries' agricultural product trade networks; (4) a subcategory analysis on grains, fruits and vegetables shows that the BRI exerts an apparent positive effect on various types of crucial agricultural product trade networks; (5) tests of spatial effects demonstrate that the BRI produces significant spillover effects, lifting neighbouring countries' positions in the agricultural product trade network.