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China's urban–rural dichotomy has resulted in a widening gap between urban and rural areas, posing significant challenges to rural development. This study aims to investigate the spatio-temporal differentiation and driving mechanisms of rural industry integration within the Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle in China. Using panel data from 2011 to 2020, we employed the entropy weight TOPSIS method to construct a comprehensive index that charts the evolution of rural industry integration across various districts and counties. Additionally, we utilized fixed-effect and spatio-temporally weighted regression models to analyze the underlying driving forces behind this integration. Our findings reveal a dynamic and varied landscape of rural industry integration, with different levels of depth and breadth across various subsystems. Spatially, we observed a transition from a dispersed to a more concentrated agglomeration pattern within the Chengdu–Chongqing Economic Circle. This shift suggests a diffusion effect emanating from core metropolitan areas, as well as an attracting force exerted by adjacent metropolitan circles. In terms of drivers, market demand, openness level, financial development, policy support, and agricultural insurance breadth significantly contribute to rural industry integration. However, technological progress and rural human capital exhibit a weaker correlation. Notably, our models identified pronounced spatial–temporal heterogeneity among these influencing factors, highlighting a nuanced and dynamic relationship between them. Overall, our study emphasizes the crucial role of rural industry integration in bridging the urban–rural divide and fostering sustainable agricultural development and rural revitalization. The insights gained from this research provide valuable guidance for policymakers and stakeholders seeking to optimize rural development strategies and unlock the potential of integrated rural industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the impact of farmers' livelihood assets and adaptation approaches on livelihoods. We proposed a new paradigm for the sustainable livelihoods of smallholders based on the grounded theory, to exploit seven household assets and used mixed methodological approaches of growers' livelihood assets and climatic adaptation strategies based on farmers' livelihood concerns in Sindh province of Pakistan and to better understand smallholder farmers' sustainable livelihoods and applied a partial least square path modeling. Considering central critical paths, psychological assets (PsyA) entail mediational factors into the sustainable livelihoods index. The findings show that the essential support of the livelihood of farmers' social, cultural, economic, and human assets positively impacts sustainable livelihoods, though physical and natural assets depict a nonsignificant impact on SLI. However, human and financial assets show comparatively substantial effects on smallholders' adaptation strategies; consequently, physical, social, and natural assets reveal significant impacts on farmers' livelihoods. The study further indicates that PsyA can, directly and indirectly, boost the human and physical assets and exploit the farmers' sustainable livelihoods index successfully. Lastly, this research proposed policy suggestions for poverty reduction and sustainable livelihoods of small-scale growers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the sample data of rural households in China's income survey (CHIP 2013), this paper divides the family structure into elite and incomplete families and analyzes the impact of family structure's heterogeneity on land transferred out. The Tobit and Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models are applied to achieve the study's objectives. The results show that the elite family has a significant positive impact on the paid land subcontract area, while the incomplete family is not significant. After further refining the elite families, it is found that the influence of the families with the political status of Party members (non-grassroots cadres) on the land transfer area is more significant, while the influence of the families with the status of grassroots cadres on the land transfer area is less significant. Then, the formation mechanism of the difference between these two is discussed, which may be explained by the heterogeneity of their endowment structure, functions, and livelihood attributes. After a series of robustness tests, the results still show that elite families significantly positively impact the area of land transferred out. Finally, based on the differences in land transfer areas and the consequences of different resource endowments, the corresponding countermeasures and suggestions are put forward from the aspects of strengthening grassroots governance, legal awareness, and establishing and improving the protection mechanism of vulnerable rural groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nutritional status plays an indispensable role in enhancing human capital and preventing the return to poverty. In the context of the three-child policy and the aging society in China, intergenerational care will inevitably become a core component of family support. Thus, this paper evaluates the impacts of intergenerational care behavior on nutritional intake in Chinese rural residents from the perspective of household consumption. The study's data is from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) (2010–2014), and, the fixed effect model and analyses are applied to achieve the study's objective. The results reveal that rural residents with intergenerational family care behavior have significantly higher food diversity. Thus, Chinese rural residents with intergenerational care consumed 22.4% more food. A possible mechanism is that intergenerational care improves young mothers' labor participation and income, thus optimizing their dietary structure. Moreover, there was heterogeneity concerning the nutrition intake among rural residents in different geographic and family net income groups. Finally, the robust check is consistent with the baseline regression results. In summary, governments should fully affirm the elderly contribution to families to give full play to the elderly family benefit maximization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how grain subsidy policy (GSP) in farmland transfer affects farmers' green production behavior (FGPB) for promoting green agricultural development and improving grain subsidy policy. In this study, we used the data of the China Household Finance Survey (CHFS, 2015) and applied the Probit model to discover the impact and mechanism of the GSP on FGPB in farmland transfer. In addition, we also analyzed the mediating effect of farmers' credit constraints and the moderating effect of farmers' risk tolerance. The results show that, firstly, grain subsidy to the actual operator of the farmland generally promotes farmers' excessive fertilizer application behavior, while there is no significant effect on farmers' excessive pesticide application behavior. Secondly, the mediating effect of farmers' credit constraints on the impact of GSP on FGPB is not significant. Thirdly, farmers' risk tolerance plays a significant moderating effect in the impact of GSP on farmers' excessive fertilizer application behavior. Finally, GSP mainly promotes excessive fertilizer application behavior among farmers in Eastern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the entrepreneurial performance of farmers is conducive to increasing their income, reducing poverty, and securing livelihoods. In the quest for sustainable livelihoods, non-cognitive skills are becoming increasingly significant. Based on data from the 2018 Chinese Family Panel Study, this paper uses the 'Big Five' personality traits and a cross-sectional regression model to construct an indicator system to analyze farmers' non-cognitive skills empirically and determine how these skills affect entrepreneurial performance. The results are as follows: (1) non-cognitive skills that significantly affect farmers' entrepreneurial performance are, in order of influence, openness, extroversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. After considering endogeneity and substitution-explained variables, the above conclusions are still robust. (2) Heterogeneity analysis finds that farmers over 40 and those who start their businesses in cities have higher returns on non-cognitive entrepreneurship. (3) The paper confirms that non-cognitive skills improve farmers' entrepreneurial performance through human and social capital effects. Therefore, entrepreneurs should consciously improve their non-cognitive skills by cultivating an enterprising and innovative spirit and social skills. The government's entrepreneurship training for farmers should also focus on setting up courses in non-cognitive skills development to enhance farmers' entrepreneurial literacy and skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the impact of off-farm employment on rural household agriculture credit fungibility (CF) using survey data collected from four regions in Ghana; however, the study paid more attention to agriculture credit received from different sources. By employing the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model, we solved the endogenous issue of off-farm employment. The econometrics model result revealed that off-farm employment negatively influences the household's probability of practicing agriculture CF. Our results discovered the importance of off-farm employment on agriculture CF and recommended policy implications capable of alleviating agriculture CF. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In several rural areas of China, ecological public welfare work is an effective way to improve farmers' social participation. This job does not only increase farmers' income but also greatly improves their enthusiasm for ecological environment protection. Under the goal of carbon neutrality in peak carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, it is necessary to explore the impact of ecological public welfare jobs on the usage of Clean Energy (CE) in rural areas. Based on the data of 1100 farmers from Tibet areas in China, this paper applied the Ordered Probit model to explore the impact of ecological public welfare jobs on farmers' use of CE. The results are as follows: (1) Holding ecological public welfare jobs can raise farmers' willingness to use CE; (2) Holding ecological public welfare jobs can also promote farmers' use of CE by enhancing their ecological environment cognition and influencing their social behavior; (3) The impact of ecological public welfare work on CE use has regional and income heterogeneities. Firstly, this effect is smaller in mixed pastoral-farming areas than in agricultural and pastoral areas. Secondly, this effect is more obvious in low-income groups. Our study provided several policies aimed at improving rural and environmental development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This cross-sectional study sought to identify gender differences in individual behavioral attitudes, personal traits, and entrepreneurial education based on planned behavior theory. The Smart partial least squares (PLS) structural equation model and PLS path modeling were used. A survey design was used to collect data from 309 samples using quantitative measures. The model was tested for validity and reliability and showed variance (full, R2 = 58.9% and split, R2 = 62.7% and R2 = 52.7%) in male and female model predictive power, respectively. Subjective norms (SN), personality traits (PT), and entrepreneurial education (EE) significantly impacted the male sample's intention. Females' intentions toward entrepreneurship was less affected by attitude toward behavior (ATB), subjective norms (SN), perceived behavioral control (PBC), and entrepreneurship education (EE). Further, attitudes, social norms, and behavioral controls as mediation variables indicate a significant and positive role of male and female intentions. These findings imply that behavioral beliefs (ATB, PBC, and SN) influence entrepreneurial intention-action translation. The results significantly supported the designed hypotheses and shed light on individual personality traits (PT) and entrepreneurship education (EE) underpinning enterprise intention. The study determined that EE and PT are the strongest predictors of intention, thus highlighting the role of these motives in the entrepreneurial process. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on youth entrepreneurs, expands our understanding of entrepreneurship as a practical career choice, and offers a novel account differentiating male and female PT. The drive to evaluate the effects of entrepreneurial intention among budding disparities in Pakistan requires a more profound knowledge of the aspects that endorse entrepreneurship as a choice of profession and enhances youth incentive abilities to engage in entrepreneurial activities based on exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding business trails among promising aspirants may contribute to an actual motive for diminishing ecological tracks and escort to developing devotion toward deciding intentions across various entrepreneurial types and tiers solely from the sustainability domains. Therefore, this study endeavors to comprehend and seek to employ the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to inspect the relationship between antecedents on sustainable enterprise intention and sustainable value creation. In this study, we used the convenience sampling method and the quantitative data of 1,070 respondents from Pakistan and China and applied a SmartPLS structural equation model and partial least square path modeling by mediational and multigroup analyses. Findings divulge that R2 (79.8%) value in the Pakistan sample of attitudes to sustainability, perceived entrepreneurial desirability (PED), and perceived entrepreneurial feasibility (PEF) was comparatively higher than in China. The R2 (75.6%) variance value on sustainable entrepreneurial intentions (SEI) was recorded higher in the Pakistani sample. However, the relationship of environmental values, self-efficacy, and extrinsic and intrinsic rewards show positive and significant mediational effects on both the economies of SEI. The findings disclosed an inconsistent character of extrinsic rewards, general self-efficacy, and job security depict negative significant impacts of aspirations on sustainable entrepreneurship (SE) among promising entrepreneurs on sustainability enterprises in both Pakistan and China. This study extends on existing entrepreneurship literature. Results supported the designed hypothesis and played a significant role in shedding light on an individual trait underpinning a career in a sustainable business start-up. The study looks at the issue from the viewpoint of sustainability domains. It seeks to determine the individual PED, PEF, and attitude toward sustainable entrepreneurship (ATSE) as the mediational variables. The study highlights the importance of work values in pursuing sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship programs for promising aspirants to improve their entrepreneurial skills and knowledge podium, which will encourage them to become sustainable future entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the study provides understandings for ratifying sustainable openings and debates the potential paths for sustainable business growth and opportunities among nascent entrepreneurs in both economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates acculturation stress among Pakistani students who are studying in Chinese universities, located in five provinces where international students are concentrated, with a mix-method approach. 203 students among 260 questionnaire recipients responded the online survey. When using the ASSIS (Acculturation Stress Scale for International Students) as instrument, the Principal Component Analysis Method and SPSS 20.0, we found that Pakistani students are under acculturative stress, 68.53%, 10.97% and 9.15% of them perceived discrimination, home sickness and perceived hate, and 5.25%, 3.11% and 2.58% of them fear, culture shock and guilt respectively. The qualitative segment of the study is consisted of 20 Pakistani students studying in 4 universities located in Wuhan city of Hubei capital enquiring through semi-structured interviews. The findings illustrate that Pakistani students in China are expressing their major concerns on culture shock, homesickness, food and language barriers while disconfirm ASSIS findings like perceived discrimination, hate, fear and guilt as factors responsible for acculturative stress. The study suggested that pre-departure orientation lectures about host country's cultural values and campus environment, and on-campus extra-curricular, cultural activities and maximum social interaction with local students can effectively acculturate students in new cultural setting, and can lower their acculturative stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cereal and oilseed crops possess significance in meeting global food security. China, housing the most number of people, remains the top importer of oilseed crops (i.e., soybeans) to produce energy and meet its food needs. With such significance, the present study investigates the impact of meteorological factors on soybean production in China using the annual data from 1978 to 2020. It also incorporated other essential determinants of soybean production, such as agricultural subsidy, cultivated area, and fertilizer use. For data analysis, it employed the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method and the Quantile Regression (QR) technique. The findings from an ARDL model unveiled meteorological factors such as the yearly average temperature and CO 2 emissions declined soybean production in the long–run and short–run analysis, whereas the yearly average precipitation improved soybean production. Besides, agricultural subsidy, cultivated area, and fertilizer use also enhanced soybean production in the long–and short–run analyses. In addition, the findings from the Quantile Regression (QR) technique showed that temperature and CO 2 emissions negatively affected soybean production in each quantile (i.e., 0.1–0.90), while precipitation and agricultural subsidy positively augmented soybean production across all quantiles (i.e., 0.1–0.90). Based on these results, the study provides clear policy implications, such as governments should provide crop-specific subsidies instead of input-based subsidies to embolden the impact of agricultural subsidies. Also, ecological improvement campaigns should be launched to attract farmers' attention to sustainable agriculture practices to meet meteorological challenges. [Display omitted] • Impact of climate change on soybean production is examined. • The role of agricultural subsidy for soybean production is investigated. • Agricultural subsidy increases soybean production. • Rainfall augments soybean production. • Temperature and CO2 negatively affected soybean production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The agricultural industry is getting more data-centric and requires precise, more advanced data and technologies than before, despite being familiar with agricultural processes. The agriculture industry is being advanced by various information and advanced communication technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT). The rapid emergence of these advanced technologies has restructured almost all other industries, as well as advanced agriculture, which has shifted the industry from a statistical approach to a quantitative one. This radical change has shaken existing farming techniques and produced the latest prospects in a series of challenges. This comprehensive review article enlightens the potential of the IoT in the advancement of agriculture and the challenges faced when combining these advanced technologies with conventional agricultural systems. A brief analysis of these advanced technologies with sensors is presented in advanced agricultural applications. Numerous sensors that can be implemented for specific agricultural practices require best management practices (e.g., land preparation, irrigation systems, insect, and disease management). This review includes the integration of all suitable techniques, from sowing to harvesting, packaging, transportation, and advanced technologies available for farmers throughout the cropping system. Besides, this review article highlights the utilization of other tools such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for crop monitoring and other beneficiary measures, such as optimizing crop yields. In addition, advanced programs based on the IoT are also discussed. Finally, based on our comprehensive review, we identified advanced prospects regarding the IoT, which are essential tools for sustainable agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of entrepreneurship is considered essential for the economy, and many researchers around the world have studied it from diverse perspectives. The outcomes of this research are not yet consensual. Today, it is gaining attention and consensus due to the increasing pressure of sustainable development, so there is a need for academic research to examine this field by incorporating sustainability value creation practices and the efforts of current entrepreneurs towards said goal, especially in the case of the agricultural sector. Accordingly, this study aims to address the problem of what drives students to incorporate sustainable agriculture in their entrepreneurial ventures. Moreover, we aim to determine whether the value placed in the triple bottom line affects the intention to establish sustainable businesses. The study is based on five antecedents of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TBP) and was designed to explore the mechanism underlying the intention to promote sustainable entrepreneurship in agriculture. The primary objective was to collect and analyze the data using the partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) to test the determinants. The results revealed that the indicators of a favorable sustainable attitude, supportive subjective norms, control behaviors, adequate opportunity recognitions, and encouraging the triple bottom line had strong influences on the intention of promoting sustainability in entrepreneurship. Besides, the attitudes, subjective norms, opportunity recognition, and sustainability values can also predict students' significant positive intentions toward sustainable agriculture in entrepreneurship. The research findings contribute to the literature by providing an empirical basis for the formulation of policies to encourage students to start an agribusiness, thereby improving the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education development programs and bridging the gap between sustainable entrepreneurial intentions and actions. Therefore, the insight into the determinants of sustainable entrepreneurship can be an essential step toward designing a practical and durable policy mechanism for the implementation of the triple bottom line when developing entrepreneurial agriculture education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We assessed the climate change impact on wheat production in China. • We employed the FGLS, DOLS, and D–K estimation techniques. • Temperature negatively affected wheat production in the long–run. • Precipitation contributed positively to wheat production in the long-run. • Agro–chemical input (fertilizer use) enhanced wheat production in the long–run. Northern and Southern regions are the two major wheat production belts of China. Agro–climatic resources have changed significantly in recent years, threatening staple food production in these regions. As a result, it is critical to investigate the long–term effect of climate change and agri–inputs on wheat production in China's top six wheat producing provinces (Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Hubei) from 1995 to 2020. The estimated long-run results from the FGLS, DOLS, and D–K estimators revealed that climatic factors, specifically temperature, had a negative impact on wheat production, while precipitation had a positive impact. The findings also revealed that agrochemical inputs, such as fertilizer, increases wheat production, whereas pesticide use decreases wheat production significantly. The results from the Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality test showed a bidirectional causality between rainfall, fertilizer use, and cultivated area with wheat production, while a unidirectional causality association is running from labor force to wheat production. The current study provides several critical policy recommendations for China's sustainable food production through green agricultural practices and robust climate mitigation strategies. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]