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The aging of the rural population is one of the important social problems facing China and the world. To provide strategic support for coping with the challenges brought by an aging society, this study examined the impact of aging of the rural population on agricultural green total factor productivity (AGTFP) and the mechanism of transmission between them, based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2000 to 2022. The results showed that, first, the aging of the rural population had a negative inhibitory effect on AGTFP, a conclusion that remained valid after a series of robustness tests. Second, the heterogeneity analysis showed that the aging of the rural population in western China had a significant negative impact on AGTFP, while the effect was less significant in eastern and central regions. The intensity of environmental regulation will increase the negative impact of an aging rural population on AGTFP. Third, the analysis of the mechanism showed that the aging of the rural population had a negative impact on AGTFP by inhibiting labor productivity, scientific research and innovation, and farmland transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rational allocation of land use space is crucial to carbon emissions reductions and economic development. However, previous studies have either examined inter-objective trade-offs or intra-objective trade-offs within a single objective and lacked multilevel and comprehensive studies. Therefore, this paper integrates inter- and intra-objective carbon mitigation and economic efficiency trade-offs to comprehensively study the interaction between land pattern demand and space due to policies. The research methods were mainly multi-objective planning, a gray model, and patch-generating land use simulation model, and the study area was the less-developed urban agglomeration—the Tianshan north slope urban agglomeration. The results of the study show that the total change area of the study area from 2000 to 2020 was 5767.94 km2, the grassland area was transferred out the most, 3582.59 km2, accounting for 62.11%, and the cultivated land area was transferred in the most, 3741.01 km2. Compared with 2020, the simulated land use pattern obtained for 2030 has significantly changed. In addition, the total economic benefits and total carbon emissions under the economic and low-carbon objectives changed in the opposite direction. The four landscape patterns under the three scenarios of economic and low-carbon objectives changed in the same direction, and the degree of landscape fragmentation, agglomeration, and regularity under the low-carbon objective was better than that under the economic objective. The study results are essential references for future land resource management, carbon mitigation, and sustainable development of urban agglomerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local officials play active and important roles in the high-quality agricultural development process in China. In this study, the DEA-SBM model was used to measure the level of agricultural quality development in China, and Tobit regression was conducted to analyze the impacts of officials on agricultural quality development in China. The results showed that between 1997 and 2016, the agricultural GTFP exhibited a downward trend before following an upward trend in China. The personal characteristics of officials had important effects on the development of agricultural quality. In different development stages, officials had diverse effects on agricultural quality development.