Spatio-temporal patterns and impact factors of green economic growth of agriculture in the Yangtze River Economic Belt

Accelerating the transformation of development mode and promoting the growth of green agriculture are important measures to reduce agricultural pollution and improve agricultural efficiency. The Yangtze River Economic Belt is an important agricultural production area and grain production base in China. In order to analyze the level and influential factors of agricultural green growth in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, agricultural green production was estimated from 2003 to 2017, and its spatio-temporal pattern and influencing factors were analyzed by using spatial econometric analysis methods. There were four main results. Firstly, agricultural green production value of the Yangtze River Economic Belt displayed a generally increasing trend, and the rate of increase was lower than the traditional agricultural production value. The proportion of agricultural green production value to the traditional agricultural production value displayed a downward trend. Secondly, a significant regional difference of agricultural green production value was evident in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. However, a similar pattern of traditional production value was evident, which descended from east to west. Thirdly, significant spatial cluster characteristics were observed in agricultural green growth of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The cluster effect gradually weakened. Fourthly, the level of economic development, scientific and technological innovation, infrastructure investment, labor quality, and agricultural policy positively affected green economic growth of agriculture in the local region. Scientific and infrastructure investment positively influenced green growth of agriculture in neighboring regions. In general, agricultural green production in the Yangtze River Economic Belt displayed a steady upward trend in temporal characteristics and a downward trend from east to west in the spatial pattern. The dynamic evolution of spatio-temporal patterns of agricultural green economic development in Yangtze River Economic Belt were driven by combined effects of the impact factors.