Evaluation, Regional Disparities and Driving Mechanisms of High-Quality Agricultural Development in China

Abstract

Based on China’s new development philosophy and the connotation of high-quality agricultural development, this study constructed a six-dimensional comprehensive evaluation framework: innovation-effectiveness-sustainability-coordination-openness-sharing. The spatio-temporal-range-improved entropy approach and the Dagum Gini coefficient were applied to evaluate and analyze the level of regional disparities and the dynamic distribution characteristics of high-quality agricultural development in China in the period from 2010 to 2018. The result shows that the level of high-quality agricultural development in China has steadily improved in general, but there exist prominent structural problems. Concerning regional differences, it indicated a pattern dominated by the pattern of “high in the east and low in the west”, mainly arising from the inter-regional disparity, with a gradual downward trend during the selected period. This study also comprehensively explored the four-dimensional driving mechanisms (production conditions, productivity, production relations, and production efficiency), and further examined the driving paths of various variables and regional heterogeneity using a panel Tobit model.