Towards agricultural green development: how does digital economy enhance agricultural green total factor productivity?

Introduction Green development has become the global consensus. The digital economy acts as an emerging driver of agricultural green development and plays a key role in boosting agricultural green total factor productivity. Therefore, to address resource and environmental constraints during agriculture’s modern transition, clarifying its relationship with agricultural green total factor productivity is essential for promoting agricultural green development. Methods This study quantifies the digital economy and agricultural green total factor productivity using the vertical and horizontal scatter degree method and the SBM-GML index model, based on panel data from Chinese 30 provinces over the period 2013 to 2021. We empirically examine the impact of the digital economy on agricultural green total factor productivity and explore its underlying transmission mechanisms using a two-way fixed effects model, a mediation effects model, and a threshold effects model. Results Our results show that the digital economy significantly improves agricultural green total factor productivity. Factors such as labor productivity, technological advancement, and degree of marketization each serve as a partial mediating role in the mechanism through which the digital economy enhances agricultural green total factor productivity, with mediation contribution rates of 20.5%, 19.0%, and 8.6%, respectively. Further analysis reveals that the impact of the digital economy on agricultural green total factor productivity exhibits pronounced heterogeneity and threshold effects.