Adopting low-carbon agricultural technologies (LCATs) is fundamental to reducing carbon emissions in agriculture. Our study explores the factors influencing the adoption of LCATs and the roles of production outsourcing and specialised farming within the framework of off-farm employment. In this regard, survey data were collected from 1 040 farmers in the Yellow River region of China in 2020 to examine the effect of production outsourcing on the farmers' adoption of LCATs. Potential mechanisms associated with specialised farming and off-farm employment are considered to comprehend this relationship. We also investigate the heterogeneous effects of production outsourcing on adopting LCATs, taking different education levels and arable land areas into account. The results show a positive association between production outsourcing and farmers' LCATs adoption behaviour, even after considering self-selection bias. Specifically, outsourcing production can significantly increase the likelihood of farmers adopting low-carbon tillage, low-carbon irrigation, and low-carbon fertilisation technologies by 7.2%, 8.1%, and 7.3%, respectively. This effect is more pronounced among farmers with higher levels of education and smaller areas of arable land. Furthermore, production outsourcing increases the LCATs adoption by promoting specialised farming. The findings suggest that outsourcing is vital to alleviating the lack of LCATs adoption resulting from off-farm employment.

This Special Issue on “Applications of Econometrics in Agricultural Production” has aimed to rebuild and extend the approach to agricultural production analysis by including econometric methods for (a) developing a new paradigm for agricultural production analysis that acknowledges and models the relevance of the combined economic and agronomic aspects of the production processes; (b) defining output and input demand and supply in agricultural production from a technical perspective, with the use of production function/or production frontier models; and (c) understanding agricultural market exchange and market distortions and failures from a quantitative perspective [...]

Given the increasing environmental pressures, it is essential that agriculture achieves the goal of sustainable and low-carbon development. In 2010, China, as the top carbon emitter, introduced a policy on agricultural land lease (ALL), which has been met with considerable approval from farmers and has resulted in a notable surge in the rate of ALL within the country. Nevertheless, the question of how the ALL policy affects agricultural carbon emissions (ACEs) remains unanswered. What are the transmission mechanisms? To answer these questions, this paper presents an equilibrium model that accounts for the heterogeneous production efficiency among farmers. It offers a theoretical analysis of the impact of ALL policy on agricultural carbon emission reduction (ACER) and presents an empirical test of this impact using a difference-in-differences (DID) model. Our research shows that the ALL policy gives impetus to ACER. This conclusion persists even after conducting the robustness and endogeneity tests. The mechanism posits that the policy achieves ACER through reducing the proportion of rural agricultural employees. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the policy effect is significant in both the northern and southern regions of China. Nonetheless, the effect is only observable in economically developed areas, regions with high chemical fertilizer application rates, and areas with restricted agricultural progress. This study elucidates the connection between land transfer and agricultural carbon emissions, offering empirical evidence to support the advancement of green and low-carbon agricultural development.

Food security (FS) is an important guarantee for world peace and development and the basis for building a community of human destiny, which has a bearing on the sustainable development and future destiny of humankind. This study empirically analysis the relationship between socialisation services in the whole process of agricultural production (ASS) and guaranteeing FS, as well as the path of their role, using provincial panel data from 2010 to 2022 in China as an example, using the double-difference method. The regression results show that ASS can have the ability to contribute to the level of FS, and the conclusion still holds after a series of robustness tests. The results of the heterogeneity analysis show that the role of ASS in guaranteeing FS receives the influence of the level of agricultural development in each region, while it plays a greater role in the main food-producing areas. The mechanism analysis analyses the mechanism of the role of ASS in the whole process of agricultural production in guaranteeing FS from the three links of pre-production, mid-production and post-production respectively, and finds that ASS in the whole process of agricultural production is able to guarantee FS by reducing the cost of purchasing means of production in the pre-production stage, fostering a new type of agricultural management main body in the mid-production stage, and increasing the income of farmers’ household management in the post-production stage. Based on the above findings, this study proposes corresponding policy recommendations. This study can provide insights for ensuring world FS and contribute to maintaining social stability and development. The conclusions of the study are universally applicable, and all countries in the world can benefit from and draw lessons from it.

Agriculture is a key sector in Cambodia, accounting for 22% of GDP in 2022, with 57% of households engaged in agricultural production. The vast majority of these households (94%) are involved in crop cultivation, primarily non-aromatic paddy rice, followed by mango and banana crops. Livestock and poultry farming are also significant, with 82% of farmers participating. However, aquaculture is practiced by only 6% of agricultural households. The sector remains vital for food security, despite its declining share in GDP because of structural changes in the economy. This study focuses on five provinces, examining household agricultural activities, including crop cultivation, livestock management, and aquaculture, based on a survey conducted in mid-2023. The objective is to comprehensively assess the productivity of agricultural households in Cambodia and to evaluate the nutrient content produced by their agricultural outputs.

Agriculture is a key sector in Cambodia, accounting for 22% of GDP in 2022, with 57% of households engaged in agricultural production. The vast majority of these households (94%) are involved in crop cultivation, primarily non-aromatic paddy rice, followed by mango and banana crops. Livestock and poultry farming are also significant, with 82% of farmers participating. However, aquaculture is practiced by only 6% of agricultural households. The sector remains vital for food security, despite its declining share in GDP because of structural changes in the economy. This study focuses on five provinces, examining household agricultural activities, including crop cultivation, livestock management, and aquaculture, based on a survey conducted in mid-2023. The objective is to comprehensively assess the productivity of agricultural households in Cambodia and to evaluate the nutrient content produced by their agricultural outputs.

The authors analyze two very important topics, which are intertwined, and relate to the legal regulation and application of solar energy in agriculture in our country. Solar energy reduces the costs of agricultural production in the long term and increases sustainability and competitiveness. Therefore, when it comes to the application of solar energy in agriculture, an important factor that directly affects market positioning is the greater competitiveness of food produced using clean energy. In addition, legal frameworks significant for the use of solar energy in agriculture at the European level and within the borders of the Republic of Serbia were considered as the subject of the paper. The Republic of Serbia has real potential for the production and application of solar energy, but these potentials are not sufficiently used, and the experiences of EU countries can be significant when adopting measures from the sphere of energy policy, especially if one takes into account the context of European integration in accordance with environmental protection.

For the modern economy, the agricultural sector is an important link. In a market economy, agricultural management processes have become significantly more complex, as they develop under conditions of uncertainty. This leads to the need to take into account not only traditional factors of economic activity, but also supply and demand for agricultural products, weather conditions, which largely determine the economic efficiency of the agricultural sector. The uncertainty inherent in the agro-industrial complex is the main difficulty in scientific research into the structural and functional organization of this complex. Uncertainty is generated by many factors, the most important for agricultural production are weather and market conditions, scientific and technological progress. The need to take into account and manage weather risk arises from the objective requirements of a market economy, which requires enterprises to find ways to better adapt to external and internal conditions of operation and development of production. Agricultural production is constantly being reformed in market conditions. In this regard, there is a need to develop new methodological approaches to planning the safety and development of agricultural enterprises, associations and the agro-industrial complex as a whole. The study of these issues is possible through the use of economic-mathematical modeling and computers. The article discusses the concept of planning the use and development of agricultural enterprises under conditions of uncertainty. The concept is based on the development of organizational, economic and methodological approaches to the formation of the planning process, which provides agricultural enterprises with the prerequisites for better adaptation of production in conditions of weather risk, increasing the competitive level of enterprise sustainability.

This study explores the influence of human capital development on agricultural production in Cameroon, while utilizing the data from 2000. to 2023. and analyzed them through quantile regression. The findings indicate that 78% of the variation in agricultural production is accounted for education expenditure, health expenditure, agricultural labor, and land use, which all exert a positive and significant influence on agricultural output. Conversely, fertilizers' use negatively and significantly affects production, likely due to inefficient or excessive application leading to soil degradation. The analysis further highlights that balanced investments in both education and health are essential for enhancing agricultural productivity, while imbalances in these expenditures can result in reduced output. The study underscores the importance of targeted investments in human capital development and sustainable farming practices to optimize agricultural production in Cameroon.

This study focuses on the role of agricultural production agglomeration in strengthening agricultural economic resilience, exploring the threshold effect of agricultural technological innovation level and the spatial spillover effect of agricultural production agglomeration on agricultural economic resilience. We conducted research across 31 provinces (including autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 2007 to 2022. By constructing the evaluation index system of agricultural economic resilience, the entropy value method is used to measure the value of agricultural economic resilience, and then kernel density estimation and spatial econometrics model, threshold regression model are used to analyze the relationship between agricultural production agglomeration, agricultural technological innovation and agricultural economic resilience. (1) The analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution trend shows that the overall level of China’s agricultural economic resilience continued to rise, and presented a spatial development pattern of “high in the east and low in the west.” The overall level of agricultural production agglomeration in China shows a trend of first rising and then falling, among which the level of agricultural production agglomeration in the central region is significantly higher than that in the northwest and southeast regions. (2) The spatial Durbin model shows that agricultural production agglomeration can not only effectively improve the level of local agricultural economic resilience, but also have a positive impact on neighboring agriculture economic resilience produces positive spatial spillover effects. (3) Agricultural production agglomeration can improve the level of agricultural economic resilience by promoting agricultural social service. (4) The impact of agricultural production agglomeration on agricultural economic resilience shows great differences in different geographical regions. Among them, agricultural production agglomeration in the central region has a significant positive impact on the agricultural economic resilience of both local and adjacent areas. (5) The threshold effect model shows that the impact of agricultural production agglomeration on agricultural economic resilience has significant nonlinear characteristics, and its impact shows an increasing marginal effect as the level of agricultural technological innovation increases. To address this, policymakers should reinforce agricultural cluster construction, boost innovation capacity and treasure spillover effects between regions. These insights provide valuable direction for policymakers in crafting effective measures to enhance agricultural economic resilience.