Evolution of multi-scale pattern and driving mechanism of agricultural eco-efficiency in China

Identifying the spatio-temporal evolution pattern and driving mechanism of agricultural eco-efficiency at the county, city and provincial scales in China can provide quantitative support and decision-making guidance for improving China's multi-scale agricultural green production capacity. In this study, 1965 counties, 330 cities, and 31 provincial-level administrative regions in China were taken as the research objects, and the multi-level spatio-temporal pattern and driving mechanism of agricultural eco-efficiency from 2010 to 2022 were analyzed by using the Super-SBM model, Natural Breaks method, Kernel Density Estimation, and Geographic Detectors. The results showed that: 1) From 2010 to 2022, the agricultural eco-efficiency fluctuated from 0.880 to 0.889 at the county level in China, it also increased from 0.881 to 0.889 at the city level and from 0.864 to 0.880 at the provincial level. In addition, the four regions gradually formed the development characteristics of the highest in Northeast China, the second in Central China, the middle in East China, and the smallest in West China, while the regional differences showed an evolutionary trend of larger at the county level, average at the city level, and smaller at the provincial level. 2) From the perspective of pattern evolution characteristics, the spatial pattern of agricultural eco-efficiency gradually becomes clear with the expansion of level, and the high-level areas presents the characteristics of multi-polar development along the coast, and the low-lying phenomenon of low efficiency in Western China is significant. 3) The kernel density curve of agricultural eco-efficiency at the county, city and provincial levels showed an unimodal pattern from 2010 to 2022, with the wave width narrowing with the reduction of the level, and the tail length extending with the reduction of the level. 4) Different driving factors showed significant heterogeneity in the spatial differentiation pattern of agricultural eco-efficiency at the county, city and provincial levels. The county-level government should focus on the improvement of agricultural eco-efficiency based on the background role of agricultural planting structure and cultivated land multiple cropping index, and the city and provincial governments should pay attention to the driving effects of urbanization level, economic development level and agricultural process on agricultural eco-efficiency based on top-level design. In conclusion, the results of this study can provide a scientific basis for the government to formulate agricultural eco-efficiency control measures and agricultural spatial layout optimization policies at the county, city and provincial levels to meet regional differentiated development.