Spatial spillover effects of digital rural construction on carbon emissions from agriculture

Digital rural construction is one of the most significant driving forces to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of agriculture. It is also an important way to realize the goal of “double carbon”. This study aims to explore the impact mechanism of digital rural construction on agricultural carbon emissions. An evaluation index system of digital rural construction was established with 15 secondary indicators, from four dimensions of rural digital foundation, production, economy, and life. The “vertical and horizontal” scatter degree method was used to measure the level of digital rural construction in different provinces of China from 2012 to 2022. A series of tests were further carried out to determine the spatial spillover effect of digital rural construction on agricultural carbon emissions using the spatial Durbin model. The results show that: 1) There was a significantly positive correlation between the global Moran’s index of digital rural construction and agricultural carbon emissions. The spatial agglomeration was gradually increasing during the survey period. 2) Digital rural construction was realized to inhibit agricultural carbon emissions, according to the spatial spillover and significant negative direct effect. Specifically, the spatial spillover effect was greater than the direct effect, indicating the more outstanding inhibitory on agricultural carbon emissions in adjacent areas. The reason is that the digital rural construction exported advanced agricultural production technology and experience to the adjacent areas through demonstration effect and spillover effect, thus highlighting the inhibitory effect on agricultural carbon emissions in neighboring regions. 3) The level of urbanization significantly promoted the agricultural carbon emissions in the region and surroundings; The transfer of the rural labor force significantly inhibited the agricultural carbon emissions in the region and surroundings; The agricultural planting structure significantly promoted the agricultural carbon emissions in the region, while it significantly inhibited the agricultural carbon emissions in neighboring regions; The level of agricultural development significantly promoted the agricultural carbon emissions in the region, but it had no significant impact in the adjacent areas. 4) The heterogeneity test showed that there was a significantly negative correlation between the direct and indirect effects of digital rural construction on agricultural carbon emissions in the eastern region and its neighboring regions. There were no significant direct and indirect effects of digital rural construction on agricultural carbon emissions in the central and western regions. It also indicated that the digital rural construction in the eastern region shared a significant inhibitory effect on agricultural carbon emissions in the region and surroundings. However, there was no outstanding carbon reduction of digital rural construction in the central and western regions. In addition, there were no significant direct, indirect, and total effects of digital rural construction on agricultural carbon emissions in major grain-producing areas. There was a significantly negative correlation between the indirect and total effects of digital rural construction on agricultural carbon emissions in non-major grain-producing areas. There was a significant spatial spillover effect on the inhibition of agricultural carbon emissions in non-major grain-producing areas. Therefore, the digital rural construction should be accelerated to narrow the digital divide in interregional synergistic development. At the same time, the large-scale operation of agriculture should be integrated and applied to the data elements in the whole process of agricultural production. Finally, the green and low-carbon transformation of agriculture can also be promoted to fully realize the inhibiting effect of various influencing factors on agricultural carbon emissions.