Indicators for Evaluating High-Quality Agricultural Development: Empirical Study from Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

Abstract

Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy, and achieving high-quality agricultural development is an important support for strong economic development in the post-pandemic era. Based on the new development philosophy of the Chinese government, this study constructs an evaluation framework of “innovation-coordination-green-openness-sharing” for high-quality agricultural development, and quantitatively assesses the level of high-quality agricultural development in China's Yangtze River Economic Belt with a systematic integration model, and explores the spatial evolution characteristics and obstacles of the level of high-quality agricultural development in Yangtze River Economic Belt. It reveals that the level of high-quality agricultural development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt shows a fluctuating upward trend in general, but there is variability among regions. The green dimension has the fastest development rate, followed by innovation and sharing. In terms of spatial characteristics, it gradually shows a pattern dominated by high levels and shows the characteristics of agglomeration, but the spatial correlation is not high. In terms of obstacle factors, openness and coordination are the main obstacle factors. Considering the different agricultural development models, it is suggested that international cooperation, new agricultural cooperation, and differentiated policies can be considered to promote high-quality agricultural development. This study provides a more complete evaluation framework for government policy-making authorities to measure the level of regional agricultural development and help regional agriculture achieve sustainable development at a higher quality level.