A study on agricultural investment along the Belt and Road

Abstract

On the basis of the theories of overseas foreign direct investment (OFDI) and New Economic Geography, the factors influencing the grain industry investment in the countries along the Belt and Road (herein after referred to as the “B&R countries”) were discussed, and the impacts of such investment in terms of the bilateral economic distance, institutional environments and the farmland resource levels of host countries were analyzed in depth in this study, thus expanding the theoretical analysis framework of OFDI. Empirically, the dependence on China's overseas investment was applied to measure the bilateral economic distance, and these two variables were incorporated into the empirical model along with the location characteristics of the institutional environments of host countries. The Zero-inflated Poisson Model was applied to analyze China and the B&R countries. A conclusion derived is as follows: the farmland resources of the B&R countries have a positive impact on China's overseas farmland investment, and the location characteristics of the B&R countries vary greatly. China should confer great importance to regional comparative advantages, conduct differentiated cooperation in farmland investment, strengthen the conservation of water and land resources and safeguard of farmers' livelihoods in the less developed regions, and guarantee the grain security in developing countries, while valuing the distribution and sales of agricultural products in developed regions and greatly enhance the ties between enterprises and local markets to ensure the sustainable development of grain industry investment projects in the B&R countries.