The green production of food currently faces the challenge of technological shortage. As agricultural technology services are an important source of technical knowledge for farmers, it is of great significance to explore how agricultural technology services influence the efficiency of green food production in order to improve its productivity. This study utilized data from the China Land and Economy Survey (CLES). Firstly, the three-stage DEA model was used to calculate the efficiency of green food production. Secondly, the generalized random forest model was used to empirically test the impact, heterogeneity, and pathways of agricultural technology services on the efficiency of green food production. This study found that: (1) Agricultural technology services have a significant positive impact on the efficiency of green food production. Among the stages, pre-production and mid-production agricultural technology services significantly improve the efficiency of green food production. However, post-production agricultural technology services do not show a significant impact. Additionally, the combination of agricultural technology services has a significant improvement effect on the efficiency of green food production. (2) The marginal effects of resource allocation by farmers have heterogeneity in terms of the impact on the efficiency of agricultural technology services in improving green food production. An increase in the proportion of the family agricultural labor force and the expansion of family-operated arable land scale significantly reduce the returns of agricultural technology services. (3) An analysis of mechanism variables showed that agricultural technology services mainly affect the efficiency of green food production through pesticide and fertilizer usage behavior, and significantly contribute to its improvement. The government should expand the scope of agricultural technology services and fully utilize their potential to improve the efficiency of green food production. Tailored strategies and policies should be implemented to guide the concept of green production during the provision of agricultural technology services, thereby promoting sustainable agricultural practices among farmers.

Indigenous rice, which can grow at higher altitudes, contains unique genes and genetic characteristics, but its future survival is uncertain. The conservation of indigenous rice is of great significance from the perspectives of both germplasm resource conservation and economic value. This paper puts forward suggestions for indigenous rice conservation in Yuanjiang County based on the stakeholder theory and the results of the three-party evolutionary game model involving the local government, enterprises or cooperatives, and farmers. This paper also provides references for the conservation and sustainable utilization of agricultural biodiversity and genetic resources in other crops. The results of the three-party evolutionary game model showed that in the short term, the protection of indigenous rice is in urgent need of encouragement and guidance from governments. This study found a close relationship between subsidies from the government and enthusiasm for buying and planting indigenous rice among enterprises as well as farmers. When the coefficient of governmental subsidy was low, enterprises tended to “not purchase”. On the contrary, when the coefficient of governmental subsidy was higher, the enterprises reached an evolutionary stable state faster, but the government reached the evolutionary stable state more slowly. When the coefficient of governmental subsidy to farmers was large, farmers tended to “do not plant” and the government tended to “do not encourage”. Therefore, the government should carefully weigh the subsidies, and take into account the local financial situation and the status quo of the restoration of indigenous rice planting as well as in-situ protection.

Based on a large national sample of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) database, the study will to provide some thoughts and suggestions for the transformation and upgrading of China’s agriculture, the enhancement of total factor productivity by exploring the agricultural production efficiency from the micro-farmers’ perspective. By constructing the models of Charnes, Cooper & Rhodes (CCR), Banker, Charnes & Cooper (BCC), Slacks-Based Model (SBM) and technology optimization Malmquist-Luenberger index, it finally obtained the comprehensive technical efficiency value, pure technical efficiency value, farm household efficiency value and green total factor productivity level value at the micro-farm household level based on the comparative analysis. It was found that: the comparison of the measures based on different models found that although there are differences in the calculated efficiency values, the pure technical efficiency values calculated by BCC are the main factors affecting the micro agricultural production efficiency values at the farmer level, the SBM model should optimize the CCR, BCC models, and more suitable for Chinese government policy formulation and optimization; the technology optimization Malmquist-Luenberger index method is the micro agricultural production efficiency measurement method of choice, with the characteristics of diverse model selection, rich application scenarios and convenient processing of negative outputs; environmental factors in the current evaluation of agricultural green total factor productivity, mainly play a negative inhibitory role, reducing the negative externalities of environmental variables output, become one of the key issues facing the current micro farm layer green total factor production enhancement; the combination of subjective and objective measures of environmental non-desired output is an important way to measure environmental factors of agricultural green total factor productivity, it can be used in practical applications based on a combination of research objectives and data availability.

Agroforestry systems present multiple benefits which include enrichment of soil quality via the use of fertilizer trees, provision of a micro climate due to tree canopies and generation of forest products such as firewood and other medicinal outputs. Agroforestry helps in better land management, livelihood diversification and to increase the land productivity. However, the debate on the role of agroforestry to help as a climate change adaption strategy has been increasing among the policy makers and other stakeholders. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential of agroforestry as a climate change adaptation strategy. The data were primarily collected from 120 respondents in Taksar of Lamjung District through questionnaire survey. A Chi-square test and binary logistic model were used to analyze the factors influencing household choice of adaptation strategies to climate change. Similarly, regular triangulation and verification of the obtained data were made through interviews, discussions and observations followed by the analysis of documents. The study reveals that the farmers adopt many strategies in response to climate change. These strategies include crop-livestock diversification (71%), use of improved varieties of crops, fertilizers and pesticides (73%), agroforestry (68%), diversification of income generating activities (72%), change in crop calendar (57%) and multiple cropping strategies (67%). From the Chi-square test and binary logistic model, it was found that “farming experience” and “educational level” along with “farm size” and “gender” have a significant role on climate change adaptation strategies. Agroforestry possesses different benefits like increased catchment for rivers (79.2%), improved micro-climate (80.8%), increased wood products (71.7%), increased food outputs (83.3%), improved livestock health and livestock products (77.5%), improved soil fertility rate (84.2%) and diversification of livelihood options (82.2%). Given the findings, the study concludes that agroforestry is an approach to agricultural production that can reduce the impacts of climate change on local environment. The major recommendation from this study is that promotion and adoption of agroforestry can help local communities as an adaptation option to climate change impacts.

Based on the data from the 1991-2016 agricultural investment of China’s Taiwan in China’s Mainland and the agricultural GDP of the latter, through models of vector autoregressive (VAR) and vector error correction (VEC), the influences of China’s Taiwan agricultural investment on the development of agriculture in the eastern, central, and western regions of China are discussed. The results show a long-term equilibrium relationship between China’s Taiwan agricultural investment and agricultural development in China’s eastern, central, and western regions. In the long term, China’s Taiwan investment in agriculture in the eastern, central, and western regions of China have certain positive promoting effect on their agricultural development. However, there is an obvious regional diversity in investment effect: Impulse response and variance decomposition show that the positive effect from China’s Taiwan agricultural investment in China’s western region agricultural development is most significant, and it is significantly higher than that in the eastern region; its contribution to the central region’s agricultural development is little. VEC model analysis shows that in the short term, China’s Taiwan investment in agriculture has a significant positive effect on the agricultural development of China’s eastern region, but not on the agricultural development of the central and western regions.