Influence Paths and Spillover Effects of Agricultural Agglomeration on Agricultural Green Development

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear authors

Your manuscript entitled “Influence Paths and Spillover Effects of Agricultural Agglomeration on Agricultural Green Development” is of an interesting topic. The topic and results are novel and can grab the attention of international readers. However, the are some rooms for further improvement in my opinion. My comments are as follows:  

1. Line 12: “…. agricultural green development (AGD) is a great significance to real ….” Should be changed to “…. agricultural green development (AGD) is of a great significance to real ….”.
2. The original contribution of the paper should be highlighted in the end of introduction section.
3. Please try to contextualize your research. This can improve your problem statement.
4. Methodology section is well elaborated.
5. Please try to enrich the discussion section using comparison of the results with some international level studies.
6. Please try to put your results in an international context and state that how your results can be used in international level.
7. Please mention your take-home message in the end of conclusion section.
8. Please highlight the main limitation and future research perspectives in a separate section.

In balance, this manuscript can be improved after addressing above-mentioned comments.

Good luck

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

Dear Editor and Reviewers

All the authors appreciate the chief editor, subject editor, and the reviewer’s valuable time and invaluable comments for the improvement of the paper. After the changes suggested by both the reviewers, the paper is improved in all sections. One by one rebuttal of the points raised by the worthy reviewers is mentioned below. 

Point 1: Line 12: “…. agricultural green development (AGD) is a great significance to real ….” Should be changed to “…. agricultural green development (AGD) is of a great significance to real ….”.

Response 1: Thank you for your suggestion. The authors have revised this sentence in the article

Point 2: The original contribution of the paper should be highlighted in the end of introduction section.

Response 2: Thank you for your suggestion. The authors revise and rewrite the original contribution of the paper  and added the following sentences in the end of introduction section:

(1) “This paper innovatively explores the impact of AIG on AGD-efficiency, which enriches the research topic in this field and adds new impetus to the sustainable development of agriculture“.

(2) “This paper uses the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) to explore whether AIG can promote the improvement of AGD efficiency and then explains that AIG can promote the sustainable development of rural areas, which provides reasonable support for other countries to promote the AIG in rural areas. In order to analyze the nonlinear spatial spillover effect by adding the quadratic term of explanatory variables to the regression model“.

(3) “This paper further expands the research on the regional heterogeneity of AIG on AGD-efficiency. Due to the vast territory of China, the development of different provinces and cities is different. In order to further explore whether AIG has a significantly different impact on the eco-efficiency of different regions, this paper analyzes the impact of AIG on the AGD-efficiency of different regions through sub-sample regression. Local governments of different regions should make different decisions reasonably according to their own situation to promote the positive role of AIG on AGD-efficiency, rather than blindly developing AIG to promote rural sustainable development“.

(4) “In order to explore the influence mechanism of AIG on AGD-efficiency, this paper analyzes whether the level of talents accumulation and technological innovation have a moderating effect on the impact of AIG on AGD-efficiency by adding a moderating variable“.

Point 3: Please try to contextualize your research. This can improve your problem statement.

Response 3: Thank you for your suggestion. The authors have further stated the research background and improve the problem statement in the introduction, and added the following sentences:

(1) Global agricultural production must double by 2050 to meet the projected demand of a growing population with improved living standards. However, the industrialization of developing countries is causing widespread heavy pollution such as: the aggravation of the greenhouse effect crisis, agricultural non-point source pollution ,heavy metal(loid)s into the soil environment and so on. There is a major threat to global food safety and food security, the calls for low-carbon development and green sustainable development in all countries in the world are increasingly rising.

(2) The Chinese government needs to further promote the AGD by creating an ecological pattern to match agricultural productivity with the carrying capacity of resources and environment to improve the rural living and production environment, to eliminate consumers' concerns about the quality of agricultural products, to ensure food security and ecological security.

(3)AIG can not only accelerate the process of agricultural modernization, increase employment, and improve the income of farmers, but also improve production efficiency and industrial competitiveness. Therefore, it is important to clarify the relationship between AIG and the efficiency of AGD to accelerate the construction of ecological civilization.”

Point 4: Please try to enrich the discussion section using comparison of the results with some international level studies.

Response 4: Thank you for your suggestion. The authors add the results with some international level studies and cite the previous literature adequately in the literature review and contribution. Through the domestic and foreign scholars mainly focus on the analysis of AIG and spatial effects of AGD-efficiency, providing many relevant theories and empirical research methods for the study of AGD-efficiency, the authors have point out the differences between this paper and some existing specific studies clearly.

 Point 5: Please try to put your results in an international context and state that how your results can be used in international level.

Response 5: Thank you for your suggestion. The authors add the results with some international level studies and cite the previous literature adequately in the end of conclusion section.

Point 6: Please mention your take-home message in the end of conclusion section.

Response 6: Thank you for your suggestion. The authors have add the take-home message in the end of conclusion section, as follows:

• There is a U-shaped nonlinear relationship between AIG and AGD-efficiency.
• AIG has spatial spillover effects and heterogeneous effects on AGD-efficiency in different regions of China.
• In the mechanism analysis, talents accumulation and technological innovation significantly enhances the promotion effect of the AIG on AGD-efficiency.

Point 7: Please highlight the main limitation and future research perspectives in a separate section.

Response 7: Thank you for your suggestion. The authors have illustrated the limitations and scope for future studies in the conclusion, and added the following sentences in the last paragraph: “ Due to the short time of putting forward AIG, most regions are still in the exploratory stage in China. In the future, we can try to using dynamic spatial Durbin model to research the impact of AIG on the efficiency of AGD in the short and long term. Furthermore, the paper only gives two paths in the mediation model including the level of talent accumulation and the level of agricultural technology innovation. How to accurately identify other influencing factors and possible other mechanisms needs to be further studied.”

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper is innovative and examines the impact of agricultural industrial agglomeration (AIG) on agricultural green development (AGD) in China. Abstract to be updated to ensure easy understanding.

For example “the slacks-based measure (SBM)-Undesirable model” is very specific for a general reader to understand, which needs to be replaced with “for measuring efficiency a non-parametric DEA aproach in the presence of undesirable outputs, based on a slack-based measure (SBM) was used”.

The data and methodology is appropriate to test the identified hypothesis. The paper is based on sound theory and empirical application. The results are in line with the expectations. AIG has a U-shaped impact on economic growth. With the promotion of agricultural industrial agglomeration, the scale effect promotes the reduction of regional agricultural costs; and the upgrading of the industrial structure further accelerates industrial agglomeration, forms a positive cycle cumulative effect, and promotes the green development of agriculture.

 However, the paper needs improvement in the following

1. Abstract and introduction needs to be improved for general reader.
2. The conclusion part needs to be strengthened again keeping the general readers. It should be self-explanatory.  For example in the conclusion 1^st paragraph, the AIG and AGD needs to be expanded. 

“This study theoretically analyzes the impact mechanismof AIGonthe efficiencyof AGD and constructs….”

3. The English language needs to be improved.

For example in abstract : (1) Chinese efficiency of AGD was raised, however, there were significant differences in various provinces, the high efficiency were mainly located in the southeastern coastal areas

     4. Some literature from other developing countries like India on green technologies and scheme in agriculture needs to be included for wider readership.

• Reddy, A. A. (2019). The Soil Health Card Scheme in India: Lessons Learned and Challenges for Replication in Other Developing Countries. Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research, 9(2), 124-156.
• Richards, P. (2018). It’s not just where you farm; it’s whether your neighbor does too. How agglomeration economies are shaping new agricultural landscapes. Journal of Economic Geography, 18(1), 87-110.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

Dear Editor and Reviewers

All the authors appreciate the chief editor, subject editor, and the reviewer’s valuable time and invaluable comments for the improvement of the paper. After the changes suggested by both the reviewers, the paper is improved in all sections. One by one rebuttal of the points raised by the worthy reviewers is mentioned below.

Point 1: Abstract to be updated to ensure easy understanding. For example “the slacks-based measure (SBM)-Undesirable model” is very specific for a general reader to understand, which needs to be replaced with “for measuring efficiency a non-parametric DEA aproach in the presence of undesirable outputs, based on a slack-based measure (SBM) was used”. Abstract and introduction needs to be improved for general reader.

Response 1: Thank you for your suggestion. For the convenience of general reader, we have checked and modified the description of method in the abstract and adjusted the length of the paragraphs in this paper. as follows:

” for measuring AGD efficiency of a non-parametric DEA aproach in the presence of undesirable outputs, based on a slack-based measure (SBM) was used.”

”Chinese efficiency of AGD was raised continuously and the high efficiency were mainly located in the southeastern coastal areas.”

Point 2: The conclusion part needs to be strengthened again keeping the general readers. It should be self-explanatory. For example in the conclusion 1st paragraph, the AIG and AGD needs to be expanded. Such as “This study theoretically analyzes the impact mechanism of AIG on the efficiency of AGD and constructs….”

Response 2: Thank you for your suggestion. The authors revise and rewrite the conclusion:

” Based on panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2009 to 2019, this paper analyzes the overall and regional impact of AIG on AGD-efficiency from the perspective of spatial spillover analysis and heterogeneity analysis, and it further explores the level of technology innovation and talent agglomeration on the impact of AIG on AGD-efficiency, and following conclusions were obtained: 

• there is a U-shaped nonlinear relationship between AIG and AGD-efficiency, which indicates that AIG has two stages of impact on the efficiency. In the early stage, due to the low level of rural economical development, the deficient human resources, backward infrastructure, and other factors, AIG is difficult to improve the efficiency of AGD. With the increasingly development of AIG, a large amount of capital input and attracting scientific and technological talents in rural areas will improve the efficiency of agricultural technology, enhance the ability of green innovation in agriculture, the scale effect promotes the reduction of regional agricultural costs and pollutant emissions. The upgrading of the agricultural industrial structure further accelerates talents’ and industrial agglomeration, forms a positive cycle cumulative effect, and thus promote the improvement of AGD-efficiency.
• AIG has spatial spillover effects and heterogeneous effects on AGD-efficiency in different regions of China. From the perspective of spatial spillover analysis, AIG not only affects the local agricultural development, but also has a significant nonlinear U-shaped spatial spillover effect on the regions related to adjacent geography and similar economic level. Specifically, there is a " siphon effect " in the early stage, resulting in the lack of production factors in other regions, and a " diffusion effect " in the later stage. From the perspective of heterogeneity analysis, AIG significantly promotes the efficiency of AGD in the central region of mainland China. In eastern region, the AIG has a shape of an inverted U-shaped on the efficiency of AGD from positive to negative. Onthe contrary, the AIG has a U-shaped impact on the efficiency of AGD from negative to positive in the western region.
•  In the mechanism analysis, by introducing the level of talents accumulation and technological innovation as moderating variables. it is found that talents accumulation and technological innovation significantly enhances the promotion effect of the AIG on AGD-efficiency.”

Point 3: The English language needs to be improved. For example in abstract : (1) Chinese efficiency of AGD was raised, however, there were significant differences in various provinces, the high efficiency were mainly located in the southeastern coastal areas 

Response 3: Thank you for your suggestion. The authors revise and rewrite the abstract and the English language is substantially improved in this paper.

Point 4: Some literature from other developing countries like India on green technologies and scheme in agriculture needs to be included for wider readership.

Response 4: Thank you for your suggestion. The authors read the two literatures carefully and recommended by reviewer, and cited them in the conclusion.