Efficacy of China’s low-carbon agricultural pilot policy: a company-farmer analysis from the middle and lower yangtze river basin, China

• DOI: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1581752
• Publication Date: 2025-05-09T05:34:32Z
• Authors: Lei Jia; Yuan Meng; Hanzhong Liang
• Keywords: Yangtze river; Chine

China’s central government introduced the low-carbon agricultural pilot (LCAP) policy to curb carbon emissions and foster sustainable growth. While most research has centered on macro-level impacts (provinces cities), this study uniquely examines LCAP policy’s influence companies’ environmental expenditures farmers’ net income. Given LCAP’s weak-constraining nature, its effectiveness at company farmer level remains intriguing. We apply Propensity Score Matching–Difference in Differences (PSM-DID) method, which excels mitigating sample selection bias, focusing 2011–2020 phase involving 34 listed companies agriculture food sectors. Further, we analyzed data from 410 rice farmers Hubei, Zhejiang, Shanghai, assessing effects their Results reveal that cities decrease spending by 0.91 points (1% significance). On farming front, non-participation leads a potential 28-thousand-yuan income reduction. Organic fertilizers, compost, recycling cultivation waste prove impactful, promoting ecological sustainability. However, of high-cost, long-payback energy-saving machinery subsidies appears limited under current implementation conditions. These findings suggest misalignment between design outcomes, highlighting challenges associated with non-mandatory policies such as achieving intended objectives.