Research on the spatial spillover effect of increasing farmers’ income on environmental efficiency: evidence from China

Given the growing scarcity of global resources and the continuous deterioration of the ecological environment, protecting ecosystems while increasing farmers’ income has become a critical challenge. Based on panel data from 30 Chinese provinces between 2010 and 2019, this study examines the impact of increasing farmers’ income on provincial environmental efficiency by exploring its underlying mechanism and employing a spatial Durbin model. The results reveal significant spatial agglomeration effects in provincial environmental efficiency, primarily manifesting as high-high clusters and low-low clusters. Increasing farmers’ income not only constrains environmental efficiency improvement within the local province but also generates negative spatial spillovers on the environmental efficiency of neighboring provinces. This finding fills a gap in previous research that overlooked the impact of spatial interactions. Consequently, have put forward policy recommendations to promote tech sharing, pollution co-control and differentiated governance. Our research provides novel insights and a decision-making basis for achieving coordinated progress between agricultural economic growth and ecological protection.