Spatio-temporal dynamics of the coupling coordination between the digital economy and green agricultural development in China

In the face of the increasingly severe challenges of climate change, the digital economy empowers the green development of agriculture, and the realization of their coordinated development has become an important path to promote the global sustainable transformation of agriculture. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China for the period 2013 to 2022, this study constructs evaluation indicators for the digital economy and green agricultural development and investigates their dynamic coupling coordination mechanism using coupling coordination degree models, spatial autocorrelation analyses, Dagum Gini coefficient, and geodetector methods. The results show that while the coupling coordination degree has steadily improved over time, significant regional disparities remain. Eastern China demonstrates high coordination levels and clear spatial clustering patterns, whereas central, western, and northeastern regions lag behind. Furthermore, spatial clustering suggests that regions with higher coordination levels tend to be geographically adjacent. The Geodetector results reveal that digital inclusive finance and technological innovation are the two most influential driving factors for coupling coordination. The explanatory power of two-factor interactions significantly exceeds that of single factors, and the dominant interaction mechanisms evolve over time, while the explanatory power of environmental regulation diminishes in later years. Based on these findings, the study offers policy recommendations to enhance digital infrastructure, promote cross-regional technology diffusion, and improve policy support, thereby supporting a balanced and high-quality green transformation in agriculture.