Unraveling the Interaction and Synergies between Urban Agriculture and Urban–Rural Integration in China: A Case Study of Xi’an

Urban–rural linkage and synergies are important social and economic relations. Urban agriculture is an important driving force for urban–rural integration development, but the interaction and synergies mechanism between the two systems remain unclear. Taking Xi’an as a typical case, this study constructs an evaluation indicators system for urban agriculture and urban–rural integration development, quantitatively assesses the interaction between the two systems using grey relational analysis and coupling coordination models, and analyzes the potential mechanism based on the push–pull theory. This study confirms that urban–rural integration supports the development of urban agriculture and the function of urban agriculture contributes to urban–rural integration. In addition, the degree of coupling of the two systems is increasing. This study verifies both empirically and theoretically that urban agriculture is a key way to drive urban–rural integration development and enriches the body of knowledge of urban agriculture and urban–rural integration development.