The Effect of Agricultural Land Holdings on Value-Added Agricultural Product Exports: An Evaluation from an Economic Complexity Perspective

Natural resources, labor, capital, and entrepreneurship are key drivers of economic growth and agricultural land plays an important role among natural resources. Efficient use of agricultural land, diversification of production, and adoption of agricultural innovations can support economic growth by increasing economic complexity. Moreover, shifting towards value-added and innovative agrarian practices can further enhance agriculture's contribution to overall economic development. To examine the impact of agricultural land area and patent applications on agricultural economic complexity, this study was conducted within the scope of the top 30 countries in the agricultural economic complexity index with data from 2000 to 2021. Cointegration analysis and JKS panel causality test were used in the analysis. Agricultural land and patent data were obtained from the World Bank while the agricultural economic complexity index was obtained using the International Trade at the Product Level. The results show that agricultural land area does not have a statistically significant effect on agricultural economic complexity. On the contrary, patent applications are found to have a positive and significant effect on economic complexity. This supports that technological innovations and know-how in the agricultural sector play a critical role in increasing economic complexity. On the other hand, the consistency of the effect of patent applications on economic complexity once again confirms the importance of policies based on technological progress. The findings emphasize that agricultural policies should focus not only on land use but also on agricultural innovation and technological advances.