Agri‐Product Quality and Safety Initiatives and Fertilizer Reduction in China

ABSTRACT Direct production‐side green policies have been widely used to curb fertilizer pollution. However, limited evidence exists on whether non‐production‐oriented agricultural policies generate spillover effects on green production. Using county‐level panel data from China, we examine the effects of a consumer‐oriented Agri‐product Quality and Safety (AQS) policy on the green transformation of agricultural production. We find that AQS implementation reduces fertilizer application per unit area at the county level by 7.2%. The effect appears to operate through the cultivation of featured agricultural brands, improvements in agricultural technological innovation, and strengthened food‐safety regulatory enforcement and market‐access compliance pressure. Heterogeneity analyses indicate that the fertilizer‐reducing effect is more evident in major grain‐producing and nonmunicipal areas. These findings provide novel evidence on cross‐sector environmental spillovers from food‐safety policies and offer policy‐relevant insights for developing economies seeking to align food‐safety objectives with sustainable agricultural development.