Does High-Standard Farmland Construction Promote Agricultural Green Entrepreneurship? Evidence from China

Farmland infrastructure investment is essential for agricultural productivity, rural development, and agricultural green transformation. However, empirical evidence on whether and how farmland infrastructure investment promotes agricultural green entrepreneurship remains limited. Exploiting China’s High-Standard Farmland Construction (HSFC) program as a quasi-natural experiment, this study uses provincial panel data from 2003 to 2023 and a continuous difference-in-differences (DID) model to examine its impact on agricultural green entrepreneurship. The results show that HSFC significantly promotes both the entry and stock of agricultural green enterprises. These findings remain robust across a series of robustness tests. Mechanism analysis indicates that the HSFC program promotes agricultural green entrepreneurship through two complementary channels: entrepreneurial empowerment (through improved innovation performance, agricultural mechanization, land transfer, and financial access) and agricultural green transition (through enhanced green innovation, green finance, and reduced pesticide use). Heterogeneity analysis further shows that the positive effects of the HSFC program are more pronounced in regions with higher population density, lower human capital, and lower levels of informatization, as well as in non-main grain-producing areas. These findings highlight the entrepreneurial benefits of farmland infrastructure investment and suggest that, when supported by complementary policies, such investment can help developing countries foster agricultural green entrepreneurship and advance sustainable agricultural development. They also indicate that the environmental benefits of farmland infrastructure may emerge gradually and depend on broader green policy support.