Cultivating acceleration: the interconnected dynamics of agricultural mechanization, innovation, and China's economic growth

Agricultural technology innovation was pivotal to achieving economic transformation, and agricultural mechanization worked synergistically with technological innovation to play a critical role.Employing the vector autoregression (VAR) model, impulse response function (IRF), and variance decomposition (VD), empirical analysis was conducted following a series of diagnostic tests. The results indicated that a long-term cointegrating relationship existed among the three variables. The long-term elasticity of agricultural mechanization on agricultural economic growth (1.0457) was significantly higher than that of technological innovation (0.2630). The three factors exhibited positive dynamic interactions; agricultural economic growth demonstrated self-reinforcing effects, whilst technological innovation and mechanization mutually reinforced each other. In the long term, agricultural mechanization was identified as the second most influential factor affecting agricultural economic growth (contribution rate > 26%), whereas agricultural economic growth served as the core driver of mechanization development (long-term contribution rate > 60%). The supporting role of technological innovation was significant yet stage-specific, forming a virtuous cycle with mechanization. This study provided empirical evidence for the coordinated development of these three elements and offered relevant policy recommendations. It contributed to the literature on the drivers of agricultural economic growth and provided reference points for rural revitalization and high-quality agricultural development.