Green Utilization Efficiency, Convergence, and Influencing Factors of Cultivated Land in Lower Yellow River Under 'Double Carbon' Target

[Objective] Green utilization efficiency of cultivated land in the lower Yellow River and its convergence and influencing factors were analyzed in order to provide a reference for ecological protection and high-quality development of cultivated land in the lower Yellow River. [Methods] Undesirable outputs such as surface pollution and carbon emissions from cultivated land, and the carbon sequestration and sink capacity of cultivated land resources were simultaneously incorporated into the evaluation index system. The green utilization efficiency, convergence, and influencing factors of cultivated land in 34 municipalities in the lower Yellow River from 2007 to 2020 were systematically analyzed using the EBM model, the convergence model, and the panel random effects Tobit model. [Results] ① The green utilization efficiency of cultivated land in the lower Yellow River showed an overall upward trend, but still did not reach the optimal state by the end of 2020. The green utilization efficiency of cultivated land in the lower Yellow River was spatially unbalanced. The green utilization efficiency of cultivated land in Southern He’nan and Northern Shandong provinces was high, while that in Zhengzhou, Weihai, and other cities was always low. ② From the perspective of efficiency decomposition, the main driving force for the improvement of green utilization efficiency of cultivated land in the lower Yellow River was scale efficiency, while the resistance came from pure technical efficiency. ③ From the convergence test, both σ convergence and β convergence existed in the green utilization efficiency of farmland in the lower Yellow River. The inter-city gap of cultivated land green utilization efficiency in He’nan Province was obviously lower than in Shandong Province, but the convergence rate in Shandong Province was faster. ④ In terms of influencing factors, crop planting structure and government financial support to agriculture increased green utilization efficiency of cultivated land in the lower Yellow River, while the urban-rural income gap, economic development level, and farmland machinery input intensity decreased green utilization efficiency. [Conclusion] In the future, the lower Yellow River should not only improve the comprehensive management level of the green utilization of cultivatedpland and strengthen inter-city exchanges and cooperation, but should also focus on the coordination between the convergence rate of green utilization efficiency of cultivated land and the development gap in each region while promoting development of the green utilization of cultivated land.