Khalil Ur Rehman

Purpose: Sustainable agriculture is essential to reconciling agricultural productivity with environmental conservation. This paper analyses how digital financial inclusion affects sustainable agriculture and provides empirical data to support its function in encouraging sustainable farming practices. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses panel data covering all provinces of Pakistan from 2014 to 2024, compiled from national statistical yearbooks and related official reports. The regional level of sustainable agriculture is estimated using the entropy method. To test the impact of digital financial inclusion, we apply panel fixed effects, mediation effect models, and a threshold regression approach. This analysis explores how the breadth, depth, and digitalisation level of financial inclusion affect sustainable agriculture, and shows that its effect strengthens notably once key threshold levels are crossed. Findings: This study found a double-threshold effect: digital financial inclusion intensifies sustainable agriculture when it exceeds critical thresholds. After endogeneity and robustness testing, this finding is robust. The mechanism analysis shows that digital financial inclusion promotes technical innovation and farmer income, greening agriculture. Heterogeneity research shows that digital financial inclusion has a greater influence on sustainable agriculture in eastern Pakistan than in the central and western areas. Originality/value: This paper advocates for the expansion and enhancement of digital inclusive financial services to include them in agriculture, thus establishing a sustainable development model that fosters shared wealth and environmentally friendly agriculture.

This study examines the role of fiscal decentralization in Pakistan’s economic development using provincial data covering the period from 1980 to 2016, with particular focus on the post-18th Constitutional Amendment framework. The results show that revenue decentralization has a positive impact on economic performance in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, while Punjab and Sindh experience negative effects. A substantial share of major tax revenues remains centralized, constraining provincial fiscal capacity. In contrast, expenditure decentralization contributes positively to provincial economic growth, indicating that reduced federal involvement in spending decisions can enhance provincial government’s economic capacity. Overall, the findings emphasize the importance of revisiting federal–provincial fiscal arrangements to strengthen the effectiveness of fiscal decentralization in Pakistan.

Investigating the fiscal decentralization’s effect on the carbon intensity of agricultural production may assist the United States in reaching its carbon peak and becoming carbon neutral. This paper delves into the investigation of the spatiotemporal patterns and internal relationships between fiscal decentralization, agricultural carbon intensity, and environmental regulation. The goal was achieved by using the spatial Durbin model using panel data for 49 states of the United States from 2000 to 2019. The study has found that environmental regulations play a significant role in reducing regional carbon emissions in agriculture and contribute positively to carbon emissions control. However, fiscal decentralization, which grants local governments more financial autonomy, has a positive but insignificant impact on carbon emissions, indicating that the prioritization of economic development and carbon control over environmental protection is favored by local governments. In examining the impact of environmental regulations on carbon emissions, the study reveals that fiscal decentralization does not play a substantial role in moderating this relationship. To promote low-carbon agriculture projects and ensure coordinated economic and environmental development, the study recommends optimizing the fiscal decentralization system, formulating different policies for different regions, and regulating the competencies of local governments through an effective examination system. The study concludes that it is crucial to obtain data at the city or county level to accurately understand the relationship between agricultural carbon intensity, environmental regulation, and fiscal decentralization. As a result, the central government must focus on perfecting the fiscal decentralization system, developing a differentiated agricultural carbon emission control system, controlling competition among local governments, and perfecting a political performance assessment system.

Agricultural insurance and green agriculture are strongly related. Agricultural insurance not only motivates farmers to adopt environmentally friendly production technology and enhances the effectiveness of production, but it also accomplishes the goal of lowering the number of chemicals that are put into the environment. This article investigates the dynamic relationship between agricultural insurance, air pollution, and agricultural green total factor productivity. To complete the aim, the authors used the panel auto-regressive distributed lags method (PMG method) and panel data from 50 states of the United States between 2005 and 2019. The empirical findings demonstrate a considerable co-integration and a cross-sectional reliance between agricultural insurance, air pollution, and agricultural green total factor production. Expanding agricultural insurance may boost agricultural green whole factor output but also exacerbate air pollution. However, significant air pollution does not increase agricultural production’s green total factor productivity. The panel Granger causality test shows a one-way causal relationship between agricultural insurance, green total factor productivity, and air pollution. A one-way causal relationship exists between air pollution and agricultural green total factor productivity. The author concluded that improving agricultural insurance coverage or cutting down on air pollution will boost agricultural green total factor output. These findings have long-term policy and management repercussions, particularly for those involved in agriculture policy and environmental management.