Salicylic acid and Tocopherol improve wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) Physio-biochemical and agronomic features grown in deep sowing stress: a way forward towards sustainable production.

BACKGROUND: The rate of germination and other physiological characteristics of seeds that are germinating are impacted by deep sowing. Based on the results of earlier studies, conclusions were drawn that deep sowing altered the physio-biochemical and agronomic characteristics of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). RESULTS: In this study, seeds of wheat were sown at 2 (control) and 6 cm depth and the impact of exogenously applied salicylic acid and tocopherol (Vitamin-E) on its physio-biochemical and agronomic features was assessed. As a result, seeds grown at 2 cm depth witnessed an increase in mean germination time, germination percentage, germination rate index, germination energy, and seed vigor index. In contrast, 6 cm deep sowing resulted in negatively affecting all the aforementioned agronomic characteristics. In addition, deep planting led to a rise in MDA, glutathione reductase, and antioxidants enzymes including APX, POD, and SOD concentration. Moreover, the concentration of chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids, proline, protein, sugar, hydrogen peroxide, and agronomic attributes was boosted significantly with exogenously applied salicylic acid and tocopherol under deep sowing stress. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study showed that the depth of seed sowing has an impact on agronomic and physio-biochemical characteristics and that the negative effects of deep sowing stress can be reduced by applying salicylic acid and tocopherol to the leaves.

Fiscal policy, green finance, and low carbon transformation nexus: a novel study unleashing the synergistic effects of carbon reduction and pollution in China.

Under the simultaneous demands of combating environmental pollution and decreased carbon emissions, it is critical to investigate the combined effect of agricultural contamination reduction and fiscal policy carbon reduction to support and promote green agriculture and low-carbon transformation. Based on provincial panel data of 2007 to 2020 in China, this paper employs the spatial Dubin model to empirically examine the pollution reduction and carbon reduction effects of fiscal policies supporting agriculture, as well as calculating the synergistic effect of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. Our study's findings reveal that non-point source agricultural pollution and agricultural carbon emissions have a tendency of growing and subsequently reducing, such as increasing from 2007 to 2015 and decreasing from 2016 to 2020. Second, results demonstrate that agricultural carbon emissions and agricultural pollution have a positive geographical dependency in each province, and fiscal policies supporting agriculture have high-high and low-low spatial clustering features. Furthermore, fiscal policies that promote agriculture can lower local agricultural carbon emissions and pollution while also having a considerable beneficial spillover impact on neighboring provinces. According to the study findings, the fiscal policy for supporting agriculture has a negative pollution reduction impact and a positive synergistic effect, resulting in a synergistic effect of agricultural pollution reduction and carbon reduction. The outcomes of this study can serve to promote carbon-reduction measures and provide recommendations for future policy development.

Corporate social responsibility initiatives and their role in firms' reputation and green economic recovery through organizational trust.

Maintaining operations in the face of crises like COVID-19 is difficult. Using the stakeholder theory, this study examines the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs targeting company employees. Their social position and the likelihood of a green economic rebound (GER) are evaluated. Evidence shows that employee-focused CSR activities implemented by tourism boost organizational GER by fostering a more trusting work environment for their staff. Management and non-management staff at Chinese Tourism were polled using a non-probabilistic convenience sample and a 5-point Likert scale. Structured equation modeling was used to conduct structural analyses. Employee-focused CSR is a significant predictor of a firm reputation in the Chinese tourism industry. In addition, it is found that trust inside the organization acts as a go-between. The evidence also supports the hypothesis that a company's rising profile triggers GER. This research delves deeply into the connection between employees' perceptions of a company's employee-focused CSR initiatives, that company's reputation in the community, and employees' general enthusiasm for their job, a group that has been understudied until now. The findings are helpful for tourism management because they show them how to employ employee-focused CSR activities to strengthen connections with internal stakeholders while also using that reputation to shift to a greener way of doing business.

Relating biogas technology and environmental impact assessment: a roadmap towards clean energy for environmental sustainability.

Atmosphere contamination and fast weather change have compelled scientists and entrepreneurs to seek eco-friendly solutions for saving the earth. Increasing energy consumption depletes limited natural resources and harms the climate and ecology. In this regard, biogas technology contributes in two ways: satisfying energy needs and saving plants. Pakistan is a farming nation with enormous biogas-based energy generating potential. The primary objectives of this study are to identify the most significant barriers to farmers' investment in biogas technology. Non-probability sampling (purposive sampling) was utilized to establish the sample size. Ninety-seven investors and farmers were systematically sampled in biogas technology engaged in this survey. The planned questionnaire was practiced to obtain key facts via online interviews. The partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate designated hypotheses. The current research concludes that entire autonomous variables are substantial and interrelated with investment in biogas machinery, dropping energy disasters, and accomplishing environmental, financial, and maintenance government support objectives. The results also revealed that electronic and social media play a moderating influence. This conceptual model is considerably and positively affected by the chosen factors and their moderation. This study concludes that the primary tools for attracting farmers and investors in biogas technology are proper biogas technology awareness with relevant experts, financial and maintenance government responsibility, user efficiency and environmental concern of biogas plants, and the role of electronic and social media. The results also advised that the government should implement an incentive and maintenance policy to entice new farmers and investors in Pakistan to build biogas technology. Finally, the study's limitations and recommendations for additional studies are highlighted.

Assessing the impact of green tax reforms on corporate environmental performance and economic growth: do green reforms promote the environmental performance in heavily polluted enterprises?

Based on Porter's hypothesis and Pollution Shelter's hypothesis, this paper firstly constructs a mechanism of environmental protection tax law and corporate environmental performance. Secondly, it empirically examines the impact of green tax reform on corporate environmental performance and its internal mechanism through the difference in difference (DID) method. The study findings firstly reveal that environmental protection tax law significantly and progressively promotes the improvement of corporate environmental performance. Secondly, the heterogeneity analysis results show that the promotion effect of environmental protection tax law on corporate environmental performance is significant in enterprises with strong financial constraints and stronger internal transparency. The environmental performance improvement effect of the state-owned enterprises is stronger, which indicates that state-owned enterprises can set an example in the face of the formal implementation of the environmental protection tax law. In addition, the heterogeneity of corporate governance shows that the background of senior executives is an important factor affecting the effect of environmental performance improvement. Thirdly, the mechanism analysis indicates that the environmental protection tax law mainly promotes the improvement of enterprise environmental performance by strengthening the local government's enforcement rigidity, improving the local government's environmental concern, promoting enterprise green innovation, and resolving the collusion between government and enterprise. Further analysis shows that the environmental protection tax law based on the empirical results of this paper did not significantly trigger the phenomenon of cross-regional negative pollution transfer of enterprises. The findings of the study have important enlightenment on improving the green governance of enterprises and promoting the high-quality development of national economy.

Spatial and temporal characteristics of rural livability and its influencing factors: implications for the development of rural revitalization strategy.

Building livable rural regions is a key objective of China's rural revitalization, and fostering coordinated and sustainable regional development in China necessitates investigating the geographical and temporal distribution and influencing variables of livability in China's rural areas. This paper compares the concept and connotation of rural livability based on regional economic development theory and sustainable development theory, integrates China's rural revitalization strategy, proposes an index system for evaluating rural livability in China, and conducts an empirical analysis of livable rural areas. Firstly, the level of rural livability development is measured by the entropy method; secondly, the aggregation effect of provinces is demonstrated by using the Moran I index, and finally, the spatial Durbin model is used to explore the influencing factors of rural livability and its spatial spillover effects. Findings of our study reveal that the results of the entropy method indicate that the livability of rural China is in a growing development trend in all provinces, but the livability shows some regional disparities. The Moran index reveals that there are obvious spatial autocorrelations in the livability of Chinese rural areas, and the most typical features are the "high" and "low" clusters. The spatial Durbin model suggests that the influences on the development of rural livability are diverse. Besides, other variables such as environmental pollution and per capita housing area show a negative association with rural livability, and investment in fixed assets, cultural atmosphere and medical health show a positive relationship with rural livability. Based on the study findings, it is proposed that in the rural revitalization strategy process, the formulation of monitoring system should be strengthened and intensify the promotion of coordinated inter-regional development.

Spatial Effects of Digital Transformation, PM2.5 Exposure, Economic Growth and Technological Innovation Nexus: PM2.5 Concentrations in China during 2010-2020.

Digital transformation can increase lending by commercial banks, which may have an impact on economic development and technological progress, thus affecting air pollution. However, a limited amount of literature has discussed the impact of the digital transformation of commercial banks (DTCB) on air pollution. Based on city-level data from 2010 to 2020, this study used a spatial Durbin model to explore the spatial effects of DTCB on air pollution. This study shows that DTCB significantly increases air pollution in local and surrounding cities. Heterogeneity analysis shows that DTCB increases local and surrounding city air pollution in non-innovative cities and cities with low digital economy development. However, in innovative cities and cities with high digital economy development, DTCB reduces PM2.5 emissions in local and surrounding cities. Mechanism analysis shows that DTCB has no significant impact on technological innovation, but significantly promotes economic development, thus increasing air pollution. From the perspective of DTCB, this paper deepens the research on digital finance and air pollution. Against the background of DTCB, the government should guide commercial banks to apply digital technology to increase lending for technology innovation and promote DTCB to achieve the dual goals of economic development and improvement in air quality.

Quantifying the effect of administrative approval reforms on SO2 emissions: a quasi-experiment in Chinese cities.

The effects of the Administrative Examination and Approval System Reform on economic growth and entry of businesses have drawn much attention. However, few scholars pay attention to the impacts of this policy on SO2 emissions. Keeping in view the existing research gap, a spatial difference-in-difference (SDID) model is employed to assess the effects of the Administrative Examination and Approval System Reform on SO2 emissions in 297 Chinese cities during the period 1995-2020 from the perspective of spatial spillover effects. The results show that the establishment of Administrative Examination and Approval Center (AEAC) has significantly positive effects on the local SO2 emissions. The significant indirect (spatial spillover) effects are confirmed. That is, the establishment of AEAC of a given city has a significant positive impact on the SO2 emissions of neighboring cities. The findings are confirmed by several robustness tests. Our study findings have significant implications for the cross-border coordination of environmental policies that aim to improve the quality of the environment across borders.

Modeling the economic viability and performance of solar home systems: a roadmap towards clean energy for environmental sustainability.

Energy is a necessary source of economic development and social prosperity, linked with primary production and consumption activities worldwide. In this regard, solar home systems (SHSs) are beneficial in two ways, i.e., saving vitality overheads and meeting the energy demand of small enterprises. The current study aims to evaluate the performance of adopting SHS to develop the small-scale industry in Pakistan. An inclusive questionnaire survey was conducted, and respondents were selected using the purposive sampling method. As a step further, we scrutinize the moderating role of awareness and understanding of technology between the node of adopting SHS and the monetary enactment of small-scale industry. We authenticate the model using a sample of 357 respondents by applying the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. The results indicate that low-cost energy through SHSs has a progressive and substantial linkage with the demonstration of small-scale industry and enhances the quality of energy supply in Pakistan. Similarly, awareness and understanding of SHS significantly moderate the relationships between enhanced energy supply through SHS, the quality of SHS, and the performance of the small-scale industry. These findings provide a valuable guideline to the regulation developing authorities that more attention is needed to focus on SHS to further improve the performance of small-scale industry.

Assessment of land use/land cover changes and its effect on land surface temperature using remote sensing techniques in Southern Punjab, Pakistan.

Land surface temperature (LST) is defined as a phenomenon which shows that microclimate of an urban system gets heated much faster than its surrounding rural climates. The expansion of buildings has a noteworthy influence on land use/land cover (LULC) due to conversion of vegetation land into commercial and residential areas and their associated infrastructure by which LST is accelerated. The objective of the research was to study the impact of changes in LULC on LST of Southern Punjab (Pakistan) through remote sensing (RS) data. Landsat images of 30-year duration (1987, 1997, 2007 and 2017) were employed for identifying vegetation indices and LST in the study region. These images also helped to work out normalized difference water index (NDWI) and normalized difference built-up index (NDBI) maps. There was an increase from 29620 (3.63 %) to 88038 ha (10.8 %) in built-up area over the 30 years. LST values were found in the range 12-42 °C, 11-44 °C, 11-45 °C and 11-47 °C in the years 1987, 1997, 2007 and 2017, respectively. Regression coefficients (R2) 0.81, 0.78, 0.84 and 0.76 were observed between NDVI and LST in the corresponding years respectively. Our study showed that NDVI and NDWI were negatively correlated with less LST; however, NDBI showed positive correlation with high LST. Our study gives critical information of LULC and LST and will be a helpful tool for policy makers for developing effective policies in managing land resources.

Analyzing the status of multidimensional poverty of rural households by using sustainable livelihood framework: policy implications for economic growth.

Poverty is a multifaceted and location-based issue that cannot be quantified using monetary metrics alone. This study aims to evaluate the multidimensional poverty status of poor households in Ha Giang province, Vietnam, by using the DFID (Department for International Development) sustainable livelihood framework, an integrating technique for spatial recognition of multidimensional poverty, was developed and deployed to conduct a county-level poverty assessment in rural Vietnam. The multidimensional poverty standard is considered a novel approach to assess poverty, identify causes of poverty, and encourage poor households to sustainably escape poverty. A household survey was conducted in three rural districts, namely Dong Van, Hoang Su Phi, and Bac Quang in Ha Giang province, Vietnam, during 2016 to 2021. The results of the study show that surveyed households are deficient in all five main sources of livelihood, in which the three most deficient capital sources are natural capital, social capital, and financial capital. The findings revealed that the majority of farming households were classified as multidimensionally poor. The multidimensionally poor regions were not only poorer in single-dimensional and aggregate ratings than the income-poor and recognized poor regions, but they also had several vulnerabilities and insecurity. The assessment of multidimensional poverty, by distinguishing the poor, marginalized, and dispossessed dimensions, should be extremely beneficial for each region to design and execute poverty reduction programs accordingly, and it would contribute to improving the persistence of alleviating poverty. The article also proposes a number of sustainable poverty reduction measures, in which the root is to improve the spirit of self-raising to escape poverty of households.

Abundance, spatial distribution, and characteristics of microplastics in agricultural soils and their relationship with contributing factors.

Agro-ecosystem contamination with microplastics (MPs) is of great concern. However, limited research has been conducted on the agricultural soil of tropical regions. This paper investigated MPs in the agro-ecosystem of Hainan Island, China, as well as their relationships with plastic mulching, farming practices, and social and environmental factors. The concentration of MPs in the study area ranged from 2800 to 82500 particles/kg with a mean concentration of 15461.52 particles/kg. MPs with sizes between 20 and 200 µm had the highest abundance of 57.57%, fragment (58.16%) was the most predominant shape, while black (77.76%) was the most abundant MP colour. Polyethylene (PE) (71.04%) and polypropylene (PP) (19.83%) were the main types of polymers. The mean abundance of MPs was significantly positively correlated (p < 0.01) with all sizes, temperature, and shapes except fibre, while weakly positively correlated with the population (p = 0.21), GDP (p = 0.33), and annual precipitation (p = 0.66). In conclusion, plastic mulching contributed to significant contamination of soil MPs in the study area, while environmental and social factors promoted soil MPs fragmentation. The current study results indicate serious contamination with MPs, which poses a concern regarding ecological and environmental safety.

Rural migration, governance, and public health nexus: Implications for economic development.

With the deepening of rural aging and the increasing role of human capital in the non-agricultural employment labor market, this paper uses the data of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), ordinary least squares (OLS) and instrumental variable method (IV) to try to examine the impact of rural migrant workers' education on their parents' health. Since a rural family may include more than one child, a sample of migrant workers with a high education level is used in the benchmark regression, and a sample of migrant workers with a low education level is used to test the robustness of the relationship. The results showed that the education of migrant workers had a significant positive impact on parents' health. The sample with the least education was used for the robustness, and the results did not change. The IV-probit method is used to address potential endogeneity, and the results remain stable. Heterogeneity analysis shows that there are significant differences in the impact of migrant workers' education on the health of parents from different groups. This positive effect has a greater impact on the health of parents who are older, less educated, and do not live with their children. Mediation analysis shows that children's economic ability, captured by income and work type, and their parents' health behavior, captured by sleep, alcohol consumption, and physical examinations, mediate this relationship. Thus, migrant workers' education affects their parents' health mainly through relaxing budget constraints and improving their parents' health production efficiency. In addition, this paper also found that education of migrant workers may significantly increase parental depression. Based on the above analysis, this paper argues that increasing investment in rural education is conducive to improving the health of migrant farmers' parents, thereby promoting the transfer of rural labor to non-agricultural industries and cities, curbing the rapid rise in labor costs, and promoting the healthy development of the economy.

Evaluating the influence of financial investment in compulsory education on the health of Chinese adolescents: a novel approach.

BACKGROUND: With China's aging and declining fertility rate, the importance of population quality is increasing. As the main force of the labor market in the future, the Chinese government tries to promote the development of adolescents by increasing the financial investment in compulsory education, so as to improve the future population quality of China and enhance the national competitiveness. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between financial investment in compulsory education and the health of Chinese adolescents. METHODS: This study specifically uses data obtained from China Education Panel Survey (CEPS). The data were nationally representative, which covered families, schools, and communities. For the CEPS data obtained, the 2013-2014 school year was the baseline, and two cohorts of 7th and 9th graders were the starting point of the survey. In the 2014-2015 school year, 8th-grade students who participated in the baseline survey (7th-grade students in the 2013-2014 school year) were followed up. Since the second period only began to investigate the data on financial investment in compulsory education, this article uses the data from the 2014-2015 academic year for research. OLS and Ordered Probit models were used to investigate the impact of financial investment in compulsory education on adolescent health. RESULTS: With the doubling of financial investment in compulsory education, self-rated health increased by 0.021, frequency of illness decreased by 0.03, the number of sick leave days decreased by 0.207, and depression decreased by 0.191. The heterogeneity analysis shows that compared to only-child, high-income and nonagricultural groups, the financial investment in compulsory education has a greater impact on the health of adolescents with the characteristics of agriculture hukou, non-only-child and low-income families. Further analysis of the impact mechanism shows that financial investment in compulsory education exerts a significant influence on the health of adolescents by easing family budget constraints, improving school sports facilities, and increasing the expected return of health investment and social capital. CONCLUSIONS: Financial investment in compulsory education can enhance the health of adolescents, and vulnerable groups benefit more, which is conducive to promoting health equity.

The impact of economic policy uncertainty on corporate social responsibility: A new evidence from food industry in China.

The ability of the food industry to practice a high degree of corporate social responsibility is related to whether national food safety can be effectively guaranteed. By taking the food enterprises in China's A-share listed companies from 2009-2018, this paper probes into the influence of China's macroeconomic policy uncertainty on corporate social responsibility, and depicts the differencent impact of enterprise's practice of social responsibility under government association and market association, respectively. The results firstly show that, the uncertainty of economic policy has a negative effect on the social responsibility of food enterprises, with a regression coefficient of -0.013. Secondly, nonstate-owned enterprises are more vulnerable to macroeconomic fluctuations in the practice of social responsibility. Thirdly, in the case of greater economic policy uncertainty, enterprises with stronger market connections in the food industry tend to be more conservative in their CSR. The above research results not only verify the path of transmission of economic policy uncertainty to corporate social responsibility, but also provide important ideas and references for improving the level of corporate social responsibility in the food industry and ensuring food safety.

Agricultural factor endowment differences and relative poverty nexus: an analysis of macroeconomic and social determinants.

Poverty is a significant global ongoing issue that influences a substantial amount of people despite all efforts to eliminate or lessen it. Although poverty is an eminent problem because of its negative consequences, many people are unaware of the concept of poverty. Poverty not only degrades the human capacity but also undermines economic growth in developing regions. This research aims at exploring the impact and heterogeneity of agricultural factor endowment investment on rural relative poverty. By using the data obtained from China household tracking survey (CFPS-2018), probit model approach was applied to analyze the relationship between agricultural factor endowment investment and rural relative poverty. Finally, the intermediary effect of the selected model was validated through the robustness test. The study findings showed that the input of agricultural factor endowment can alleviate the relative poverty in rural areas of China. Our study findings also revealed that there is a significant heterogeneity in family size, endowment type of agricultural technology elements and the agricultural type. A positive association between the investment in agricultural technology and land factor endowment with relative poverty alleviation by increasing the total value of cash and deposits was revealed from the results. The overall findings of this study provide useful insights to facilitate government institutions to stabilize the agricultural labor force, accelerate the process of agricultural modernization and provide careful consideration to land property rights.

Comprehending the environmental regulation, biased policies and OFDI reverse technology spillover effects: a contingent and dynamic perspective.

Technology spillovers have the substantial effect on the industrial structure in emerging economies especially from OFDI (Outward Foreign Direct Investment). This research aims to examines the issue on how environmental regulation and biased policies can more effectively promote the OFDI reverse technology spillover effect, specifically the technology spillovers. By classifying the key industries mentioned in the '12th Five-Year Plan' and '13th Five-Year Plan', this research uses panel data from 2010 to 2019 obtained from provincial OFDI in China and utilizes difference in difference (DID) model and threshold regression approach to validate the analysis. The results show that the key industrial policy is favorable to the local OFDI reverse technology spillover. From the outlook of economic significance, the industrial policy increases the regional OFDI reverse technology spillover by 0.133%. Findings of our study further reveals that the environmental regulation and biased policy effectively promote the regional OFDI reverse technology spillover with certain stability. This study findings will be beneficial for policy makers to stimulate the reverse technology spillover impact of local OFDI more effectively from three aspects such as regional marketization level, innovation ability and financial structure.

Fiscal decentralization and economic growth revisited: an empirical analysis of poverty governance.

Based on the panel data of 24 provinces from 2010 to 2018, the static panel model was utilized to analyze the impact of fiscal decentralization and economic growth on poverty reduction, and the Moran index was used to calculate the spatial agglomeration effect of poverty degree. Further, we employed Spatial Dobbin model to examine the spatial effect of fiscal decentralization, economic growth, and poverty reduction. Findings of our results revealed that the rapid economic growth and fiscal revenue decentralization have a substantial inhibitory effect on poverty reduction, and fiscal expenditure decentralization has an important promoting influence on poverty reduction. Our results further showed that the degree of inter provincial poverty has significant effect on regional spatial agglomeration, indicating a pattern of high-value agglomeration in the northwestern and southern border areas and low-value agglomeration in the northeastern and central regions. Finally, the results revealed that economic growth rate and fiscal decentralization have spatial spillover effects on the poverty governance. Based on our study findings, policy suggestions are suggested, such as adjustment of the structure of fiscal expenditure, building a coordination mechanism between fairness and efficiency, and encouraging the activities of agricultural production departments.

Impact of renewable energy consumption, financial development and natural resources on environmental degradation in OECD countries with dynamic panel data.

This research used panel data from 1995 to 2019 to examine the impact of financial development, natural resource, industrial production, renewable energy consumption, and total reserve on environmental degradation in (38) OECD countries by using dynamic panel data models, i.e., one-step difference GMM, one-step system GMM, and two-step system GMM model, respectively. The examined findings of one-step difference GMM, one-step system GMM, and two-step system GMM demonstrate that renewable energy consumption and natural resource help to reduce the environmental degradation while financial development, industrial production, and total reserve cause environmental degradation in OECD countries. Based on the examined results, significant policy implications are suggested to improve the environmental quality in OECD countries.