Agriculture

Agriculture serves as a critical foundation for livelihoods, food security, and sustainable development across the Sahara–Sahelian region. However, this vital sector faces mounting pressures from recurrent armed conflicts that systematically undermine its resilience and long-term sustainability. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of agricultural technical efficiency across 23 African countries in the Sahara–Sahelian region from 2009 to 2021, employing a robust bias-corrected bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis approach. The findings reveal a concerning regional deterioration, with technical efficiency declining at an average annual rate of 1.7% throughout the study period. Conflict-affected countries demonstrated distinctive vulnerability patterns, exhibiting both higher average efficiency levels (0.875) and greater volatility, with annual declines of 1.8%. Sub-regional analysis highlights the Sahel’s particular fragility, where efficiency decreased by 2.2% yearly, nearly double the decline rate observed in North Africa. The most severe efficiency losses were recorded in countries experiencing intense and protracted conflict, notably Burkina Faso (4.0%) and Mali (3.5%), underscoring the severe association between conflict exposure and the erosion of agricultural productive capacity. These findings underscore the importance of developing integrated strategies that simultaneously address security challenges, climate adaptation, and institutional reform for effective resilience-building. Policy recommendations highlight the importance of enhanced regional connectivity, knowledge transfer, and targeted investments in agricultural capacity building—all aligned with both Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 objectives for achieving sustainable agricultural transformation in conflict-affected regions.

To address the existing problems of frequent manual tray handling, poor continuity, and insufficient coordination in fully automatic transplanters, this study designed an integrated multi-layer tray-handling and dual-claw coordinated seedling pick-and-throw mechanism. Through continuous tray conveying and multi-layer tray-handling mechanisms, automatic replacement of multiple seedling trays was achieved. A dual-claw coordinated seedling picking and planting mechanism was designed, and the seedling picking trajectory was optimized based on path planning and RecurDyn kinematic simulation. Six-segment and seven-segment S-shaped acceleration and deceleration motion control curves and planning strategies that can be switched according to the target displacement and dynamic parameters were proposed, and a PLC-based software and hardware control system was constructed. The simulation and experimental results show that the dual-module parallel motion mode is more efficient and has a smoother trajectory than the serial mode. The average positioning absolute error of tray conveying is 1.09 mm, the average horizontal and vertical positioning absolute errors of seedling picking are 1.07 mm and 1.09 mm, respectively, and the horizontal and vertical positioning absolute errors of seedling planting are 1.50 mm and 1.51 mm, respectively. The success rate of seedling picking is 97.01%, the success rate of seedling planting is 96.39%, and the qualified rate of planting is 96%. The experimental results meet the actual operation requirements. This study provides a theoretical basis and technical support for the high-efficiency coordinated operation of fully automatic transplanters.

The problem of agricultural environmental pollution is increasingly serious, and carbon emissions have become an important form of pollution that must be controlled. This study aims to explore the impact mechanism and heterogeneity of the digital economy on China’s agricultural carbon emission intensity. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2022, an empirical analysis was conducted using two-way fixed effect models, moderating effect models, and panel threshold models, revealing that the development of the digital economy is significantly and negatively associated with agricultural carbon emission intensity. However, the emission reduction effect is restricted by a complex moderation and threshold framework. Specifically, the improvement of human capital may lead to a decreasing trend in the emission reduction effect of the digital economy, implying the existence of a potential “efficiency rebound” effect. The regional innovation environment can significantly enhance the emission reduction effect of the digital economy, and this effect is most significant when there is both high human capital and a superior innovation environment. In addition, the emission reduction effect of the digital economy exhibits threshold characteristics and is optimal when agricultural technology progress reaches an intermediate level; an institutional environment can play an effective role at the intermediate level, but its independent emission reduction effect tends to be saturated under a highly perfect institutional environment. These findings provide new evidence for understanding the complex relationship between the digital economy and agricultural carbon emissions and provide a theoretical basis and practical guidance for the formulation of differentiated agricultural low-carbon development policies.