Impact of Agricultural-Culture-Tourism Integration on Agricultural Modernization

With the panel data from 31 provinces in China spanning 2011 to 2023, by using fixedeffects and mediating -effects models, we construct a comprehensive evaluation index system for agricultural-culture-tourism integration and agricultural modernization to empirically examine the impact of agricultural-culture-tourism integration on agricultural modernization and its transmission mechanisms. The findings indicate that agricultural-culture-tourism integration has a significantly positive promotional effect on agricultural modernization, a conclusion that remains robust after a series of stability tests. By mediating-effects analysis, agricultural-culture-tourism integration indirectly promotes agricultural modernization primarily through two pathways: enhancing the digitalization of agricultural product circulation and advancing industrial structure upgrading. Heterogeneity analysis further reveals that the promotional effect of agricultural-culture-tourism integration on agricultural modernization follows a pattern of “strongest in central regions, followed by western regions, and weakest in eastern regions”, and is more pronounced in non-major grainproducing areas, regions with higher levels of economic development, and areas rich in cultural and tourism resources. Therefore, policies should be advanced toward targeted capacity-building, implementing regionally differentiated strategies, focusing on constructing enabling mechanisms along key transmission pathways, and improving long-term support and regulatory systems, so as to ensure that agricultural-culture-tourism integration precisely and sustainably empowers agricultural modernization.