Decomposing the decoupling relationship between energy consumption and economic growth in China's agricultural sector

Sustainable food supply is affected by high energy consumption and negative environmental effects. Regarding the national strategy of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets", the decoupling between energy consumption and economic growth in China's agriculture has received significant attention. Therefore, this study first presents a descriptive analysis of the energy consumption in China's agricultural sector from 2000 to 2019, before analyzing the decoupling state between energy consumption and agricultural economic growth at the national and provincial levels using the Tapio decoupling index. Finally, the logarithmic mean divisia index method is used to decompose the decoupling driving factors. The study draws the following conclusions: (1) At the national level, the decoupling of agricultural energy consumption from economic growth fluctuates among expansive negative decoupling, expansive coupling, and weak decoupling, before stabilizing in the last state. (2) The decoupling process also differs by geographic region. Strong negative decoupling is found in North and East China, and strong decoupling lasts longer in Southwest and Northwest China. (3) The factors driving decoupling are similar at both the levels. The economic activity effect promotes the decoupling of energy consumption. The industrial structure and energy intensity effects are the two main suppressive factors, whereas the population and energy structure effects have relatively weaker impacts. Therefore, based on the empirical results, this study provides evidence for regional governments to formulate policies on the relationship between the agricultural economy and energy management from the perspective of effect driven policies.