A Study of the Impact of New Quality Productive Forces on Agricultural Modernization: Empirical Evidence from China

New quality productive forces are the fundamental driving force for the progress of human civilization. To deeply explore the relationship between new quality productive forces and agricultural modernization, data from 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2022 were selected to construct the index system of new quality productive forces and agricultural modernization, carry out scientific measurement, and conduct empirical analysis using the fixed effect model. The results show that new quality productivity can significantly promote agricultural modernization. The new quality productive force has a significant effect on the modernization of agriculture in the eastern, middle, and western regions of China, but the effect is more prominent in the middle and western areas. New productive forces are significantly and positively associated with agricultural modernization in both main grain-producing and non-main grain-producing areas, but the effect is greater in main grain-producing areas. The upgrading of the agricultural industrial structure plays a mediating effect between new productive forces and agricultural modernization. There is a single-threshold effect of the new productive forces empowering agricultural modernization. Accordingly, to better utilize new productive forces to empower agricultural modernization, we should fully activate the talent engine and cultivate modern “new farmers”; strive to build efficient agriculture by taking scientific and technological innovation as the driving force; and promote the sustainable development of agriculture by taking agricultural green production as the orientation.