On the afternoon of April 20, the fourth lecture of the Agricultural Economics Forum and the "New Path for Agricultural and Forestry Economics and Management Disciplines" series, hosted by the School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, was held in Room 931 of the Mingde Main Building. Professor Chen Xiaoguangfrom Southwestern University of Finance and Economics was invited to deliver a report titled "Rural Ecological Civilization Construction and High-Quality Agricultural Development." The lecture was hosted by Professor Qiu Huanguang, Dean of the School, and attended by faculty and students.

Professor Chen Xiaoguang first elaborated on the current situation of rural ecological environmental pollution in China and pointed out the challenges faced in rural ecological environment pollution control. Using the example of water pollution in China, he presented the overall water quality status of national surface water and the proportion of water pollution source emissions in 2021 through data and charts. He noted that while the overall water quality of surface water has improved, issues such as excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, and improper disposal of waste from livestock and poultry farming, have caused water pollution problems in rural areas.

Next, Professor Chen introduced the calculation formula for agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) based on the stochastic frontier model and innovatively constructed multiple TFP indicators using three different methods. He explained the method for estimating near-surface ozone concentration, utilizing satellite data, meteorological data, and vegetation coverage as predictors to train the model. The training process employed the k-means method, using machine learning algorithms and parameter optimization techniques to evaluate the model, which ultimately achieved the function of predicting ozone concentration.

Professor Chen summarized his research on ozone pollution through economic models and counterfactual simulation analysis: First, ozone pollution is continuously intensifying, spreading across regions and seasons. Second, ozone pollution reduces agricultural production efficiency, with the impact on agricultural TFP mainly coming from non-winter ozone. Third, the sources of ozone pollution's impact on agricultural production efficiency are primarily crop farming and its effects on agricultural labor productivity.