Can the low-altitude economy promote high-quality agricultural development? From the perspective of factor mobility

The low-altitude economy, characterized by high-tech support, efficient operations, and high-quality development, has become a new engine for cultivating new quality productive forces in agriculture and accelerating the modernization of agriculture and rural areas. Based on the Chinese government’s new development philosophy, this study constructs a comprehensive index of high-quality agricultural development. Using panel data for 31 provinces in China from 2004 to 2024, this study employs a difference-in-differences model and a mediation-effect model to empirically examine the impact of the low-altitude economy on high-quality agricultural development. The results show that the low-altitude economy significantly promotes high-quality agricultural development. Further analysis indicates that the low-altitude economy indirectly drives high-quality agricultural development by promoting technology diffusion and labor mobility. Among the mediating channels, technology diffusion has the strongest mediating effect, while the coefficient of the mediating effect of capital flow is positive but statistically insignificant. The promotion effect of the low-altitude economy on high-quality agricultural development is more pronounced in major grain-consuming areas, eastern and central regions, and regions with higher levels of digital infrastructure. Accordingly, this study proposes policy recommendations in terms of rationally arranging agricultural low-altitude application scenarios, facilitating factor mobility, and implementing differentiated regional development paths for the low-altitude economy. These findings provide empirical references for relevant departments to scientifically formulate low-altitude economic development plans and promote high-quality agricultural development.