Abstract:Exploring the coupling and coordination relationship between green production and agricultural product quality and safety, along with identifying their obstacle factors, is of great significance for promoting high-quality agricultural and rural development. This study applied the coupling coordination degree model to analyze the spatiotemporal differences in the coupling coordination degree of green production and agricultural product quality and safety across 30 provinces in China from 2012 to 2020. Additionally, the Dagum Gini coefficient decomposition method was employed to investigate the sources of differences in the coupling coordination of these two systems in the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions. The obstacle degree model was used to identify the factors with the highest barrier degrees in each system. The results indicate that: 1) The overall degree of coupling coordination between the two systems across the provinces has shown an upward trend. By 2020, all provinces in the central region had reached or surpassed the primary coordination level. In the eastern region, half of the provinces were at the primary coordination level, while the other half were on the verge of disharmony. The western and northeastern regions were primarily on the verge of disharmony. 2) The overall Gini coefficient exhibited an increasing-decreasing-increasing pattern, with the super-variable density Gini coefficient contributing the most in 2020, while the inter-regional Gini coefficient showed a decrease. 3) The proportion of agricultural reclamation research funding relative to agricultural output value, along with public attention to agricultural product quality and safety, were the top-ranking obstacle factors in each system. Based on these findings, it is suggested that provinces should establish an internal coupling mechanism between the two systems to promote sustainable agricultural development, enhance regional coordination to reduce development disparities, and identify key obstacle factors to effectively improve the level of coupling and coordinated development.