The national agricultural product quality and safety pilot (APQS) is not only related to food safety but may also affect agricultural green transformation by changing agricultural production practices. Using panel data from Chinese prefecture-level cities over the period 2010–2021, this study applies a multi-period difference-in-differences approach to assess the effects of this policy on cultivated land green utilization efficiency (LGUE) and further examines its effects on outcomes related to the resource, market, and technology dimensions. The results indicate that the pilot policy significantly improves LGUE, and this finding remains robust across staggered DID estimation and other robustness checks. The subgroup estimates show heterogeneous patterns across samples defined by agricultural functional zones, regions, and terrain conditions. Further analysis suggests that the pilot policy improves irrigation coverage and irrigation support conditions, promotes geographical indication certification for agricultural products, and is positively associated with agricultural patent application activity.