Abstract: Agroecology serves as a pivotal approach for promoting agricultural green transformation and realizing rural revitalization in the context of sustainable development. As the primary vehicle for the practical implementation and innovative demonstration of agroecology in China, ecological farms hold significant theoretical and practical values for exploring pathways toward high-performance development. This study focused on 58 national- and provincial-level ecological farms in Hebei Province, encompassing both crop-based and integrated crop-livestock operations. Employing Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), this study constructed a comprehensive performance evaluation indicator system to capture the multidimensional nature of ecological farm development. Using cross-sectional data collected from field investigations in 2022, the super-SBM (Slack-Based Measure) model, which incorporates undesirable outputs, was applied to measure the development performance of each farm. Subsequently, a configurational perspective was adopted, and Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) was used to reveal the pathways through which various factors synergistically contribute to the high-performance of ecological farms, focusing on the interplay among resource endowments, production and operations, market conditions, and tri-party support. The findings of this study were threefold. First, with a mean score of 1.088, indicating DEA efficiency attainment in most cases, ecological farms successfully balanced the dual sustainability objectives of ecology and economy, where operational performance disparities remain observable. Second, four distinct pathways leading to high-performance of ecological farms were identified: 1) the resource synergy pathway, which prioritized strategic coordination of land-labor allocations through policy-supported optimization; 2) the vertical integration pathway, which centered on cultivating premium niche products to establish closed-loop value chains from production to distribution; 3) the industrial convergence pathway, which orchestrated cross-sector convergence by interlinking primary production with processing and experiential tourism sectors; and 4) the tech-market synergy pathway, which leveraged smart agricultural technologies alongside multi-channel marketing architectures to maximize market penetration. Third, this study identified three constraining pathways for underperforming farms. These included the eco-overemphasis pathway, with an excessive focuse on ecological goals and undermined economic viability; the resource misallocation pathway, which characterized by the inefficient use of available resources and lack of market responsiveness; and the factor bottleneck pathway, with limitations in land, labor, or capital restrict farm development. Based on these findings, this study provided actionable recommendations. Ecological farms should prioritize strengthening resource integration and efficiency through targeted support in areas such as financial subsidies, technology promotion, and market development. Moreover, a dynamic entry-exit mechanism for ecological farms should be established to stimulate internal vitality. Additionally, policymakers should promote multi-industry integration and innovation to enhance self-sustaining capacities and achieve long-term sustainable development without overreliance on external support.