IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v14y2024i10p1805-d1497985.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Digitalization and Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Qixuan Zhang

    (International College Beijing, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China)

  • Yuxin Yang

    (College of Letters & Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA)

  • Xue Li

    (Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China)

  • Pingping Wang

    (International College Beijing, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China)

Abstract

Based on panel data of 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 2011 to 2022, this paper empirically examines the impact of digitalization on the inputs and outputs of the agricultural production process, and thereby derives the effects and mechanisms by which digitalization empowers the growth of agricultural green total factor productivity. The study finds that agricultural and rural areas’ digitalization significantly improves agricultural green total factor productivity, and this promotion mainly comes from the improvement of technical efficiency. Further analysis shows that digitalization mainly reduces land input and labor input, increases expected output, and reduces undesired output during the agricultural production process to achieve an improvement in agricultural green total factor productivity, indicating that digitalization has altered the allocation of agricultural factors. Heterogeneity analysis finds that the effect of digitalization on the growth of agricultural green total factor productivity is more pronounced in the eastern regions, southern regions, and areas with higher levels of agricultural digitalization, indicating that the development of digitalization exacerbates the gap in agricultural green total factor productivity among regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Qixuan Zhang & Yuxin Yang & Xue Li & Pingping Wang, 2024. "Digitalization and Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-13, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:10:p:1805-:d:1497985
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/10/1805/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/10/1805/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pingping Wang & Chaozhu Li & Chenghao Huang, 2023. "The Impact of Digital Village Construction on County-Level Economic Growth and Its Driving Mechanisms: Evidence from China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-14, September.
    2. Shah, Wasi Ul Hassan & Hao, Gang & Yasmeen, Rizwana & Yan, Hong & Shen, Jintao & Lu, Yuting, 2023. "Role of China's agricultural water policy reforms and production technology heterogeneity on agriculture water usage efficiency and total factor productivity change," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).
    3. Victoria Shestalova, 2003. "Sequential Malmquist Indices of Productivity Growth: An Application to OECD Industrial Activities," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 211-226, April.
    4. Ogutu, Sylvester Ochieng & Okello, Julius Juma & Otieno, David Jakinda, 2014. "Impact of Information and Communication Technology-Based Market Information Services on Smallholder Farm Input Use and Productivity: The Case of Kenya," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 311-321.
    5. Yunsi Chen & Sumin Hu & Haoqiang Wu, 2023. "The Digital Economy, Green Technology Innovation, and Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, October.
    6. Haruna Issahaku & Benjamin Musah Abu & Paul Kwame Nkegbe, 2018. "Does the Use of Mobile Phones by Smallholder Maize Farmers Affect Productivity in Ghana?," Journal of African Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 302-322, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ma, Wanglin & Zheng, Hongyun, 2021. "Impacts of Smartphone Use on Agrochemical Use Among Wheat Farmers in China: A Heterogeneous Analysis," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 314991, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Wanglin Ma & Hongyun Zheng, 2022. "Heterogeneous impacts of information technology adoption on pesticide and fertiliser expenditures: Evidence from wheat farmers in China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 66(1), pages 72-92, January.
    3. Emileva, Begaiym & Kuhn, Lena & Bobojonov, Ihtiyor & Glauben, Thomas, 2023. "The role of smartphone-based weather information acquisition on climate change perception accuracy: Cross-country evidence from Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Uzbekistan," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 41, pages 1-1.
    4. Quandt, Amy & Salerno, Jonathan & Baird, Timothy D. & McCabe, J. Terrence & Xu, Emilie & Herrick, Jeffrey E. & Hartter, Joel, 2021. "Mobile phone use and agricultural productivity among female smallholder farmers in Tanzania," 2021 Annual Meeting, August 1-3, Austin, Texas 338773, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Abdulai Adams & Rose Omari & Karbo Ransford Teng-Viel, 2020. "Smartphone Usage in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana: What are the Critical Drivers?," International Journal of Asian Social Science, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 10(2), pages 129-141, February.
    6. Lin Xie & Biliang Luo & Wenjing Zhong, 2021. "How Are Smallholder Farmers Involved in Digital Agriculture in Developing Countries: A Case Study from China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-16, March.
    7. Aparicio, Juan & Pastor, Jesus T. & Zofio, Jose L., 2013. "On the inconsistency of the Malmquist–Luenberger index," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 229(3), pages 738-742.
    8. N'dri, Lasme Mathieu & Kakinaka, Makoto, 2020. "Financial inclusion, mobile money, and individual welfare: The case of Burkina Faso," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3).
    9. Lisann Krautzberger & Heike Wetzel, 2012. "Transport and CO 2 : Productivity Growth and Carbon Dioxide Emissions in the European Commercial Transport Industry," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 53(3), pages 435-454, November.
    10. Asongu, Simplice A. & Nnanna, Joseph & Acha-Anyi, Paul N., 2020. "Finance, inequality and inclusive education in Sub-Saharan Africa," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 162-177.
    11. Aparicio, Juan & Santin, Daniel, 2018. "A note on measuring group performance over time with pseudo-panels," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 267(1), pages 227-235.
    12. Asongu, Simplice A. & Biekpe, Nicholas & Cassimon, Danny, 2020. "Understanding the greater diffusion of mobile money innovations in Africa," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(8).
    13. Asongu, Simplice A. & Uduji, Joseph I. & Okolo-Obasi, Elda N., 2019. "Homicide and social media: Global empirical evidence," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    14. Qian Chen & Jaume Freire González & Donglan Zha, 2023. "The Gap between Expectations and Reality: Assessing the Water Rebound Effect in Chinese Agriculture," Working Papers 1415, Barcelona School of Economics.
    15. Fang, Lan & Quan, Yurong & Mao, Hui & Chen, Shaojian, 2022. "The Information Communication Technology and Off-farm Employment of Rural Laborers: An Analysis Based on the Micro Data of China Family Panel Studies," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322088, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    16. Beibei Yan & Tianjun Liu, 2022. "Can E-Commerce Adoption Improve Agricultural Productivity? Evidence from Apple Growers in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    17. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Basic formal education quality, information technology, and inclusive human development in sub‐Saharan Africa," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 419-428, May.
    18. Will Chancellor, 2023. "Exploring the relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) and productivity: Evidence from Australian farms," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 67(2), pages 285-302, April.
    19. Asongu, Simplice & Vo, Xuan, 2020. "The Effect of Finance on Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Avoidable CO2 emissions Thresholds," MPRA Paper 103233, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Dingde Xu & Chen Qing & Yang Chen & Jia He & Fengwan Zhang, 2023. "Sustainable Development of Rural Human Settlements in the Information Age: Can Internet Use Drive Farmers to Participate in Garbage Classification?," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:10:p:1805-:d:1497985. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.