Does internet use improve eco-efficiency of agricultural production? Evidence from potato farmers in China

Abstract

China's internet development and eco-efficiency of agricultural production have attracted attention from academia. However, the association between internet use by farmers and the eco-efficiency of agricultural production has not yet been fully investigated. This research investigates the average and heterogeneous impacts of internet use on eco-efficiency among 434 potato-producing farmers from China's major potato-producing regions in 2021 to fill this knowledge gap. The slack-based measure model is applied to calculate the eco-efficiency of potato production, and total carbon emissions, total nitrogen loss, and total phosphorus loss are treated as undesirable outputs. To obtain an unbiased estimation of the average effect, the self-selection problem generated by observable and unobservable factors is solved by the endogenous switching regression model. Quantile regression is utilized to analyze the heterogeneous effect of internet use on eco-efficiency. We also employ the treatment model for a robustness check. Our findings indicate that internet use can increase potato production's eco-efficiency. Internet users would reduce eco-efficiency by 0.147 (21.11%) if they had not used the internet. Internet nonusers would improve eco-efficiency by 0.214 (35.20%) if they had used the internet. Moreover, internet use is more helpful to potato farmers who have lower eco-efficiency than those who have higher eco-efficiency. The robustness check reconfirms that internet use can indeed enhance eco-efficiency of potato production. Our findings suggest that the government should expand its investment in internet information infrastructure, encourage internet use in rural areas and pay more attention to farmers with low eco-efficiency. Show more