Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis ›› 2022, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (12): 2809-2822.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-1524.2022.12.24

• Agricultural Economy and Development • Previous Articles    

Analysis of the impact of use of internet information technology on agricultural productivity: a case study of rice farmers in Jiangxi Province, China

GAO Xueping1(), ZHANG Yuhan1, ZHANG Mengling1, LIAO Wenmei1,2,*()   

  1. 1. College of Economics and Management, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China
    2. Jiangxi Rural Revitalization Strategy Research Institute,Nanchang 330045, China
  • Received:2022-04-26 Online:2022-12-25 Published:2022-12-26
  • Contact: LIAO Wenmei

Abstract:

Based on the data of 549 rice growers in Jiangxi Province, this paper used ordinary least squares (OLS) and propensity score matching (PSM) methods to analyze the impact of the use of internet information technology on agricultural productivity of rice at the micro level. The results showed that the use of internet information technology could significantly improve the land productivity and total factor productivity of rice, but the effect of increasing productivity was greater than that of increasing efficiency. After comparing the benchmark regression results and the propensity score matching method, we still got a consistent conclusion. The heterogeneity results showed that considering the differences in farmers' education levels, the use of internet information technology only significantly promoted the land productivity of farmers with lower education levels and only significantly improved the total factor productivity of farmers with higher education levels. Considering the difference in agricultural operation scale, the use of internet information technology only significantly improved the land productivity and total factor productivity of larger households. Under the condition of moderately expanding the scale of land operation, the effect of internet information technology on increasing production was greater than that of improving efficiency. Therefore, it was necessary to continuously promote the construction of rural internet and supporting infrastructure, improve farmers' cultural literacy, encourage large-scale operations, and increase the ability and demand to obtain agricultural information and technology from the internet.

Key words: internet, rice, land productivity, total factor productivity, propensity score matching

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