Does internet use promote agricultural green development?Evidence from China

Abstract

Based on the panel data of CFPS2016, 2018 and 2020 as samples, this paper empirically investigates the green development effect of internet use on farmers from the perspective of agricultural green total factor productivity. The research shows that farmers' internet use has significantly promoted the improvement of agricultural green total factor productivity. The mechanism analysis shows that farmers' internet use promotes the improvement of agricultural green total factor productivity in two ways: land transfer and adoption of agricultural production services. The threshold effect analysis shows that it is only when the level of human capital exceeds the threshold that farmers' internet use can have a positive impact on agricultural total factor productivity. The expansion analysis shows that in the context of urbanisation and marketization development, there is a substitution effect between urban development and internet use by rural households in the eastern region, and a complementarity effect between urban development and internet use by rural households in the central and western regions.