Abstract
Improving technical efficiency (TE) is crucial for the sustainable growth of smallholder agriculture in developing countries. While there has been a large literature investigating the determinants of smallholders’ agricultural technical efficiency, little is known about the effect of e-commerce on agriculture and crop production efficiency despite the growing importance of rural e-commerce in developing countries. This study, therefore, bridges the research gap by examining the impact of e-commerce adoption on TE using household survey data of wheat farmers in China. We employ the combination of propensity score matching (PSM) and a selectivity-corrected stochastic production frontier model to address the possible selection biases stemming from both observable and unobservable factors. We found that e-commerce adoption would lead to a 2.75 per cent increase in the technical efficiency of wheat production. Our study also complements the existing research of rural e-commerce, which mainly focuses on the benefits of e-commerce from the perspective of market opportunity and farmers’ welfare.
Highlights
IntroductionAcademic Editors: Riccardo Testa, Enhancing agricultural productivity and technical efficiency is widely perceived as a key strategy for sustainable rural advancement in developing countries, especially in
Academic Editors: Riccardo Testa, Enhancing agricultural productivity and technical efficiency is widely perceived as a key strategy for sustainable rural advancement in developing countries, especially inChina, where smallholder farmers make up 99% of the nation’s total agricultural producers [1]
Improving the technical efficiency of smallholder farmers is crucial for food security and rural development all across the world
Summary
Academic Editors: Riccardo Testa, Enhancing agricultural productivity and technical efficiency is widely perceived as a key strategy for sustainable rural advancement in developing countries, especially in. China, where smallholder farmers make up 99% of the nation’s total agricultural producers [1]. Smallholder farmers usually face multiple complex production and marketing challenges that hinder the technical efficiency of their agricultural production. The technical efficiency for smallholder farmers is relatively low in developing countries [11,13], posing challenges to their sustainable development in modern agriculture. Rural e-commerce in China has undergone a rapid development in the past decade. The rapid development of rural e-commerce in the past decades has been gaining increasing recognition internationally for its potential in promoting the rural economy in developing countries [40]. The government has steadily funded the construction of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) infrastructures in the rural regions, which has provided a solid ground for e-commerce development
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
