Effects of agricultural informatization on agricultural carbon emissions: a quasi natural experiment study in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Agricultural informatization is regarded as a useful instrument for reducing carbon emissions, but few studies are devoted to illustrating the real effects and mechanisms of it in detail. In this paper, agricultural informatization policy (AIP) is regarded as an exogenous shock, TVDID (time-varying Difference-in-difference) method and county-level panel data from 2000 to 2018 in China are used to investigate the effects of agricultural informatization on agricultural carbon emissions. It shows that AIP reduces agricultural carbon emissions by 1.4% significantly. Technologies adoption and farmland enlarging are potential mechanisms for these effects. Education level and broadband accession can improve the effects of carbon reduction. The effects of AIP on carbon reduction are more salient for the eastern and main-grain-producing areas. This paper implies that agricultural informatization could be essential for local agricultural carbon reduction.