Abstract
Information communication technology (ICT) has changed the traditional agricultural extension service mode worldwide. This paper examines the effects of the Rural Distance Education Project (RDEP) on the household income, agricultural productivity, and off-farm employment of farmers in peri-urban areas in Beijing. Using the survey data of 783 randomly selected farm households from 54 villages in three Beijing peri-urban districts in 2014, and the propensity score matching method (PSM), we find that the RDEP has a significant and positive effect on agricultural productivity and input use. Meanwhile, the program’s effects are heterogeneous across districts and households. For example, the RDEP has significant impacts on several outcome indicators, such as agricultural labor productivity (at a 5% level of significance), agricultural land productivity (at a 10% level), and input use intensity (at a 1% level) in Tongzhou (an agriculturally more important district, with a more intensive RDEP usage), but none of these effects is significant in Pinggu district. Furthermore, the RDEP is found to have bigger, and statistically more significant effects, for households with junior high school education than for those with either lower or higher than junior high school education. Furthermore, the RDEP is more effective for households with more assets than those with fewer assets. These results point toward the importance of using a rural distance education program as an effective extension service, and the need to take community and individual characteristics into account in the implementation and design of future programs.
Highlights
Information communication technology (ICT) has changed the mode of production and dissemination of information, and has the potential to overcome the traditional obstacles of economic differences, geographical distance barriers and the unequal distribution of knowledge [1]
Despite decades of investment in ICT-related infrastructure and education programs, evidence of the impact of such investment on farm households’ welfare is still mixed, and sparse from China, which is possibly due to the variety of ICT technologies, different types of information provided, and data availability [3]
This paper provides encouraging evidence to support the ICT-based extension service, which indicates that Rural Distance Education Project (RDEP) increases farm households’ agricultural productivity
Summary
Information communication technology (ICT) has changed the mode of production and dissemination of information, and has the potential to overcome the traditional obstacles of economic differences, geographical distance barriers and the unequal distribution of knowledge [1]. The Chinese government has already invested massively in information infrastructure and ICT-based education programs to assist farmers in obtaining knowledge, information, and skills to enhance the level of their livelihood [2]. Despite decades of investment in ICT-related infrastructure and education programs, evidence of the impact of such investment on farm households’ welfare is still mixed, and sparse from China, which is possibly due to the variety of ICT technologies, different types of information provided, and data availability [3]. There are two active strands of literature regarding the evaluation of impacts of the ICT-based programs affecting rural farmers. The results are mixed in each of the two strands of research
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