The impact of digital capabilities on farmers’ choice of marketing channels: evidence from rural areas of the Yellow River Basin in China

Understanding the impact of digital capabilities on farmers’ choice of marketing channels is crucial for achieving sustainable development goals. Therefore, this paper employs the Probit model to estimate the impact of digital capabilities on farmers’ choice of marketing channels. The empirical results indicate that digital capabilities inhibit farmers from choosing wholesalers’ marketing channels, promoting their choice of cooperatives and direct sales. Considering potential endogeneity issues, the results are robust. Mechanism analysis shows that digital capabilities influence farmers’ choice of marketing channels by expanding social networks, changing risk attitudes, and improving bargaining power. We also find that the impact of digital capabilities on the choice of marketing channels shows heterogeneity in education, income, planting scale, and market distance. Therefore, the government should strengthen the agricultural information infrastructure construction and promote cross-departmental collaboration to develop precision agriculture data platforms, effectively enhancing farmers’ digital capabilities. Furthermore, the government should focus on investing in rural logistics infrastructure to diversify agricultural product marketing channels. Finally, the government should conduct precise segmentation of the farmers and develop differentiated policies for cultivating digital capabilities.