IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jknowl/v16y2025i3d10.1007_s13132-024-02502-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Digital Agriculture on Green Productivity in Agriculture: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Lang Li

    (University of Shanghai for Science and Technology)

  • Xiaodong Zhu

    (University of Shanghai for Science and Technology)

Abstract

The development of digital agriculture (DIGA) is a necessary move to improve the green production efficiency of agriculture (GATFP) and a necessary way to realize the green development of agriculture. Based on the entropy value method and the super-efficient SBM model with non-expected output to measure the development level of digital agriculture and agricultural green production efficiency, respectively, the article uses the balanced panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2021 to empirically test the mechanism of its influence through the bidirectional fixed-effect model and the mediated effect model. The study finds that DIGA has a significant contribution to the improvement of GATFP; further research through the mediation effect model finds that DIGA will contribute to the improvement of GATFP through agricultural technological innovation and production scale; and the results of the heterogeneity analysis show that the contribution of DIGA to GATFP is more obvious in the coastal area and the main grain production area.

Suggested Citation

  • Lang Li & Xiaodong Zhu, 2025. "The Impact of Digital Agriculture on Green Productivity in Agriculture: Evidence from China," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(3), pages 13429-13453, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:16:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s13132-024-02502-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s13132-024-02502-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13132-024-02502-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s13132-024-02502-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mingyong Hong & Mengjie Tian & Ji Wang, 2023. "The impact of digital economy on green development of agriculture and its spatial spillover effect," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 15(4), pages 708-726, July.
    2. Lee, Chi-Chuan & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "How does green finance affect green total factor productivity? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    3. Meng, Ming & Qu, Danlei, 2022. "Understanding the green energy efficiencies of provinces in China: A Super-SBM and GML analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PA).
    4. Yunsi Chen & Sumin Hu & Haoqiang Wu, 2023. "The Digital Economy, Green Technology Innovation, and Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Xinxin Zhou & Tong Chen & Bangbang Zhang, 2023. "Research on the Impact of Digital Agriculture Development on Agricultural Green Total Factor Productivity," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-20, January.
    6. Jiang, Yankun & Han, Guanghe & Yu, Dan, 2024. "Digital finance and agricultural green total factor productivity: the mediating role of digital village development," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 67(PB).
    7. Tone, Kaoru & Tsutsui, Miki, 2010. "Dynamic DEA: A slacks-based measure approach," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 145-156, June.
    8. Deng, Haiyan & Zheng, Wangyi & Shen, Zhiyang & Štreimikienė, Dalia, 2023. "Does fiscal expenditure promote green agricultural productivity gains: An investigation on corn production," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 334(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Buhari Doğan & Sunil Tiwari & Brahim Bergougui & Sudeshna Ghosh & Daniel Balsalobre‐Lorente, 2025. "Green Innovation and Fiscal Spending: Decoding the Path to Sustainable Development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 6307-6327, August.
    2. Lee, Chi-Chuan & Li, Mingyue & Li, Xinghao & Song, Hepeng, 2025. "More green digital finance with less energy poverty? The key role of climate risk," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    3. Zhijiang Li & Decai Tang, 2024. "Pathways of the Digital Economy’s Impact on Green Total Factor Productivity in the Construction Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-24, December.
    4. Jingbo Shao, 2024. "Green industrial policy and green development of agriculture—Quasi-natural experiment based on the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(9), pages 1-23, September.
    5. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Yuan, Zihao & Lee, Chi-Chuan & Chang, Yu-Fang, 2022. "The impact of renewable energy technology innovation on energy poverty: Does climate risk matter?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    6. Qirui Zhang & Xinhui Feng & Wangfang Xu & Longbao Wei, 2025. "Digitalization’s Role in Shaping Sustainable Agriculture—Evidence from Chinese Provincial Panel Data Using the Baidu Index," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-23, June.
    7. Liu, Hongman & Li, Xixi, 2025. "How digital technology can improve new quality productive forces? ——Perspective of total factor agricultural carbon productivity," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    8. Ying Liu & Lei Tian & Zhiyi Wang & Peiyong He & Meng Li & Na Wang & Yang Yu, 2023. "Spatial–Temporal Evolution of Interprovincial Ecological Efficiency and Its Determinants in China: A Super-Efficiency SBM Model Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-19, September.
    9. Hu, Hui & Qi, Shaozhou & Chen, Yuanzhi, 2023. "Using green technology for a better tomorrow: How enterprises and government utilize the carbon trading system and incentive policies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Huang, Haiping & Huang, Baolian & Sun, Aijun, 2023. "How do mineral resources influence eco-sustainability in China? Dynamic role of renewable energy and green finance," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(PA).
    11. Chen, Yufeng & Ni, Liangfu & Liu, Kelong, 2021. "Does China's new energy vehicle industry innovate efficiently? A three-stage dynamic network slacks-based measure approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    12. Haibei Chen & Xianglian Zhao, 2023. "Use intention of green financial security intelligence service based on UTAUT," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(10), pages 10709-10742, October.
    13. Mohammad Nourani & Qian Long Kweh & Evelyn Shyamala Devadason & V.G.R. Chandran, 2020. "A decomposition analysis of managerial efficiency for the insurance companies: A data envelopment analysis approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(6), pages 885-901, September.
    14. Mohammad Tavassoli & Mahsa Ghandehari & Masoud Taherinia, 2023. "Rang-adjusted measure: modelling and computational aspects from internal and external perspectives for network DEA," Operational Research, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1-34, December.
    15. Yongqi Feng & Haolin Zhang & Yung-ho Chiu & Tzu-Han Chang, 2021. "Innovation efficiency and the impact of the institutional quality: a cross-country analysis using the two-stage meta-frontier dynamic network DEA model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 3091-3129, April.
    16. Yu-Chuan Chen & Yung-Ho Chiu & Tzu-Han Chang & Tai-Yu Lin, 2023. "Sustainable Development, Government Efficiency, and People’s Happiness," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 1549-1578, April.
    17. Satar Bakhsh & Md Shabbir Alam & Wei Zhang, 2024. "Green finance and Sustainable Development Goals: is there a role for geopolitical uncertainty?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1-30, August.
    18. Le Sun & Congmou Zhu & Shaofeng Yuan & Lixia Yang & Shan He & Wuyan Li, 2022. "Exploring the Impact of Digital Inclusive Finance on Agricultural Carbon Emission Performance in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-18, September.
    19. Wang, Yafei & Shi, Ming & Zhao, Zihan & Liu, Junnan & Zhang, Shiqiu, 2025. "How does green finance improve the total factor energy efficiency? Capturing the mediating role of green management innovation and embodied technological progress," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    20. Xu He & Qin-Lei Jing, 2022. "The Impact of Environmental Tax Reform on Total Factor Productivity of Heavy-Polluting Firms Based on a Dual Perspective of Technological Innovation and Capital Allocation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-17, November.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jknowl:v:16:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s13132-024-02502-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.