Grain Farmers’ Marketing Channel Choice and Its Economic Implications: Evidence on Chemical Input Use, Production Costs, and Sales Behavior

While promoting small-scale grain farmers’ market participation has been widely recognized as an effective way to improve farm performance, little is known about how different marketing channels affect production and sales outcomes. This study categorizes grain farmers’ marketing channel choices by the type of buyers they sell to: farmgate (door-to-door), non-farmgate informal, and non-farmgate formal channels. We examine the effects of grain farmers’ marketing channel choice on chemical input use, production costs, and sales behavior. Using a multivalued treatment effects (MVTE) framework with the inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (IPWRA) estimator, we address selection bias and estimate open-access data from the 2020 China Rural Revitalization Survey. Results show that, compared with selling through the farmgate channel, selling through the non-farmgate informal channel significantly increases sales frequency. However, compared to selling through both farmgate and non-farmgate informal channels, selling through the non-farmgate formal channel significantly reduces fertilizer and pesticide expenditures, production costs, and sale frequency, with these patterns varying by distance to town. This indicates that formal marketing channels may encourage more efficient input use and cost-saving practices, but involve fewer transactions. This study provides evidence for designing marketoriented policies that promote inclusive commercialization among small-scale grain farmers.