ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Digital Finance Development and the Usage
of Low-Carbon Farm Technology:
Evidence from Rural China
More details
Hide details
1
School of Land Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
Submission date: 2025-05-01
Final revision date: 2025-05-22
Acceptance date: 2025-06-12
Publication date: 2025-07-25
Corresponding author
Xingguang Li
School of Land Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences Beijing, Beijing 100083, China
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Owing to the advent of the digital economy era, digital finance development has reshaped
the background of the diffusion of low-carbon farm technology, which has raised the likelihood of
stimulating agricultural technological progress. However, the relationship between digital finance
development and the diffusion of low-carbon farm technology was still fuzzy for the existing
studies, which was not conducive to accelerating the expansion of low-carbon production modes
and, consequently, hindered the achievements of green development in the farm sector. Accordingly,
the data set with 296 effective samples in Fuxian County, Shaanxi Province, and the IV-Probit
model were utilized to explore the impact mechanisms of digital finance development on the usage
of low-carbon farm technology. The results reported that digital payment significantly strengthened
the diffusion of low-carbon farm technology. Further, digital payment raised the value of agricultural
machinery and the scale of family income and improved the farmers’ environmental awareness, but
restrained the possibility of non-farm employment, thereby facilitating the diffusion of low-carbon
farm technology. Our findings indicated that digital payment provided an effective tool to diffuse
the advanced agricultural technologies through the factor allocation effect, the income effect,
and the environmental awareness effect. This paper could augment the usage efficiency of fertilizer
inputs and the improvement of soil fertility, which stimulated low-carbon development.