Could Digital Literacy Contribute to the Improvement of Green Production Efficiency in Agriculture?

Abstract

The digital development in rural areas has become an important driving force for promoting green production in agriculture. But the lack of digital skills among farmers remains a problem. The main reason why farmers cannot master digital skills well is their lack of digital literacy, which leads to market information asymmetry and the inability to truly distinguish the difference between green production and traditional production. Based on this, this article uses field research methods to collect data from 1,116 farmers in China, calculates agricultural green production efficiency using the SBM model, and empirically tests the relationship between farmers’ digital literacy and green production efficiency in agriculture. The results showed that digital literacy has a significant promoting effect on agricultural green production efficiency. Secondly, it was found that digital literacy can effectively enhance farmers’ cognition of green agricultural products and green production technology adoption. Among them, the effect of cognition of green agricultural products is reflected in farmers’ self-cognition and market cognition. The green production technology adoption is reflected in the breadth and depth of technology adoption. Third, we discuss the effect of different dimensions of digital literacy on agricultural green production efficiency. The effect of the digital literacy on the production efficiency of the five typical green technologies used by farmers is further discussed. Although there are certain differences, overall, they all have a significant promoting effect. It is necessary to comprehensively improve farmers’ digital literacy, bridge the digital divide and promote the green transformation of agricultural production.