Abstract:

[Objective] In recent years, China has issued a series of policy documents, which emphasize digital transformation as a key driver for deepening the integration of digital and intelligent technologies (DITs) with the agricultural and rural economy, promoting high-quality agricultural development, and advancing the goal of building a strong agricultural sector. However, the ultimate impact of these technologies depends not only on their potential effectiveness but also on the extent to which they are adopted by farmers. Against this backdrop, the aim of this research is to assess the current adoption of agricultural DITs among agricultural producers in China and to identify the main challenges facing their application in the future development of agriculture and rural areas. [Methods] Using two representative household survey datasets—the China Agriculture and Rural Development Survey and a 2023 survey of farmers in major grain-producing regions—this study employs descriptive statistics to document the adoption of various DITs. Then they were combined with a review of the literature to examine the potential impacts and underlying mechanisms of technology adoption, and to analyze the challenges and their causes in the diffusion of these technologies by linking theory with practice. [Results and Discussions] The results showed that, for non-embedded digital technologies, smartphone use among primary agricultural decision-makers was widespread, with an average penetration rate of 76%. The most frequently used applications were WeChat, TikTok, and Kuaishou. Despite the high usage of WeChat, its application in agricultural production and marketing remains limited: about two-thirds of respondents report rarely or never following agriculture-related official accounts. Similarly, access to agricultural policy information via smartphones was limited, with approximately 78% of respondents indicating that they seldom or only occasionally followed such information. In terms of e-commerce, about 52% of rural households engaged in online shopping in 2023, but very few used online channels for sales: only 0.32% sold agricultural products and 0.15% sold other goods online. In digital finance, only 27% of surveyed households were aware that loans could be applied for online, and the share that had actually applied for online loans in the past two years was even lower, at around 2%. By contrast, embedded digital technologies, such as drones and Beidou-based navigation systems, were more widely used in agricultural production. Data from nine provinces show that about 8% of farmers used drones for crop protection in 2023, reflecting a clear upward trend. In major grain-producing regions, drones covered 39.3% of cultivated land for plant protection, largely through service outsourcing. In addition, the share of farmers using machinery equipped with Beidou navigation systems, weighted by the number of households and cultivated land area, reaches 8% and 12.5%, respectively. Building on these findings, the study analyzes the relatively low adoption of non-embedded technologies in agricultural settings from the perspectives of farmer awareness, digital literacy, infrastructure, and policy support. It also explores the diffusion of embedded technologies from the angles of cost, agricultural organization (particularly the development of service providers), and industry standards. [Conclusions] Overall, China's agricultural and rural digital transformation is still at an early stage. The adoption of non-embedded applications in agricultural production and marketing remains very limited, while the use of embedded technologies exhibits substantial heterogeneity across farm sizes and application contexts. In addition, although smallholders rarely invest in digital machinery themselves, they can still benefit from digital transformation through outsourced services and socialized service provision. Further analysis suggests that advancing agricultural digitalization requires improving farmers' digital literacy, fostering new agricultural business entities with higher human capital, promoting the development of appropriately scaled farming, and strengthening the capacity of service providers. These measures are essential to enable broader and more effective diffusion of DITs and to support agricultural modernization.

Key words: digital and intelligent technologies (DITs), digital-intelligent transformation, agricultural socialized services, rural e-commerce, digital finance, Beidou navigation, drones