Digital Finance Development and the Usage of Low-Carbon Farm Technology: Evidence from Rural China

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.