Agricultural sustainability in the digital era: the role of ICT adoption in advancing grain production in China

In the digital era, the adoption of digital technologies has become one of the most significant technological revolutions, affecting various economic sectors, including agriculture. Currently, digital innovation greatly benefits the agricultural industry by providing weather updates, facilitating financial services, modernizing farming practices, delivering input prices, and enhancing knowledge transfer. Hence, this study examines the long-run impact of digital technologies adoption, including Internet connectivity and Mobile phone use, on grain production in major Chinese grain-producing areas from 2001 to 2022. This study estimates the long-run effects using the Driscoll-Kraay specification. Then it verifies robustness using alternative estimators, including Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) and the Mean Group (MG) approach. This research results reveal that Internet access directly impacts grain production by 0.066% and Mobile phone technology has a similar long-term impact of 0.053%. This research supports the theory that distributing tools across the system will increase agricultural yields. Furthermore, the findings show that production factors, including cultivated land area, fertilizer application, and government investment, also significantly enhance grain production by 1.026%, 0.089%, and 0.013%, respectively, in the long run. This study provides recommendations for policymakers on strengthening rural infrastructure and sustaining ICT funding to realize the full potential of food production.