Impacts of smartphone use on agrochemical use among wheat farmers in China: A heterogeneous analysis

Abstract

This study examines the impacts of mobile information technology adoption on agrochemical expenditures, using data collected from 551 wheat farmers in China. Unlike previous studies that analyze a homogeneous relationship between the adoption of information technologies and farm input use, in this study, an instrumental variable quantile regression approach is utilized to capture the heterogeneous impacts of smartphone use on pesticide and fertilizer expenditures. Findings reveal that smartphone use affects pesticide and fertilizer expenditures heterogeneously, and its impacts on pesticide expenditure are larger than those on fertilizer expenditure. Specifically, at the lowest 20th quantile, smartphone use significantly increases pesticide expenditure by 36% and fertilizer expenditure by 16%. However, at the higher 60th and 80th quantiles, smartphone use significantly decreases pesticide expenditure by 34-40% and fertilizer expenditure by 16-19%. Further analysis confirms that smartphone use decreases agrochemical usage without reducing wheat yields and farm income. Our findings suggest that guiding farmers’ agrochemical usage behaviors through smartphone-based information interventions can be a practical strategy to help reduce the excessive usage of chemical pesticides and fertilizers and preserve the environment and human health.