Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, 210023, China.
Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, 100081, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 Apr;31(17):25388-25405. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-32699-y. Epub 2024 Mar 12.
The issue of farmers neglecting environmental concerns in transferred farmlands poses a serious challenge, contradicting the long-term ecological goals of establishing resource-efficient and environment-friendly agriculture. Amidst the pivotal trend of moderately scaled agricultural operations, rural e-commerce holds promise as a catalyst and driving force for enhancing long-term environmental governance of transferred lands. The effectiveness and mechanisms of this potential, however, remain to be empirically examined. This study gathers panel data on environmental positive and negative externalities from six provinces in China, spanning the period from 2013 to 2022, encompassing 6372 farmers. A quasi-natural experiment of farmers' e-commerce participation is designed using difference-in-differences methodology (DID), propensity score matching (PSM), and moderating models. The primary findings are as follows: E-commerce participation increases farmers' positive environmental inputs on transferred lands, such as water-saving irrigation, adoption of social services, and preservation of traditional varieties. Simultaneously, it decreases negative environmental inputs, such as the consumption of fertilizers, pesticides, and agricultural films. The environmental sustainability effects of e-commerce vary across the eastern, central, and western regions of China. E-commerce has a more pronounced impact on agricultural social services and chemical pollutants in the eastern and central regions, while its influence is more significant on water-saving irrigation and variety preservation in the western region. Land transfer forms and supply order contracts do not directly promote farmers' environmentally friendly cultivation practices. Instead, they catalyze the environmental effects of e-commerce through a significant positive interaction term. These conclusions hold after matching for e-commerce participation propensity, while passing sensitivity tests, parallel trend tests, and placebo tests. Consequently, rural e-commerce, without compromising farmers' income, enhances the proactiveness of farmers in environmental conservation, transforms agricultural management practices, and effectively reduces rural non-point source pollution. Policy recommendations include reducing institutional barriers to rural e-commerce participation at the national level, encouraging the establishment of region-specific agricultural environmental sustainability goals, and leveraging the rural e-commerce industry chain to establish a nationwide environmental credit database and incentive mechanism.
耕地经营者忽视环境关切问题严重，有悖于资源节约型、环境友好型农业的长远生态目标。在适度规模经营的大趋势下，农村电商有望成为提升耕地转入后环境治理长效性的催化剂和推动力。然而，这种潜力的有效性和作用机制仍有待实证检验。本文利用中国 6 省 2013—2022 年的面板数据，从环境正、负外部性两个维度，基于倾向得分匹配—双重差分法（PSM-DID）和调节效应模型，实证检验了农村电商参与对耕地转入后环境治理的影响效应及作用机制。结果表明：电商参与显著提高了农户在转入耕地上的正向环境投入，如节水灌溉、社会化服务采纳和传统品种保护等；同时降低了负向环境投入，如化肥、农药和农膜的使用。电商参与对不同地区耕地转入后的环境治理效应存在异质性，对东部和中部地区农业社会化服务和化学投入品的影响更为显著，而对西部地区节水灌溉和品种保护的影响更为明显。耕地转入形式和供应时序合同并未直接促进农户的绿色生产行为，而是通过与电商参与的显著正向交互项，间接放大了电商参与对农户环境友好型生产行为的激励作用。这一结论在匹配电商参与倾向得分后依然成立，且通过了稳健性检验。农村电商在不影响农户收入的前提下，增强了农户在环境保护方面的主动性，推动了农业管理方式的转变，有效降低了农村面源污染。为此，建议国家层面降低农村电商参与的制度性门槛，鼓励各地根据实际情况制定差异化的农业环境可持续发展目标，充分发挥农村电商产业链的作用，建立全国性的环境信用数据库和激励机制。
