Study On The Influence Of Participating In E-commerce On The Green Production Behavior Of Kiwifruit Growers

Green production is one of the important connotations of high-quality agricultural development.However,at present,green production is faced with the real dilemma of "high quality but not high price",lack of consumer trust and insufficient institutional incentives,which makes farmers’ motivation for green production insufficient and becomes a major bottleneck limiting the development of high quality agriculture.With the popularization of the Internet and the improvement of the rural logistics system,rural e-commerce has turned into an important engine of green consumption,realizing the effective connection between green production and green consumption and enhancing the trade efficiency of green agricultural products.At the same time,the green demand from the consumer side and the quality information of agricultural products,through the data sharing mechanism,feed back to the production side,which not only provides new profit points for farmers,but also will promote the green change of farmers’ production methods.However,in reality,rural e-commerce is still in the initial development stage,and it takes some time and process for e-commerce to penetrate into rural areas,and it is difficult for farmers to participate in e-commerce due to the constraints of insufficient e-commerce awareness and lack of sales experience.Therefore,what factors influence kiwifruit farmers’ participation in e-commerce?Does participation in e-commerce affect kiwifruit farmers’ perceptions of the value of green produce? Does it promote the adoption of green production technologies by kiwifruit farmers and thus their transition to green production? What are the mechanisms of action and the paths to achieve them? Can participation in e-commerce further improve the green production performance of kiwifruit growers?The answers to the above questions have important theoretical and practical implications for the government to introduce relevant policies to promote the development of rural e-commerce,to attract kiwifruit growers to actively participate in e-commerce sales,to promote the transformation of kiwifruit growers’ green production,and to improve the quality of kiwifruit products.Based on the survey data of 1036 kiwifruit growers in Shaanxi Province and Sichuan Province,and guided by the theories of farmers’ behavior,transaction cost,information asymmetry,and agricultural technology adoption,this paper used some mathematical models and empirical analysis methods such as propensity score matching method,BFG two-step method,endogenous transformation model,mediation effect model,tobit model,and stochastic frontier production function,and empirically analyzes the mechanism of e-commerce on Kiwifruit growers’ perceived value of green agricultural products,green production technology adoption,green production transformation,and green production performance by using a variety of mathematical models.Finally,the paper puts forward some suggestions to promote kiwifruit growers to participate in e-commerce and then drive them to implement green production behavior.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)In the sample area,398 kiwifruit growers participated in e-commerce,and 638 kiwifruit growers did not participate in e-commerce.Among the 638 kiwifruit growers who did not participate in e-commerce,494 kiwifruit growers hope to sell kiwifruit through e-commerce channels.It can be seen that most kiwifruit growers are willing to participate in e-commerce sales but participate in e-commerce sales.It needs to be strengthened.There are significant differences in the cognition of green production technology among different kiwifruit growers.There are also significant differences in the government’s support to promote different green production technologies.Besides,organic fertilizer application technology,bagging technology,and pollution-free pesticide application technology have been adopted to a high degree in the sample kiwifruit growers.However,the adoption rate of physical control technology and soil testing,and formula fertilization technology is low.From the three aspects of participation in e-commerce decision-making,participation in e-commerce mode,and participation in e-commerce degree,this paper explores the internal motivation of kiwifruit growers to participate e-commerce.The results showed that joining a cooperative,receiving more agricultural training,having village cadres at home,and having frequent access to information on the Internet promoted kiwifruit farmers’ participation in the platform e-commerce model.the younger the household head,the higher the education level of the household head,the larger the number of laborers at home,the smaller the scale of operation,the higher the degree of specialization in farming,the higher expenditure on human interaction,the larger number of relatives and friends,the high perception of e-commerce policies,the presence of online shopping experience,and the presence of courier points in the village could facilitate the participation of kiwifruit farmers in the social e-commerce model.(2)Focus on the impact of participating in e-commerce on the perceived value of green agricultural products by kiwifruit growers,and analyze the five dimensions of green agricultural product price perception,sales perception,consumer approval perception,government support perception,and risk perception.The study found that participating in e-commerce decision-making can promote green agricultural product price perception,sales perception,consumer approval perception,and government support perception of kiwifruit growers and reduce the risk perception of green agricultural products.From the perspective of sub-models,platform e-commerce models’ perception of green agricultural product prices Not significant,but the social e-commerce model can significantly promote farmers’ perceptions of the price of green agricultural products.Both the platform e-commerce model and the social e-commerce model can significantly promote kiwi growers’ perceptions of green agricultural product sales,consumer recognition,and government support,and reduce green agricultural products.Risk perception: Among the 398 kiwi fruit growers participating in e-commerce,as the degree of participation in e-commerce deepens,kiwi fruit growers have increased confidence in green agricultural products,consumer recognition,and government support.(3)By participating in the empirical test of the influence of e-commerce on the adoption of green production technology by kiwifruit growers,it is found that for Kiwifruit growers,the importance of green production technology is in the order of soil testing and formulated fertilization technology > physical control technology > bagging technology > pollution-free pesticide use technology > organic fertilizer application technology.Participation in e-commerce can significantly promote the adoption of green production technology by kiwifruit growers.If kiwifruit growers do not participate in e-commerce,the adoption degree of green production technology is 62.07%;however,due to participation in e-commerce,the adoption degree of green production technology increases to 65.99%,with a growth rate of6.32%.The adoption degree of green production technology of kiwifruit growers participating in different e-commerce modes is different.The order of adoption degree from high to low is social e-commerce mode > platform e-commerce mode > traditional sales model.The degree of participation in e-commerce also has a significant positive impact on adopting green production technology by kiwifruit growers.From the perspective of mechanism analysis,the participating e-commerce promotes green production technology by kiwifruit growers through four transmission mechanisms: economic incentives,reducing transaction costs,improving product standardization,and positive consumer incentives.Besides,economic capital,human capital,social capital,information capital,and other resource endowments play an essential role in the influence of e-commerce on Kiwifruit growers’ adoption of green production technology.(4)According to kiwifruit growers’ production index characteristics,the production model of kiwifruit growers can be divided into green production mode and traditional production model.The application rate of organic fertilizer,the utilization rate of biological pesticides,the utilization rate of water-saving irrigation equipment,the input of physical control technology,and the recovery rate of packaging materials in green production mode are significantly higher than those in the traditional production model.Participating in e-commerce promotes kiwifruit growers to change their production model.The transition probability of participating in platform e-commerce mode is more significant than participating in social e-commerce mode.Both are greater than that of participating in the traditional sales model.The degree of participation in e-commerce has a different influence on the green production transformation of kiwifruit growers under different production modes.(5)Through the test of the influence of participating e-commerce on the green production performance of Kiwi growers,it is found that participating in e-commerce has significantly improved the green production efficiency and green production efficiency of Kiwi growers.In terms of green production benefits,after controlling the heterogeneity of green production technology,participating in e-commerce has a vital role in improving the annual income,kiwi fruit income,per capita income,and per mu Kiwi income of kiwi fruit growers.The platform e-commerce model’s income effect is greater than that of the social e-commerce mode,and both of them are greater than the income effect of the traditional sales model.Green production technology adoption plays an important intermediary role between participating in e-commerce and kiwi planting households’ income.The medium effect is between 9.62% and 11.18%,while green production technology adoption plays the most crucial role in the intermediary between participating in e-commerce and kiwi fruit total income.From green production efficiency,the green production efficiency of kiwi fruit growers is generally low,with an average value of 63.92%.Participating in e-commerce will promote the improvement of Kiwi planters’ production technology efficiency,and the production technology efficiency of Kiwi growers is higher under the platform e-commerce mode.Green production technology adoption plays an essential intermediary role in the production efficiency between e-commerce and kiwi planters.Based on the theoretical analysis and empirical results,this paper puts forward the following suggestions: establish the concept of green development,promote the transformation of green production;strengthen the publicity of e-commerce policy,improve the awareness of e-commerce participation;moderately guide e-commerce participation,pay attention to the diversified development of e-commerce;optimize the platform supervision mechanism,open up the information disclosure mechanism;improve the management of green production,optimize the product trading environment;enhance the competitiveness of e-commerce Service system construction,cultivate market competitiveness.