Smartphone-based agricultural extension services and farm incomes: Evidence from Zhejiang Province in China

Smartphone use in rural China has grown rapidly, leading to the fast development of smartphone-based agricultural extension services. However, there is limited research on the income effects of smartphone-based agricultural extension services in rural areas. In this study, we analyze the causal effects of smartphone-based agricultural extension services (“Zhe'yang'shi” WeChat application as an example) on farm incomes in Zhejiang, China, using a staggered difference-in-differences method with panel data from 400 crop farmers. Our results show that adopting smartphone-based agricultural extension services increases farm income from soil testing formula fertilizer fields by 15.39% and total farm income by 16.31%.