In an era marked by rapid technological advancement, the intersection of digital capabilities and agricultural marketing strategies unveils a transformative landscape for rural farmers. Recent research conducted in the Yellow River Basin of China illuminates the profound influence that digital proficiency exerts on farmers’ selection of marketing channels. Traditionally dependent on intermediaries such as wholesalers, the burgeoning digital skills of farmers are reshaping market dynamics—emanating effects not only on economic outcomes but also on social networks, risk perceptions, and bargaining power.
The study meticulously employs probit modeling to unearth nuanced relationships between the digital competencies of farmers and their marketing choices. Digital capabilities appear to be a decisive factor that dissuades reliance on wholesalers, evidenced by a stark negative correlation. More specifically, a mere one-percent elevation in digital expertise corresponds to an excessive reduction of 116.17% in the likelihood of farmers opting for wholesalers. This colossal drop essentially signals a fundamental shift away from traditional, often restrictive, selling avenues.
Conversely, this digital-enabled redirection propels farmers toward cooperative channels and direct sales platforms. Cooperatives benefit from a 27.9% increase in farmer engagement per one-percent growth in digital capability, underscoring the role of digital technologies in fostering collaborative economic structures. Even more pronounced is the surge in direct sales preferences, which soar by 78.82% with similar increments in digital skills. This suggests digital empowerment facilitates direct farmer-to-consumer connections, bypassing conventional gatekeepers.
Underpinning these market shifts are three critical mechanistic pathways identified by the research: expansion of social networks, transformation of risk attitudes, and enhancement of bargaining power. Digital tools extend farmers’ social connectivity, enabling access to enriched market information and broader participatory opportunities in a landscape traditionally constrained by local ties. The digital environment cultivates a fertile ground for resizing the social frameworks within which agricultural commerce operates.
Equally compelling is the recalibration of risk attitudes among digitally adept farmers. Access to comprehensive, real-time information via digital platforms emboldens farmer decision-making, fostering resilience to market uncertainties. The study’s findings suggest digital literacy internalizes new knowledge, effectively upgrading farmers’ human capital and reshaping their capacity to navigate risks—a paradigm shift with significant implications for market behavior.
Bargaining power also surfaces as a critical vector influenced by digital proficiency. Enhanced digital capabilities equip farmers with tools for precise demand identification and foster extensive client networks, amplifying their negotiating leverage. This empowerment unlocks strategic flexibility in marketing channel choices, facilitating decisions that better align with nuanced market demands and personal objectives.
Beyond digital capabilities, the research delves into various control variables, offering a comprehensive vista of factors shaping marketing channel preferences. Age, education, party affiliation, and household income emerge as significant individual and household-level determinants. Older farmers, inclined toward tradition, are less likely to engage cooperatives but show increased proclivity for direct sales. Education and cultivation experience act as catalysts for cooperative participation while deterring direct sales engagement.
Political and organizational affiliations further contour farmers’ marketing strategies. Membership in the Communist Party notably decreases wholesalers’ reliance and boosts direct sales propensity, reflecting possibly greater access to resources and confidence in direct market engagement. Joining industry organizations reduces wholesaler preference and elevates cooperative involvement, underscoring the power of collective economic action.
Household income nuances choices by encouraging sales through wholesalers—likely due to scale and capital constraints—while simultaneously dampening direct sales appeal. This interplay reveals how economic capacity conditions market behavior within rural economies. On the market level, government supervision and branding exert additional pressures. While government oversight diminishes both wholesaler and cooperative engagement, it bolsters direct sales—a paradox highlighting how regulatory frameworks can distort traditional market functions.
Farmers’ responses to external shocks, such as natural disasters, also shape channel preferences. Experiencing such adversities reduces the likelihood of wholesaler sales, possibly due to reduced product quality or urgent liquidity needs, steering farmers towards channels with lower costs and quicker returns.
To solidify these findings, the research undertakes rigorous robustness checks using alternative weighting schemes and modeling approaches, including the Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method and Logit models. Both confirm the consistency and reliability of digital capability effects on marketing choices. Addressing potential endogeneity, instrumental variable approaches using the Digital Rural Index affirm causality, illuminated by significant first-stage tests and consistent second-stage estimations.
Further dissecting the heterogeneity behind these trends, the study segments farmers by education, income, planting scale, and market accessibility to reveal intricate patterns. Highly educated farmers exhibit stronger aversion to wholesalers and greater embrace of cooperatives, while less educated farmers show muted cooperative engagement but increased direct sales inclination—highlighting how knowledge capital modulates channel shifts. Similarly, high-income farmers demonstrate more pronounced movements away from wholesalers towards cooperatives and direct sales, indicating that economic resources amplify digital capability benefits.
Planting scale also matters: small-scale farmers significantly shy away from wholesalers and move towards cooperatives, whereas large-scale farmers predominantly increase direct sales, reflecting distinct operational needs and resource distributions. Finally, market distance introduces another layer; farmers closer to markets leverage digital capabilities more effectively to reduce wholesaler reliance and amplify cooperative and direct sales participation compared to those farther removed. This spatial factor underscores digital divides and infrastructure challenges that temper digital adoption benefits.
In sum, this comprehensive investigation champions digital capabilities as a pivotal lever in transmuting rural agricultural marketing. The conversion from traditional wholesaler dependency toward vibrant cooperative structures and direct sales channels not only enhances farmer agency but potentially reconfigures rural economic ecosystems. These findings empower policymakers, development agencies, and technologists to craft interventions that prioritize digital literacy, infrastructural connectivity, and institutional support, thereby fostering inclusive, efficient, and resilient agricultural markets in areas like the Yellow River Basin and beyond.
As digital technologies inexorably permeate rural spheres, understanding their ripple effects on economic behaviors equips stakeholders to harness these tools optimally. The empirical lens provided by this study offers a strategic blueprint for fostering robust farmer-centric markets, driving sustainable rural development, and elevating livelihoods in a digitally connected world.
Subject of Research: The impact of digital capabilities on farmers’ choice of marketing channels in rural China.
Article Title: The impact of digital capabilities on farmers’ choice of marketing channels: evidence from rural areas of the Yellow River Basin in China.
Article References:
Zhang, Y., Lin, Z., Zhang, R. et al. The impact of digital capabilities on farmers’ choice of marketing channels: evidence from rural areas of the Yellow River Basin in China. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 12, 1629 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05934-1
Image Credits: AI Generated
