Can Digital Village Construction Help Upgrade Rural Household Consumption?An Empirical Examination Based on China’s Rural Household Survey Data

Digital village construction opens a new vista for fulfilling consumption capabilities and optimizing consumption patterns in rural areas.For this research,we used the microdata on rural households from the 2019 China Household Finance Survey(CHFS)to conduct an empirical examination of the impact of digital village construction on the upgrading of rural household consumption and its possible influence mechanisms in the endogenous switching regression(ESR)model.Our research findings can be summarized in three points.First,digital village construction has significantly contributed positive contributions to the improvements and upgrading of rural household consumption.Second,digital village construction can help upgrade rural household consumption by increasing their participation in online shopping and expanding online shopping channels.Third,digital village construction means different things to rural households at different levels of risk exposure,with its facilitation to consumption upgrades in proportion to income risks facing rural households.Our research findings,which came from an extensive,in-depth exploration of the factors influencing rural household consumption,are of practical significance and policy value to the stimulating and fulfilling of consumption potentials among rural households.

Understanding the impact of sustainable land-scape management practices on farm productivity under intensifying tropical cyclones: Evidence from Southern Malawi

Southern Malawi is continuously affected by tropical cyclone-related floods(TCRFs),which have negative consequences on households'livelihoods,thereby displacing most households to neighbouring communities of Mozambique.The TCRFs have further threatened national,regional,community,and household food security agenda,which is already constrained by poverty,poor agricultural practices,low use of improved varieties,unaffordable inorganic fertilizers,and fragmenting landholding sizes.Accordingly,households have indigenously engineered resilience-based Sustainable Landscape Management(SLM)practices,like intercropping,agroforestry,cover cropping,and soil and water conservation practices,against the adverse effects of TCRFs on-farm productivity.Hence,this study examines the effect of TCRFs and SLM adoption on-farm productivity.While using rigorous endogenous switching regression econometric tools,the study finds TCRFs reducing farm productivity by 27 percent.After SLM adoption,the study observes farm productivity enhancement by 29-126 percent when households adopt at least one SLM practices under varying degrees of TCRFs.Despite the highlighted advantages of SLM adoption,female farmers are less likely to adopt SLM practices because they do not have access to productive resources.Hence,the study proposes the need of gender targeted extension services,accompanied by some seed capital for SLM adoption.Besides,there is need to sensitize farmers on the complementarities between inorganic fertilizer and SLM practices.Lastly,future studies should assess the effect of sustained SLM adoption or dis-adoption and input intensification on farm productivity.