Can Digital Finance Promote Professional Farmers’ Income Growth in China?—An Examination Based on the Perspective of Income Structure

As a product of the deep integration of digital technology and financial services, digital finance provides vital financial support for rural revitalization and increasing farmers’ income. Based on the survey data of 1030 professional apple growers in the typical areas of Shaanxi Province, this paper empirically tested the impact of digital financial involvement on professional farmers’ income, and its mechanism. The study found that digital finance significantly impacted the growth of professional farmer households’ total incomes. However, this impact was not achieved by directly increasing property income and transfer incomes, but through two indirect ways: first, digital finance promoted productive agricultural investment, which further promoted the increase in agricultural income; secondly, digital finance further increased the income of self-operated industry and commerce by promoting the entrepreneurship of professional farmer households. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis showed that professional farmers with high education levels, large-scale farmland operations, and high levels of agricultural mechanization participate in digital finance, which plated a more significant role in promoting their total household income. From the perspective of different types of digital financial services, mobile payment and digital credit could promote increases in the income of professional farmers, but the income increase effect of digital wealth management has not yet been shown.