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Abstract
The construction of digital rural areas in China has made significant explorations in advancing modern agriculture, circulation, and rural service. However, why do issues such as the disjointed nature of digital construction become increasingly prominent during the iterative transformation of neural network models? Why, despite the benefits of digital technology in some cases for improving farm management and income, do certain technology adoptions face dilemmas? This study argues that the outcome of technology adoption is determined by both endogenous demand (the direct welfare improvements from adopting digital technologies) and policies that guide the process (such as the establishment of quality standards to avoid market externalities and the necessary reward mechanisms for quality enhancement). Using institutional change and contract theory, we examine how cotton farmers in Xinjiang have engaged in the digitalization of the cotton industry through their interactions with the Cotton Association and how the adoption of digital technologies has promoted quality improvements in the Xinjiang cotton industry. Based on two rounds of field investigation conducted in 2023 and 2024, we found that: (1) The alignment of the income goals of cotton farmers with the competitiveness goals of the Cotton Association serves as the driving force for effective digital construction. (2) The digitalization of the entire industry chain not only internalizes the costs of the segmented part of industry chain through systematic planning, but also encourages the integration of cotton farmers into the digital traceability system by providing dual price subsidies based on both quality and quantity. (3) In the era of large models, cotton cultivation, processing, and circulation data, under the standardized framework of the Cotton Association and the farmers' demands for quality improvement, further promote the adoption of traditional technologies, such as new cotton seed, the "dry sowing and wet emergence" planting method, and the optimization of the full-process cotton growth model. In response to the impending wave of digital development in global agriculture, the Xinjiang cotton industry's experience in promoting the adoption of traditional technologies and quality enhancement through digital construction provides typical insights for advancing technology adoption, particularly through the three necessary contracts for the full industry chain structure of specialty agricultural products and the three channels for realizing data value.