Towards sustainable food production: What role ICT and technological development can play for cereal production in Asian–7 countries?

This article examines the impact of information–communication–technology (ICT) and technological development (i.e., fertilizers and pesticides usage) on cereal production in selected Asian–7 economies (Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) covering the period from 2000 to 2018. This empirical estimation has been carried out based on the CIPS, CADF, Westerlund bootstrap panel co–integration, Driscoll and Kraay (D–K), Feasible generalized least square (FGLS), and Dumitrescu and Hurlin (D–H) causality methods. The findings are the following: (1) the results confirmed that ICT has a statistically significant and positive impact on cereal production in the long run. (2) It is observed that fertilizers used have a statistically significant and positive effect on cereal production of selected economies in the long run. (3) Furthermore, the empirical outcomes identified a statistically significant two-way causal connection running from selected co–integrated variables (i.e., ICT, fertilizers, pesticides, and land size) to cereal production. Finally, this article suggests fruitful policy implications regarding ICT and technological development for selected economies.