Better rural broadband availability has “significant positive impacts on crop yields and other farm production metrics,” the Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Economics and Analytics found in a new working paper.
The report, by economist Katherine LoPiccalo (who previously worked at the FCC but is now at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), drew on FCC data on broadband availability by census tract and U.S. Department of Agriculture data on agricultural productivity by county, for crops such as corn, cotton, hay, and soybeans. The report found “statistically significant effects” of increased broadband penetration, both on lower costs and higher production for farms.
