Outsourcing, as a productive service, has been widely adopted in industrial production and international trade but less applied in agricultural management. With the advancement of agricultural labor division and specialization, outsourcing is becoming one of the most sustained trends in concurrent business. This study used a multiple linear regression and a propensity score matching model to quantify the different effects of participation in production outsourcing on farmers’ apple production efficiency and apple income based on field survey data from 960 apple farmers in the Shandong, Shaanxi, and Gansu Provinces. The results showed that, on average, the outsourcing of apple production increased farmers’ apple production technology efficiency by 5.60%, their labor productivity by 2121.48 kg/person, land productivity by 334.50 kg/mu, capital productivity by 0.05 kg/Yuan, and apple sales revenue by 13,300 Yuan. However, farmers’ net income from apples decreased by an average of 5000 Yuan. The outsourcing of apple production, which is labor-intensive, is constrained by the increase in labor costs, which, in turn, affect the transformation of the apple industry into a service-scale operation driven by the economy of division.

E-commerce is not only a new channel through which farmers can sell agricultural products, but also an important engine for transforming agricultural development and modernizing agriculture in the era of the digital economy. Analyzing the adoption of e-commerce from the micro level to improve farmers’ production efficiency has practical value. On the basis of theoretical discussion and analysis and on the survey data of 827 apple farmers in Shaanxi Province, China, we used propensity score matching (PSM) and stepwise regression to test the effects of e-commerce adoption on agricultural production efficiency and the mechanism through which these effects occur. The results showed that e-commerce adoption has a significant positive impact on agricultural production efficiency. The allocation of agricultural factors plays a mediating role in the impact of e-commerce adoption on agricultural production efficiency. Specifically, e-commerce adoption can effectively encourage farmers to rationally allocate agricultural labor, land, and capital production factors, promote the sustainable development of the environment and contribute to creating a harmonious community atmosphere. Therefore, we propose strengthening rural e-commerce support and the publicity and guidance regarding e-commerce adoption by farmers, holding e-commerce training, and promoting the popularization of rural e-commerce to help promote the modernization of agriculture.

The agricultural futures market plays an extremely important role in price discovery, hedging risks, integrating agricultural markets and promoting agricultural economic growth. China is the largest apple producer and consumer in the world. In 2017, Chinese apple futures were listed on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (CZCE) as the first fruit futures contract globally. This paper aims to study the efficiency of the apple futures market by using the Wild Bootstrapping Variance Ratio model to estimate the price discovery function, the ARIMA-GARCH model to estimate the risk-hedging function, and the ARDL-ECM model to estimate the cointegration relationship of the futures and spot market. Experimental results firstly demonstrate that the apple futures market conforms to the weak-form efficiency, which indicates that it is efficient in price discovery. Secondly, the apple futures market is not of semi-strong efficiency because it generated abnormal profit margins amid China–US trade friction, climate disaster, and COVID-19; in terms of the degree of impact, the COVID-19 pandemic had the greatest impact, followed by the rainstorm disaster and trade friction. Thirdly, the results of this study indicate that the cointegration relationships exist between the futures market and the spot markets of the main producing areas. This paper is not only conducive to sustainable development of the global fresh or fruit futures market, but also has potential and practical importance for China in developing the agricultural futures market, strengthening market risk management and promoting market circulation.