This Open Access book explores how e-commerce creates new opportunities for farmers and rural entrepreneurs while also revealing the structural barriers that limit inclusive digital participation. Drawing on empirical studies from countries such as the People’s Republic of China, India, Indonesia, and Viet Nam, the chapters included in this book examine how e-commerce influences household income, market access, agricultural production, and rural development outcomes. The book also investigates the key drivers and constraints of rural e-commerce adoption, including digital infrastructure, education, digital literacy, gender dynamics, institutional support, and policy frameworks. Using nationally representative household surveys, cross-country datasets, and advanced econometric methods, the chapters demonstrate that a complex interplay of technological, socio-economic, and institutional factors shapes digital transformation in rural areas. By integrating insights from agricultural economics, development studies, and digital economy research, this book deepens our understanding of how digital innovation can promote inclusive rural transformation and offers policy guidance for harnessing e-commerce to support sustainable agricultural and rural development in Asia.

Wanglin Ma is a Full Professor of Applied Economics at the Department of Global Value Chains and Trade, Faculty of Agribusiness and Commerce, Lincoln University, New Zealand. His research spans agricultural and development economics, with a strong emphasis on identifying strategies that enhance farm performance, strengthen the sustainability of the agrifood systems, improve household welfare and farmers’ subjective well-being, and promote sustainable rural and agricultural development. He earned his PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Kiel, Germany, and has authored more than 160 articles in leading international journals.

Dil Rahut is Vice Chair of Research at the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). He was a Sr. Global Program Manager for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre’s (CIMMYT). He also worked in the Research and Statistics Department of the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan, the WorldFish Centre as a senior fellow and Japan chair at the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations, chief of research, planning, and monitoring at the Bank of Bhutan Ltd, and assistant professor of development economics at South Asian University. He has a Ph.D. in development economics from the University of Bonn’s Center for Development Research, Germany. He has over 260 peer-reviewed publications in Scopus-indexed journals and several books focusing on development issues.

Bambang Brodjonegoro, an Indonesian national, is the Dean and CEO of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). Before joining ADBI in April 2025, he was Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Indonesia for Economic Affairs and National Development. He served the Government of Indonesia in several senior leadership roles from 2011. He was Indonesia’s Minister of Finance (2014–2016), Minister of National Development Planning (2016–2019), and Minister of Research and Technology (2019-2021). Besides government and academic, he also served as Director General of the Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) (2009-2010). Dean Brodjonegoro holds a doctorate and master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a bachelor's degree in economics from the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, where he was a full Professor and served as Dean during 2005-2009.