The Effect of Agricultural Extension Service Need-Supply Fit on Biological Pesticides Adoption Behavior: Evidence from Chinese Rice Farmers

Aqian Yan, Xiaofeng Luo (), Lin Tang and Sanxia Du
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Aqian Yan: College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Xiaofeng Luo: College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
Lin Tang: Wuhan Institution Technology, School Law and Business, Wuhan 430205, China
Sanxia Du: College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: Agricultural extension services play an important role in promoting pesticide reduction and green production, although the mismatch between farmers’ needs and service supply in rural China seriously affects the application and promotion of biological pesticides, which has been generally ignored by existing studies. Taking 1160 rice farmers in Hubei Province, China, as an example, this study constructs a need-supply fit model of agricultural extension services from the perspectives of need and supply. We further use the logit model and propensity score matching method (PSM) to estimate the effect of service need-supply fit on farmers’ biological pesticide adoption behavior. The specific results are as follows: First, the level of need-supply fit for agricultural extension services was low for the overall sample. This indicates that the agricultural extension service supply is not consistent with the actual needs of farmers. Second, the agricultural extension service need-supply fit significantly and positively affects farmers’ biological pesticide adoption behavior. Third, there are significant differences in farmers’ biological pesticide adoption behaviors under different need-supply fit. When the level of service need-supply fit exceeds the 0.2 threshold, the positive effect of service need-supply fit on farmers’ biological pesticide adoption behavior gradually increases. Fourth, the agricultural extension service need-supply fit indirectly increases farmers’ motivation to adopt biological pesticides by regularizing biological pesticide use behavior and alleviating path dependency. Therefore, the main body of agricultural extension services should optimize the adjustment of the supply mode of agricultural extension services to fully grasp the reality of farmers’ need for biological pesticides in order to promote the application of biological pesticides.

Keywords: farmers’ need; service supply; need-supply fit model; agricultural extension service; biological pesticide; Chinese rice farmer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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