Impact and Mechanism of Digital Information Selection on Farmers’ Ecological Production Technology Adoption: A Study on Wheat Farmers in China

Yanzi Li, Jiahui Xu, Fuqiang Liu and Xinshi Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Yanzi Li: International Education College, Hebei Finance University, Baoding 071051, China
Jiahui Xu: International Education College, Hebei Finance University, Baoding 071051, China
Fuqiang Liu: Baoding Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Baoding 071000, China
Xinshi Zhang: Institute of Agricultural Information and Economics, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050051, China

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 5, 1-20

Abstract: The application of ecological techniques by farmers is important for ensuring the environmentally sustainable advancement of the grain sector. Based on micro-level survey data from 921 Chinese wheat growers in the Hebei and Henan provinces, this study employed an endogenous switching probit model and counterfactual analysis to investigate the impact and mechanisms of digital information utilization on ecological production technology adoption. The results indicated that 43.87% of sample wheat farmers had a low level of adoption of ecological techniques. The utilization of digital information significantly promoted farmers’ adoption. If farmers who currently used digital information were to opt-out, the probability of their high adoption would decrease by 11.26%. The utilization of digital information significantly enhanced the adoption of ecological technologies through three mediating factors: technological cognition, production monitoring, and market channels. Therefore, it is imperative to encourage farmers to broaden their social networks and enhance their perception of the importance of digital information. Additionally, it is essential to promote the industrialization and scale operation of wheat production, direct policy subsidies towards new types of management entities, and ensure the accuracy of the supply of digital information for green production through multiple channels. Therefore, it is imperative to expand farmers’ social networks and leverage rural communities to increase their perceived importance of digital information. Governments should increase subsidies and promote the scale and industrialization of wheat production. Moreover, the accuracy of digital information supply for sustainable production should be promoted through digital learning platforms, production monitoring systems, and e-commerce networks.

Keywords: ecological production technology adoption; digital information utilization; wheat farmers; endogenous switching probit model (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: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/5/713/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/5/713/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:5:p:713-:d:1386350

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().