Training of Farmers’ Cooperatives, Value Perception and Members’ Willingness of Green Production

Lei Luo, Dakuan Qiao, Jin Tang, Ailin Wan, Ling Qiu, Xiaoyu Liu, Yuying Liu and Xinhong Fu
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Lei Luo: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Dakuan Qiao: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Jin Tang: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Ailin Wan: College of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Ling Qiu: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Xiaoyu Liu: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Yuying Liu: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Xinhong Fu: College of Management, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-18

Abstract: The issue of environmental pollution caused by traditional agricultural production operations is becoming increasingly serious. Farmers are the direct actors of production, and their willingness to green production deserves the greatest attention. Technical training conducted by farmers’ cooperatives worldwide in recent years appears to have changed farmers’ willingness to adopt green production technologies, but there is a lack of empirical testing of the impact mechanisms. Therefore, based on a sample of 1147 members of China’s citrus production cooperatives, we theoretically and empirically explored the impact of this; the mechanism of the effect was analyzed through the endogeneity treatment and robustness test of farmers’ value perception, as well as the instrumental variable method (IV-Oprobit). The results showed that farmers’ overall willingness to adopt green production technologies was low, and increasing the number of training sessions in farmers cooperatives could significantly enhance their willingness. Specifically, the probability of members being “very willing” to adopt technologies increased by 3.2% for each additional training session in cooperatives. Additionally, cooperative training can significantly improve members’ technology applicability and benefit–cost perceptions of green production technologies, thus enhancing their willingness to adopt; both types of value perceptions are important transmission mediators of this effect, and the mediation effects account for 5.98 and 14.53% of the total effect, respectively. Other than that, the results of the heterogeneity analysis showed that the effect of cooperative training on the willingness to adopt them was positively significant regardless of small-, medium- or large-scale members, with the most significant effect on small-scale farmers. This study provides a better understanding of the impact of technical training of cooperatives on farmers’ willingness, contributes to the enrichment of value perception theory, and provides a basis for formulating relevant policies to encourage cooperatives to perform their training function and promote green production in agriculture.

Keywords: farmers’ cooperative; training; members’ value perception; willingness to green production; intermediary effect (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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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