How agricultural extension services affect farmers’ adoption of climate-smart technology? Evidence from rural China
Rui He, Yuhang Dai, Guiyan Sun
Abstract
In the realm of climate change, agricultural extension services are pivotal in overcoming obstacles to sustainable agriculture when accessed by farmers. However, existing research lacks a comprehensive understanding of their impact on farmers’ adaptation. This study, conducted in Rugao City, employs structured questionnaires and face-to-face interviews to explore the influence of agricultural extension services on farmers’ adoption of climate-smart technology. Utilizing propensity score matching, a two-stage instrumental variable-probit model, and mediation analysis, this study explores agricultural extension services for farmers’ direct effects and indirect effects from climate-smart technology adoption behavior as well as distribution effects. Our findings demonstrate a significant and direct positive effect of these services on technology adoption, persisting even after addressing model robustness and endogeneity concerns. Mechanism analysis reveals that agricultural extension services indirectly foster adoption by increasing farmers’ perceived adaptation efficacy as well as perceived market and technology risks while reducing their perception of natural risks. Moreover, heterogeneity analysis indicates that distributional effects of agricultural extension services are evident across different age and socioeconomic groups. Our findings highlight the necessity of inclusive policies to improve extension service accessibility and promote climate-smart technology adoption tailored to diverse efficacy and risk perceptions as well as demographic characteristics in rural China and other developing countries.