Abstract
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to measure Farmer’s adoption tendency towards drought shock, risk-taking networks and modern irrigation technology.Design/methodology/approachBased on this assumption, this paper evaluated the data gathered from 498 household surveys of Zhangye, Gansu province, PRC, by using the binary probit model. First, the empirical data was analyzed for evaluating the impact of drought shock and risk-taking tendencies on the adoption of modern irrigation technology by farmers. Second, the authors introduced informal risk-bearing networks with formal risks. Final, based on the empirical results, the sustainability test, along with the marginal effect analysis and the degree of impact was carried out.FindingsThe results show that the drought shock has a significantly deferent effect on the modern irrigation technology of the farmers. The probability of using technology for each level of drought loss is reduced by 15.02%. The risk-taking network has a significant role in promoting the modern irrigation technology of farmers. The probability of adoption for each additional unit of rural household labor security supply, the likelihood of adoption by farmers increased 23.11%, the probability of approval for each level of relative support, and neighborhood assistance by farmers increased by 13.11% and 17.88% respectively. This study further revealed that insurance purchases enabled farmers to adopt new irrigation technology with the probability increased by 24.99%; easily available bank loans increased the probability of farmers using irrigation technology by 31.89%. From the perspective of interactions between farmers, the risk-taking network can alleviate the inhibitory effect of drought impact towards the adoption of irrigation technology. Among the control variables, the number of years of education, the age of farming, the degree of arable land, the distance from home to the market, and the price of water all has significant effects on the adoption of modern irrigation technology by farmers.Originality/valueThe novelty of the study is that it illustrated the interactive influence of drought shock and risk-taking networks on the farmer’s adoption tendencies of modern irrigation technologies, the inner relationship among drought impact, the risk-taking network and the farmer’s adoption behavior and provide an interactive relationship between the formal risk-taking network and the non-risk-taking network in farmer’s technology adoption.
Highlights
Drought and water shortage are the hard constraints that restrict the sustainable development of agriculture in northwestern China
The design of this study focuses on four fundamental issues as follows: first, is drought shock and risk-taking networks have a significant impact on the adoption of modern irrigation technology by farmers? Second, are there any mitigating effects of the formal risktaking network and the informal risk-taking network on the drought consequences that farmers face in implementing modern irrigation technologies? Third, in rural areas of northern China, when farmers face drought shocks, is it a formal or informal risk-taking network that plays a more significant role? Fourth, Can informal risk-taking networks consider as an effective alternative or complement to a formal risk-taking network?
This article presented recent advances examining the role of the adoption of modern irrigation technology by farmers toward drought shock and risk-taking networks
Summary
The design of this study focuses on four fundamental issues as follows: first, is drought shock and risk-taking networks have a significant impact on the adoption of modern irrigation technology by farmers? Are there any mitigating effects of the formal risktaking network and the informal risk-taking network on the drought consequences that farmers face in implementing modern irrigation technologies? Throughout this research, we have focused on the following two aspects: first, find out the existing effects of drought shock on the modern irrigation technology among farmers, less attention to the formal risk-taking network. This paper adopts a stepwise regression method to investigate the impact of drought shock and risk-taking networks on the adoption of modern irrigation technology by farmers.
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