Farmers’ Endowments, Technology Perception and Green Production Technology Adoption Behavior

Abstract

The motivation of this paper is to explore the influence of farmers’ endowments and technology perceptions on farmers’ green production technology adoption behaviors. Based on a survey of 471 grain farmers in the main grain-producing areas of Shandong Province, the Heckman model was used to empirically analyze the influence of farmers’ endowments on their adoption behavior of green production technologies, and the moderating effect of technology perception on the relationship between the two was further investigated. The study showed that: (1) More than half of the farmers adopted more than three green production technologies, and only 11.5% did not adopt them. In terms of adoption structure, the adoption rate of green pest control technology was the highest at 67.7%, while the adoption rate of moderate deep pine technology was the lowest at 32.7%. The adoption structure should be further optimized. (2) After controlling for sample selection bias, farmers’ endowments have a significant positive effect on farmers’ green production technology adoption behaviors. The ordinary least square regression overestimates the main effect of farmers’ endowments by 8.5% compared with the Heckman model. (3) Technology cognition can effectively promote the positive effect of farmers’ endowments on green production technology adoption, in which the moderating effect of technology–economic cognition is higher than that of technology–environmental cognition. (4) There is heterogeneity in the effects of farmers’ endowments and technology cognition on different adoption subjects and technology types. The above findings provide an in-depth explanation for activating the endogenous drivers of green agriculture development.