How feminization of forest management drives households' adoption of technologies: Evidence from non-timber forest products operations in China

Abstract

The trend of feminization in forest management has become more prevalent in developing countries due to a growing out-migration of rural male laborers for off-farm work. Meanwhile, technological progress can play a major role in mitigating the labor shortage and improving the outputs of forest production. It is thus important to understand how the feminization has affected rural household's decision on the adoption of labor-intensive technologies (LITs) or labor-saving technologies (LSTs). Based on the induced innovation theory and data from 408 households engaged in non-timber forest products (NTFPs) operations in 13 counties of Zhejiang Province, multiple versions of IV-probit models were used to address that question. Our findings reveal that rural households with higher rates of feminization of forest management were more inclined to adopt LSTs and had a low probability of adopting LITs. We recommend to provide more subsidies for LSTs extension, give left-behind female laborers with more targeted trainings, and encourage private enterprises to undertake more active technical services and more physically-demanding operations on a contractual basis.