Impact of agricultural insurance on farmers\u2019 adoption of green production technologies: evidence from vegetable growers in China

Amid the global push for agricultural green transformation, sustainable agriculture requires not only technological innovation but also market mechanisms that effectively incentivize green practices. Agricultural e-commerce is increasingly viewed as a potential driver of green technology diffusion among farmers. However, the extent and mechanism of e-commerce’s influence on farmers’ green production remain underexplored. Using survey data from 346 rural households in Inner Mongolia, China, this study develops a conceptual framework of “e-commerce participation–green cognition–green adoption” and employs propensity score matching (PSM) combined with mediation analysis to evaluate the impact of e-commerce participation on green technology adoption. The empirical results yield four main findings: (1) E-commerce participation significantly promotes the adoption of green production technologies, with an estimated 29.52% increase in adoption. (2) Participation has a strong positive effect on water-saving irrigation and pest control technologies at the 5% significance level, a moderate effect on straw incorporation at the 10% level, and no statistically significant impact on plastic film recycling or organic fertilizer use. (3) Compared to third-party sales, the direct e-commerce model more effectively promotes green technology adoption, with an increase of 21.64% at the 5% significance level. (4) Green cognition serves as a mediator in the relationship between e-commerce and green adoption behavior. This study makes contributions by introducing e-commerce participation as a novel explanatory pathway for green technology adoption, going beyond traditional policy-driven and resource-based perspectives. It further highlights the role of cognitive mechanisms in shaping adoption behaviors. The study recommends that policymakers subsidize farmers’ participation in e-commerce, invest in green awareness programs, and support differentiated e-commerce models to enhance their positive impact on sustainable agricultural practices.

Farmers' adoption of agriculture green production technologies: perceived value or policy-driven?

The application of digital technology offers new opportunities to promote the green transformation and upgrading of agriculture. Farmers’ digital literacy, as a critical link between digital technology and agricultural green development, significantly influences their production decisions. Whether digital literacy serves as an enabling factor driving farmers’ adoption of agricultural green production technologies warrants further exploration. This paper uses the entropy method to measure farmers’ digital literacy levels and employs a Probit model for empirical analysis of survey data from 643 farmers in Shandong and Shaanxi provinces, examining how farmers’ digital literacy influences their adoption of green production technologies. The baseline regression result indicates that digital literacy can significantly increase farmers’ adoption of green production technologies. A mechanism analysis reveals that enhanced farmers’ digital literacy promotes the adoption of green production technologies through three pathways: enhancing farmers’ risk perception, expanding farmers’ digital social capital, and strengthening the effectiveness of technology promotion. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that improved digital literacy significantly enhances the adoption of four technologies—water-saving irrigation, pest control, pollution-free pesticide, and straw return to fields—and exerts a stronger impact on large-scale and middle-generation farmers. Accordingly, this study suggests improving digital village infrastructure, enhancing farmers’ digital literacy comprehensively, and formulating differentiated extension policies.

During a critical period of structural reform in China’s agricultural supply chain, accelerating the promotion and application of green production technologies emerges as a pivotal strategy to ensure the quality and safety of agricultural products while advancing agricultural modernization. This study empirically examines the factors influencing farmers’ adoption of green production technologies using an ordered logistic model based on survey data collected from 533 respondents in Shandong Province. The survey targeted regions where major economic crops such as corn and soybeans are cultivated, employing simple random sampling to ensure the data’s representativeness and reliability. The findings underscore several critical factors influencing farmers’ willingness to adopt green production technologies, including the presence of quality inspections, evaluations of restrictions on prohibited pesticide use, sales performance of green products, availability of government subsidies, and traceability of agricultural products. To foster greater adoption of green production technologies and propel the transformation of China’s agriculture, it is recommended to advocate and guide green agricultural practices, enhance green agricultural subsidy policies, and strengthen agricultural product market management systems. These measures are essential for ensuring sustainable agricultural development in China.

Adoption of green technologies in construction of buildings is one of the strategies of climate change mitigation and reducing the negative effects of urbanization to the environment. The adoption of green technologies is critical for achieving low carbon development. However, it is not clear what factors determine the uptake of different types of green technologies in the construction of buildings in the study area, an issue that this study sought to investigate. The study adopted a mixed research design. The target population was 1191 households, with a sample study size of 153 (13%) households obtained from Milimani, Section 58 and Naka Estates in Nakuru City. Primary data was collected using structured household questionnaires and key informant interviews. The data obtained was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, where: percentages, frequencies and multiple linear regression analysis test were computed. The study observed that education level, employment status, and monthly household income had a significant influence in adoption of green building technologies. The results of the study provide a basis that can be used for the formulation of policies that can enhance the adoption of green building technologies in Nakuru City.

IntroductionThe relentless focus on maximizing production has exacerbated ecological challenges, including agricultural surface pollution, soil crusting, and farmland degradation, which increasingly threaten sustainable development. Agricultural green production technologies are essential for balancing food security with environmental sustainability.MethodsThis study examines the role of organizational support in fostering farmers’ adoption of agricultural green production technologies, using survey data from 1,426 rice farmers in Jiangxi Province, China. Ordered logit and moderated mediation models reveal a robust positive effect of organizational support on agricultural green production technology adoption, even after addressing endogeneity concerns.Results and discussionThe findings highlight that the effect of organizational support is more pronounced among farmers with agricultural insurance and those primarily engaged in farming. Mechanistic analysis shows that operation scale partially mediates the relationship between organizational support and agricultural green production technology adoption, accounting for 7.76% of the total effect. Furthermore, social capital acts as a positive moderator, amplifying the impact of organizational support on the operation scale and, subsequently, on agricultural green production technology adoption. These results underscore the need to enhance organizational support measures, promote moderate-scale farming, and cultivate social capital as critical strategies for advancing green agricultural practices.

Green technologies are important for achieving green and high-quality agricultural development. The Chinese government has issued various policies to explicitly encourage the adoption of green technologies. However, incentives for Chinese farmers to adopt green technologies remain insufficient. This study examines whether participation in agricultural cooperatives can help break the barriers to Chinese farmers’ adoption of green technologies. It also examines the potential mechanisms by which cooperatives can mitigate the lack of incentives for farmers to adopt agricultural green technologies. Using data from a study on farmers in four Chinese provinces, we found that cooperative participation significantly increases farmers’ adoption behavior for both green technologies with effective market incentives (e.g., commercial organic fertilizer technologies) and those without such incentives (e.g., water-saving irrigation technologies).

E-commerce operations and technology perceptions in promoting farmers' adoption of green production technologies: Evidence from rural China

The popularization and use of green production technology is the key to promoting the sustainable development of agriculture. Exploring the path of promoting farmers' adoption of green production technology has important theoretical and practical significance for promoting the green transformation of agriculture and realizing the high-quality development of agriculture. This study examined the impact of contract performance on the adoption of green production technology in the farmland transfer market based on the characteristics of green production technology. An empirical test was conducted using survey data from Heilongjiang, Henan, Zhejiang, and Sichuan Provinces, which differ in agricultural resource endowment and economic development. The results demonstrated that farmland area was positively associated with the number of green production technologies adopted by farmers and use of straw returning, subsoiling, and soil testing for formula fertilization technology. Moreover, improving the performance rates of farmland transfer contracts strengthened the promotional effect of operation scale on green production technology adoption. Using either contract execution or dispute resolution rates to measure contract performance promoted the adoption of green production technology, particularly for large-scale farmers. Therefore, in the publicity and promotion of agricultural green production technology, the government should not only formulate differentiated promotion strategies and support policies based on resource endowment, but also focus on the construction of rural legal systems, which are helpful for building and maintaining a good farmland market order and performance environment, and create conditions for the durability and stability of technology adoption.

Industrial organizations play a crucial role in transforming the production and management practices of smallholder farmers, encouraging the adoption of environmentally friendly production methods. However, limited studies have conducted comprehensive research examining how these industrial organizations effectively encourage farmers to adopt green production technologies. To address this research gap, this study examines the influence of organizational support on the adoption of agricultural green production technologies among 645 kiwifruit farmers in Shaanxi Province, northwestern China, using cross-sectional survey data from 2022. In addition, this research explores the mechanisms and heterogeneity in this impact. In our analysis, we estimated Probit models and mediation effect models, which show a positive influence of organizational support on farmers' adoption of these technologies. Notably, both institutional support and tool support have a more pronounced positive effect on this adoption. The mechanism analysis shows that organizational support facilitates farmers' adoption of these agricultural green production technologies by expanding their access to high-value markets. Furthermore, when considering heterogeneity among farmers, the study finds that organizational support has the most significant impact on the adoption of these technologies among farmers operating at a moderate scale. Moreover, our research highlights a technology linkage effect in the adoption process. Specifically, organizational support has a positive and significant effect on the adoption of technologies like bagging, physical control, and soil testing formulas, while also having a positive but statistically insignificant impact on technologies such as pollution-free pesticides and organic fertilizer substitution. In conclusion, the study proposes to increase assistance to industrial organizations, to play an influential role in guiding and driving farmers.

Facing of increasingly serious resource and environmental constraints, the adoption of green technology has become the key to driving the green production transformation of farmers under the constraints of environmental regulation. Whether environmental regulation can improve the adoption of green technology in breeding industry still needs to be further tested. Based on the survey data of 544 pig farmers in Sichuan, Shandong, Henan and Hebei provinces, this paper first measures the adoption degree of green breeding technology by using the coefficient of variation method. Then, the econometric model is used to empirically test the relationship between environmental regulation and farmers’ adoption of green technology. The results show that: firstly, environmental regulation can improve the adoption of green technology by farmers; Economic incentive regulation and educational guidance regulation can significantly improve the adoption of green technology by farmers from the perspective of environmental regulation. Secondly, environmental regulation has different effects on the adoption of green technology of different attributes of farmers. Its effect on the adoption of resource utilization technology is higher than that of harmless treatment technology and higher than that of reduction technology. Different dimensions of environmental regulation have different effects on the adoption of green technology by farmers with different attributes. Thirdly, the impact of environmental regulation on the adoption of green technology by different scale farmers is different, and its impact on high-scale farmers is more obvious. At the same time, different dimensions of environmental regulation have different effects on the adoption of green technology by farmers of different sizes.

Shandong and Henan provinces face significant pest and disease issues, creating a strong demand for green pest control technologies. This paper analyzes the impact of government subsidies and quality certification on farmers’ adoption of green pest control technologies, based on 419 survey responses collected through stratified sampling in Shandong and Henan provinces in 2024, using the Heckman two-stage model. The results show the following: (1) Government subsidies and quality certification significantly promote farmers’ adoption of green pest control technologies, with regression coefficients of 0.260 and 0.493, respectively. (2) An interaction effect exists between government subsidies and quality certification on farmers’ adoption of green pest control technologies, with a coefficient of 0.454. For a given government subsidy, higher quality certification levels increase the likelihood of farmers adopting green pest control technologies. (3) From the perspective of human capital quantity, there is obvious heterogeneity in the impact of government subsidies and quality certification on farmers’ adoption of green pest control technologies. (4) From the perspective of generational differences, quality certification has obvious heterogeneity on farmers’ adoption of green pest control technologies, while there is no obvious generational difference in government subsidies. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a stable and multi-channel government transfer payment system, improve the construction of the agricultural product quality traceability system, take a two-pronged approach, and complement each other’s strengths to build a targeted incentive mechanism based on different groups of farmers.

As a collection of technologies that match the carrying capacity of resources and the environment, harmonize ecology and life, and balance the quantity and quality of agricultural products in agricultural production, green production technologies are regarded as an important means to help promote sustainable agricultural production. It includes scientific fertilization technology, water-saving irrigation technology, biological control technology, and conservation tillage technology. However, the smallholders’ low level of awareness and application of green production technology has become a key factor limiting the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture. Several technological innovations have been implemented to address these problems while many studies have been conducted on the smallholders’ willingness to adopt the technology. However, the correlation and the hierarchical structure among different factors are not clear. Therefore, to clarify these issues, we used the logit model and interpretative structural modeling (ISM) to analyze the factors influencing the adoption of green production technologies by smallholders and the hierarchical linkage between them based on a sample of 709 from 16 provinces in China. Our results revealed that scientific fertilization and biological control technology were most preferred by smallholders. Compared with wheat (38.8%, 43.2%) and maize (29.3%, 39.4%), rice smallholders (66.7%, 82.5%) were more willing to adopt the two technologies. In addition, the technology awareness and technology benefits were expected to significantly affect the smallholders’ willingness to adopt the technology directly. Household characteristics and land characteristics are the root factors affecting the smallholders’ willingness to adopt green production technology. Family characteristics and land characteristics also changed the willingness of smallholders to adopt green production technologies by changing their awareness of production technology and the technological benefits expected. Therefore, accelerating the promotion of green production technologies through the implementation of policies such as increasing the promotion of high-value-added agricultural products and cultivation techniques, increasing out-of-school knowledge education, and enhancing the construction of agricultural production infrastructure can be potentially viable ways to promote green transformation in agriculture. This study provides case support for increasing the smallholders’ adoption of green production technology.

In the context of increasingly severe resource and environmental constraints, accelerating family farms to take the path of green agricultural development is an urgent practical problem to be solved. The bancassurance interaction, an innovative form of financial support policy for agriculture, can effectively alleviate the risks and credit rationing problems faced by family farms in the operation process, provide new opportunities for green production of family farms, and is of great significance to promoting sustainable agricultural development. This study uses data from 564 planting family farms in Shaanxi Province to analyze the impact of the bancassurance interaction on adopting green production technology in family farms and its mechanism, paying particular attention to the heterogeneous effects of the family life cycle and family economic level. The results of this study show that the bancassurance interaction has a significant positive impact on the adoption of green production technology by family farms. Compared with agricultural credit and insurance, the effect of the bancassurance interaction on adopting green production technologies is more evident. The analysis of the impact mechanism shows that the bancassurance interaction can promote the adoption of green production technology in family farms through three channels: increasing investment in agricultural production, expanding the scale of land management, and strengthening exchanges of green technology. Among them, the effect of increasing agrarian production investment is the most pronounced. The heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of the bancassurance interaction on the green production technology of family farms varies significantly according to the family life cycle and economic level. Family farms at the dependency stage and low-income level were more willing to adopt green production technologies driven by the bancassurance interaction. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously innovate the interaction mode between banks and insurance companies, rationally allocating agricultural production factors and combining the actual situation of each family farm to strengthen the leading role of the bancassurance interaction in adopting green production technologies and promoting high-quality agricultural development.

IntroductionLand fragmentation remains a critical barrier to sustainable agriculture, as it reduces efficiency and hinders the adoption of modern green technologies, particularly in smallholder farming systems.PurposeThis study explores the impact of land fragmentation on farmers' adoption of green technologies and examines how organizational integration can moderate these adverse effects.MethodsPrimary data were collected from 420 crop farmers across four districts of Balochistan, Pakistan. A binary probit model was employed to analyze the effects of land fragmentation and organizational integration on adoption behavior, with controls for education, training participation, land characteristics, and household factors.ResultsThe findings reveal that land fragmentation significantly decreases the likelihood of adopting green technologies, while organizational integration strongly promotes adoption and offsets the negative effects of fragmentation. Moreover, education, participation in training, and machinery acquisition positively influence adoption, whereas high dependence on agricultural income, land transfer, and risk perception serve as barriers.ConclusionPolicies that encourage land consolidation and strengthen cooperative networks are essential. Promoting organizational integration through farmer cooperatives can alleviate the constraints of fragmented farmland, enhance sustainable agricultural practices, and improve rural livelihoods.