Impact of Internet Information on Apple Growers’ Adaptive Behaviors to Frost Disasters: Theory and Empirical Research from the Perspective of Psychological Perception

Haiyu Yang,Xuexi Huo,Wencong Cai,Jundi Liu

doi:10.3390/agriculture11100905

Abstract

As an effective tool for farmers to obtain agricultural information, the Internet has a profound impact on apple growers’ perception of frost disasters and their adaptive behaviors. This paper constructed the theoretical analysis framework of “Apple growers’ internet information acquisition-psychological perception-adaptive behavior to frost disaster”, based on the data of 1020 apple growers in Shaanxi Province, empirically analyzing the impact of Internet information on apple growers’ adaptive behaviors to frost disasters and its mechanism by the IV probit model and the intermediary effect model. The research found that the Internet information can significantly promote the apple growers’ adaptive behaviors to frost disasters and has different effects on apple growers with different income levels and different management capabilities. Risk perception, effect perception, and risk attitudes have significant intermediary effects in the influence of the Internet information on apple growers’ adaptive behaviors to frost disasters. Therefore, when governments take advantage of the Internet platform to help apple growers cope with frost disasters, they should fully consider the socio-economic conditions and psychological perception factors of apple growers and formulate targeted adaptation strategies.

Highlights

The apple industry is Shaanxi’s agricultural pillar industry, and its healthy and stable development is of great significance to apple growers’ income increase
In order to identify the effective influence of the agricultural information from different channels on apple growers’ anti-frost adaptive behaviors, we added the Internet information, traditional media and face-to-face communication variable in Models 1, 2, and 3, respectively
Only Internet information has a significant effect on anti-frost adaptive behavior, the other two are not significant, and the influence coefficient of the Internet variable is greater than the other two. This proved that compared with face-to-face communication and traditional media, the use of Internet information effectively promoted apple growers’ anti-frost adaptive behaviors

Summary

Introduction

The apple industry is Shaanxi’s agricultural pillar industry, and its healthy and stable development is of great significance to apple growers’ income increase. The rapid rise in early spring temperatures, driven by warm winters, has led to an earlier-than-usual flowering of apple trees. In early and mid-April, the probability of frost will increase if the apple blossom period encounters abnormal weather such as the northwest cold current, cold air intrusion, or long-term rainy weather. This means that earlier flowering caused by climate change has increased the risk of frost damage to apple trees, which in turn has caused significant losses to apple farmers in Shaanxi [2]. It is estimated that this frost will cause a loss of more than 40% of apple production in Shaanxi Province, that is, 4 million to 5 million tons [3]

Methods

Results

Conclusion