The direction of promoting smallholders' adoption of agricultural green production technologies in China

Abstract

Application of agricultural green production technologies (AGPT) is a vital measure to improve the quality of arable land and enhance the quality of agricultural products. The lack of motivation of smallholders has slowed the adoption of AGPT in China. To reveal the directions of promoting smallholders' adoption behavior of AGPT, this study analyzed smallholders on their green production behaviors by using zero-inflated poisson (ZIP) regression model with 454 rice planters in Hubei. The results found that smallholders joining in cooperatives and developing into family farms were the two main directions to influence their adoption of AGPT. For smallholders, cooperative membership is currently effective in enhancing their AGPT adoption, while family farm is not effective in promoting smallholders’ AGPT adoption. Smallholders are transformed into family farms by transferring into arable land, but the land fragmentation weakens their AGPT adoption. Thus, policy makers should guide smallholders to join in cooperatives to enhance their convenience of accessing to AGPT and establishing a stable land transfer mechanism to enhance the long-term investment. Meanwhile, it is necessary to strengthen the support for family farms and further improve the extension service system of AGPT.