The impact of government support and farmers’ pro-environmental intention on water-saving irrigation techniques adoption: Evidence using propensity score matching

Abstract

Abstract Agricultural water-saving irrigation (WSI) techniques becomes the main way to build drought resilience in rural areas. The effectiveness of government support in promoting the adoption of water-saving technologies is controversial. There is a research gap concerning farmers with different pro-environmental intentions to the adoption of water-saving behaviors under the influence of government support. This study is based on a survey in Yulin, Shaanxi, China, using 404 sample households. Pro-environmental intentions have been introduced into this paper by using the entropy weight method, and propensity score matching has been used to overcome the confounding between government support and farmers' adoption. Our findings reveal that farmers who received government support exhibit a significantly higher probability of adopting WSI techniques, ranging from 80 to 81.6%, representing a notable increase of 29.0–30.7% compared to those without government support. Furthermore, government support significantly affects farmers with weak pro-environmental intentions by 40.5%, but it does not have a significant impact on farmers with stronger pro-environmental intentions. These insights emphasize the significance of subsidies and advocate for an approach that tailors policies based on varying levels of pro-environmental intentions. This is particularly crucial considering that farmers with weaker intentions may be inclined to adopt the technology but face higher efficiency risks.