Training and Self-Learning: How to Improve Farmers’ Willingness to Adopt Farmland Conservation Technology? Evidence from Jiangsu Province of China

Abstract

The quality of cultivated land is an important basis for guaranteeing grain yield, and improving the quality of cultivated land is an important initiative of the Chinese government to implement its food security strategy. This paper explores the effects of formal technical training and informal online self-directed learning on farmers’ willingness to adopt cultivated land conservation technology using farmer-level survey data. The results show that farmers’ participation in technical training effectively increased their willingness to adopt straw return technologies, but participation in online self-directed learning did not affect farmers’ willingness to adopt, while farmers who participated in both technical training and online self-directed learning had stronger willingness to adopt. These results show that internet-based self-directed learning is a useful supplement to the formal training system. Further analysis revealed that participation in technical training increased farmers’ awareness of the usefulness of the straw-return technology, which in turn increased their willingness to adopt the conservation technology of cropland. This paper clarifies the impact and mechanisms of the two main existing technology learning modes on farmers’ adoption of new technologies in rural China and provides a reference for the promotion of agricultural technology diffusion and the improvement of the quality of cultivated land in China.