Impacts of Technology Training Provided by Agricultural Cooperatives on Farmers’ Adoption of Biopesticides in China

As pesticide abuse becomes increasingly serious worldwide, it is necessary to pay attention to the biopesticide adoption behavior of agricultural producers. It is worth verifying whether agricultural cooperatives, as training organizations sharing the same social network with farmers, can promote th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inAgriculture (Basel) Vol. 12; no. 3; p. 316
Main Authors Liu, Yuying, Shi, Ruiling, Peng, Yiting, Wang, Wei, Fu, Xinhong
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.03.2022
Subjects
Agricultural cooperatives
Agricultural economics
Agriculture
biopesticide adoption
Biopesticides
China
Citrus
Farmers
income
issues and policy
Pesticides
probability
regression analysis
Regression models
Social networks
Social organization
Statistical analysis
surveys
Technology adoption
technology perception
technology training
Training
China
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Summary:As pesticide abuse becomes increasingly serious worldwide, it is necessary to pay attention to the biopesticide adoption behavior of agricultural producers. It is worth verifying whether agricultural cooperatives, as training organizations sharing the same social network with farmers, can promote the adoption of biopesticides through their technology diffusion function. Therefore, based on survey data of 837 citrus producers in Sichuan Province, China, the IV-probit regression model and a mediation effects model were used to empirically test the impact of technical training on farmers’ adoption of biopesticides in addition to its mechanism, considering the farmers’ perception of technology as the mediation variable. The results show that (a) participation in technical training can significantly enhance the probability of the adoption of biopesticides; (b) farmers’ perceptions of biopesticides’ economic and health benefits play a partial mediating role in the relationship; and (c) technical training has more significant effects on biopesticides adoption behavior for a household with higher-educated household heads, lower household total income, and smaller household size, relative to their counterparts. This study provides evidence for establishing relevant policy to encourage the full adoption of the technical training function of agricultural cooperatives and popularize the use of biopesticides.
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ISSN:2077-0472
2077-0472
DOI:10.3390/agriculture12030316