| Seeds are the "chip" of agriculture,which fundamentally determines the output and quality of agricultural products,and affects land productivity as well as labor productivity.However,with the continuous increase of the cost of various production factors in the process of agricultural production,some old varieties have appeared the problem of diminishing marginal returns,or increasing production without increasing income.Due to the high requirements of new excellent varieties on management technology and planting experience,the yield may decline in the short term.At the same time,they are faced with low price competition from old varieties,and the economic benefit advantage of new varieties is not prominent in the short term,which ultimately leads to low recognition and acceptance of new excellent varieties by farmers.Farmers’ own resource endowment is the main endogenous driving force for their production decisions,covering most of the basic means of production,such as labor,land,capital,etc.,which determines the factor allocation,resource acquisition and behavioral ability of farmers,and is the core influencing factor for the adoption decision of new varieties.As the smallest unit of agricultural production,farmers are faced with the rapid rise in the cost of various production factors,and are also constrained by the initial resource endowment,and it is difficult to take the initiative to bear various costs and uncertain risks in the adoption of new varieties.Therefore,governments at all levels have always been advocates,guides and promoters of new variety breeding and promotion.In 2021,the central No.1 document proposed that "The success of the seed industry revolution,accelerating scientific and technological innovation in the seed industry,and promoting high-quality development are the top priorities of agricultural modernization." Recently,the General Office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the Notice on the Promotion and release of the Main Promotion Technology of Agricultural Leading varieties in 2023,once again emphasizing the acceleration of the promotion and application of high-quality varieties and advanced applicable technologies.As the main exogenous driving force for the promotion of new varieties,government support can directly or indirectly improve the resource endowment level of farmers and optimize the allocation of factors by reducing transaction costs,so as to improve the decision-making of farmers’ production behaviors and enhance the adoption level of new varieties.If the heterogeneity of different types of resource endowments is ignored or the promotion or inhibition of different types of resource endowments are ignored in the promotion process of new varieties,anchoring bias will easily occur in related policies supported by the government,and even have a negative impact on the adoption behavior of new varieties of farmers with different types of resource endowments.It can be seen that resource endowment and government support play a crucial role in the decision-making of new variety adoption behavior of farmers from both internal and external aspects.At present,the research on resource endowment and government support to adopt new varieties of farmers lacks a holistic theoretical analysis framework,and its influence mechanism and linkage relationship need to be further clarified.Therefore,this paper mainly explores the following aspects: How does resource endowment affect the adoption of new varieties by farmers? How does government support influence the adoption of new varieties by farmers? What is the correlation and interaction between the two? What are the economic effects of adopting new varieties? To study and answer the above questions is of great practical significance to solve the constraints on the adoption of new varieties of farmers.It can not only alleviate the imbalance between supply and demand of new varieties,but also promote the high-quality development of agriculture and promote the sustainable increase of farmers’ income.TThis paper is guided by behavioral decision theory,resource endowment theory,agricultural technology adoption theory,agricultural technology diffusion theory and other related theories.Based on the review of relevant domestic and foreign literature research,this paper carried out the field research of 898 kiwi growers from five major kiwi producing areas in Shaanxi Province,namely Mei,Zhouzhi,Huyi,Wugong and Yangling.The impact of resource endowment and government support to the adoption of new varieties were empirically measured by comprehensively using the model of the entropy weight method,ordinal probit model,double-hurdle model,binary probit model,Heckman sample selection model,propensity score matching method(PSM),Poisson regression model,least square model,endogenous transformation model,and moderating effect model.The empirical analysis is divided to into five parts,according to the logical framework of "adoption cognition-adoption willingness-practical decision-adoption level-adoption utility".On the basis of summarizing those results,this paper puts forward some suggestions to promote the adoption of new varieties of farmers and optimize the relevant policies supported by the government.It has important practical significance to find the focus of relevant government policies,making up for the shortcomings of existing theories to some certain extent.It also provide some useful reference for improving the adoption level of new varieties and formulating relevant policies in the future.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)Through the analysis of the adoption behavior of new varieties of kiwi growers in the sample area,it is found that the second generation varieties Xu Xiang and Cuixiang are still the main varieties,followed by Hayward and Qin Me.The adoption rate of the third generation new varieties of kiwi represented by Jinfu,Nongdayuxiang and Ruiyu is very low.The overall level of cognition and willingness of kiwifruit growers to adopt new varieties was high,but the actual adoption behaviors and adoption level were low.The main existing problems are: the overall level of adoption of new varieties by farmers is low;The overall cognition and willingness of farmers to adopt new varieties are high,but the distribution is uneven.The willingness of farmers to adopt new varieties is inconsistent with the actual behavior decision.The performance of new varieties adoption is not outstanding.The resource endowment of most farmers in the sample area is still at a low level.The level of different types of resource endowment varies greatly among farmers,and its average value from high to low is: human capital > information capital > physical capital > natural capital > social capital > financial capital.The level of government support obtained by farmers is generally high.The level of different types of government support varies greatly,and its average value from high to low is: government extension >government training > government publicity > government investment > government subsidy.(2)The impact of resource endowment and government support on farmers’ cognition of adopting new varieties.In terms of resource endowment,the overall view of coefficient is positive and significant in the perception of use and effectiveness.In terms of usability cognition,natural capital,physical capital and financial capital positively affect the usability cognition of new varieties adoption.In terms of effectiveness cognition,natural capital,physical capital,financial capital and social capital have significant positive effects on the effectiveness cognition.Further,the education level of the household head has a significant positive impact on the perception of ease of usability and effectiveness.The natural disasters had a significant negative impact on the perception of usability.The amount of farm machinery and the type of transportation had a significant positive effect on the cognition of usability.Insurance purchase has a significant negative effect on the perception of usability,while loan level has a significant positive effect on usability.The number of labor force,natural disasters and agricultural insurance adoption have significant negative effects on the effectiveness perception.The ownership of farm machinery,transportation tools and loan level have a significant positive impact on the effectiveness perception.Government support has a significant positive impact on farmers’ perceptions of both usability and effectiveness in adopting new varieties.This shows that under the same conditions,the higher the level of government support,the higher the level of cognition of new varieties of farmers.(3)The influence of resource endowment and government support on farmers’ willingness to adopt new varieties.First,resource endowment has a significant positive impact on both the willingness and willingness-to-pay of new varieties.On the one hand,resource endowment has a significant positive effect on willingness and willingness-to-pay of labor force input.The willingness of human capital is not significant,but it has a significant positive effect on the willingness-to-pay of labor force input.Natural capital had a significant positive effect on the willingness and willingness-to-pay of labor force input.Material capital has a significant negative effect on the willingness.Social capital has a significant positive effect on the willingness and willingness-to-pay.Specifically,the number of labor force and whether there are village cadres at home have a significant positive impact on the willingness.The education level and the number of contacts have significant positive effects on the willingness-to-pay of labor input.Farmers’ out-migrant work condition,natural disasters and housing types have significant negative effects on the labor input willingness.Simultaneity farmers’ out-migrant work condition has a negative effect on labor input willingness-to-pay.On the other hand,in terms of investment intention,the total resource endowment index has a significant positive impact on the investment willingness and willingness-to-pay.Human capital,natural capital and social capital have significant positive effects on the investment willingness.Human capital,material capital and financial capital have significant positive influence on the willingness-to-pay of investment.Specifically,the education level of farmers,the number of labor force,the scale of contact personnel,whether there are village cadres at home have a significant positive impact on the investment willingness,and the education level of farmers,land scale,whether to participate in agricultural insurance have a significant positive impact on the investment willingness-to-pay.Farmers’ out-migrant work condition,natural disasters and loan level have a significant negative impact on the investment willingness,while farmers’ concurrent occupation has a significant negative impact on the investment willingness-to-pay.Second,government support has a significant positive impact on farmers’ willingness of both labor force and investment.This shows that under the same conditions,the higher the level of government support,the stronger the willingness of new varieties’ adoption of farmers.(4)The influence of resource endowment and government support on the adoption decision of new varieties.In terms of resource endowment,the overall parameters of resource endowment show a significant positive effect on the adoption of new varieties,with the coefficient of 7.41 and significance of 1% level.Natural capital,physical capital,financial capital and social capital have significant positive effects on the adoption of new varieties.Information capital has a significant negative effect on the adoption decision of new varieties.The education level of farmers and the number of labor force have a significant positive effect on the adoption decision of new varieties.The land scale has a significant positive effect on the adoption of new varieties.Natural disasters had a significant negative effect on the adoption of new varieties.Whether to participate in agricultural insurance and the loan level showed positive significance.The number of contacts and whether there is a village cadre in the family have a significant positive impact.Farmers’ access to Internet information through mobile phones,televisions and computers and the use of information has a significant negative impact on the adoption of new varieties.In terms of government support,government support has a significant positive impact in different empirical tests.This shows that the greater the government support,the more inclined farmers are to make the decision to adopt the new superior varieties.In addition,government support plays a positive moderating role in the impact of resource endowment on the adoption of new varieties.The effect of resource endowment on the adoption of new varieties by farmers does vary with the intensity of government support.Further,in the secondary dimension of resource endowment,except human capital and information capital,the interaction terms between natural capital and government support,physical capital and government support,financial capital and government support,and social capital and government support all show positive significance.This shows that when government support is at different levels,the intensity of influence of natural capital,physical capital,financial capital and social capital on the adoption of new varieties of farmers will be different with the different level of government support,and the impact is significantly different.(5)The influence of resource endowment and government support on the adoption level of new varieties by farmers.In terms of resource endowment,human capital has a significant positive impact on the adoption level of new varieties,while natural capital and financial capital have a significant negative impact on the adoption level of new varieties.Specifically,the number of labor force has a significant positive impact on the adoption level of new varieties.Farmers’ out-migrant work condition has a significant negative effect on the adoption of new varieties.In terms of physical capital,the type of housing and the type of transportation have a significant negative impact on the adoption degree.Whether farmers participate in agricultural insurance and the level of loans have a significant negative impact on the adoption of new varieties.The annual gift money of farmers has a significant negative effect on the adoption degree of new varieties.In terms of government support,on the other hand,government support has no significant effect on the adoption level of new varieties,but it plays a positive moderating role in the influence of financial capital on the adoption level of new varieties.The results show that financial capital itself has a significant negative effect on the adoption level of new varieties.This means that the influence of financial capital on the adoption level of new varieties is significantly different when the government support is at different levels.(6)Economic utility analysis of new variety adoption decision.The PSM results showed that the adoption of new varieties have a significant positive effect on the income of farmers.Based on the propensity score,the samples were matched,and the ATT,ATU and ATU values were calculated respectively in the adopter group and the non-adopter group.According to the propensity score matching counterfactual estimation,the ATT estimated value of the treatment group(i.e.,kiwifruit growers with new varieties adopted)was 1.846,which was significant at level of 1%,indicating that the adoption behavior of new varieties had a significant positive impact on the actual income of kiwifruit growers.When the net effect is not affected by the new variety adoption behavior(counterfactual assumption),the farmer’s income will increase significantly by 1,8460 yuan.According to the above research results,the author puts forward specific suggestions:first,realize the renewal of new varieties in promoting the high-quality development of kiwifruit industry by top-level design with systematic thinking.The second is to strengthen the publicity to realize the new varieties of farmers from cognition to acceptance.Third,expand the demonstration area to drive farmers ’ behaviors on new varieties from willingness to practice.Fourth,improve the level of farmers’ resource endowment and optimize the allocation of resources;The fifth is to accurately implement government support so as to reduce transaction costs and improve the economic utility of adopting new varieties. |
PDF Full Text Request