| Digital agricultural technology extension service is a kind of information system oriented to "Internet + agricultural extension",combining Internet(PC,cell phone,digital TV,etc.)and traditional agricultural extension service(Neighborhood exchanges,on-site instructional training and mass media newspapers,radio,television,etc.).It helps farmers to keep abreast of agricultural policies,markets,knowledge and technical information,and breaks the traditional extension model’s problems of inefficient information transmission,geographical restriction,lack of personalized demand satisfaction,shortage of professional human resources,limited transmission of professional knowledge,and insufficient interactivity.However,the integration of digitalization and agricultural extension services is still in the exploration and development stage and faces various challenges,leading to some farmers’ possible skepticism or lack of interest in the new agricultural extension service model,resulting in lower capacity and level of actual adoption decisions and posing challenges for the government’s extension work.So,how to help farmers fully recognize the potential and advantages of adopting digital agricultural technology extension service and stimulate their interest and willingness to adopt them? How to identify farmers’ preferences and priorities for different digital agriculture technology extension service to suit their individual agricultural production contexts? How to grasp the key factors and decision paths of farmers in the decision process of digital agricultural technology extension service adoption,and enhance the motivation and capacity of farmers for sustainable adoption? Can the adoption of digital agricultural technology extension service improve farmers’ household income and agricultural production efficiency? All of the above have become issues of widespread concern.Based on this,this paper is based on agricultural extension theory,behavior-related theory,selection preference-related theory,agricultural pedal theory,externality theory and other related theories,adopts a combination of normative and empirical analysis,and combines the development effect,policy background and reality of digital agricultural extension services at home and abroad,based on 1475 farmers’ fruit and vegetable survey data in Shandong,Shanxi and Shaanxi,using econometric models.This paper analyzes the farmers’ choice behavior of digital agricultural technology extension service from multiple dimensions,reveals the internal connection mechanism and transformation path from farmers’ cognition of digital agricultural technology extension service to their decision-making,calculates the effects of farmers’ income increase and poverty reduction and agricultural production efficiency,comprehensively evaluates the effects of farmers’ adoption of digital agricultural technology extension service,and finally puts forward targeted countermeasures and suggestions,with a view to providing theoretical and empirical support for the government to optimize and improve agricultural extension work.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)Among the 1475 valid samples obtained from this research,87.2% of farmers are willing to invest time and energy in the adoption of digital agricultural technology extension service,78.4% have a choice preference for digital agricultural technology extension service,60.14% have adopted digital agricultural technology extension service,but the actual degree of continuous adoption is low(25%),78.51% of farmers adopt traditional agricultural extension services,and although the digital agricultural technology extension service model has an important impact on access to agricultural information,farmers still adhere to the traditional agricultural extension service method at present;more than half of the surveyed farmers believe that the adoption of digital agricultural technology extension service can indeed achieve the effects of increasing income,improving food production and reducing costs,accounting for 67.5%,71.0% and 75.8%,respectively,and farmers’ The expected evaluation of the adoption effect of agricultural extension services is high,which is a positive signal for the promotion and application of the service at the farmer level;among the farmers adopting digital agricultural technology extension service in different provinces,459 in Shandong Province,231 in Shaanxi Province,and 197 in Shanxi Province,which shows that the differences in the adoption of digital agricultural technology extension service in different provinces are related to the agricultural foundation and economic development level of the province,indicating the urgent need to According to regional differences,digital agricultural technology extension service and publicity work should be carried out in a targeted manner.(2)This paper selects seven proxy variables,including technical information content,policy information content,knowledge information content,market information content and computer webpage method,cell phone social software APP method and cell phone short video software APP method,from two dimensions of digital agricultural technology extension service: content and method,which reflect more systematically and comprehensively the farmers’ access to content and use of digital agricultural technology extension service.The content acquisition and tool use of digital agricultural technology extension service by farmers are reflected in a more systematic and comprehensive manner.From the 887 farmers who used digital agricultural technology extension service,43.40%,27.17%,17.93% and 11.50% of farmers used the service to obtain policy information,technical information,knowledge information and market information,respectively;52.76%,35.51% and 11.72% of farmers used the service through mobile social software such as We Chat and QQ,cell phone social software such as Quick Hands and Jitterbug,and computer web browsing,respectively.The results indicate that through the adoption of digital agricultural technology extension service,farmers want to timely understand policy changes and updates in order to help them make corresponding adjustments and decisions.At the same time,compared to tools such as computers that are complex to operate and inconvenient to carry,farmers can use mobile phones to quickly obtain the required agricultural information at anytime and anywhere,greatly improving efficiency and convenience.(3)The empirical study investigating the influence of farmers’ digital agricultural technology extension service content,mode and prospect cognition on their willingness to adopt found that,except for the market information cognition of service content,the rest of digital agricultural technology extension service content,mode and prospect cognition had significant positive influence on their willingness to adopt;the introduction of three kinds of policy support,namely,government network platform construction,government incentive policy subsidy and policy network training As moderating variables,it was found that these three types of policy support had certain moderating effects on the relationship between farmers’ perceptions of digital agricultural technology extension service and their willingness to adopt.Finally,the omitted variable test,model transformation test and mutual causality test were conducted,and the conclusions were still robust and reliable.It can be seen that if farmers have a high level of awareness of digital agricultural technology extension service and understand their functions,advantages and potential benefits,they are more likely to express positive willingness to adopt the services,while government policy support and measures in digital agricultural technology extension service can help farmers fully recognize the potential and advantages of adopting digital agricultural technology extension service,improve their enthusiasm and confidence in adopting the services,and enhance(3)The policy support and measures for digital agricultural technology extension service can help farmers fully understand the potential and advantages of adopting digital agricultural technology extension service,improve their enthusiasm and confidence in adopting the services,and enhance their willingness to adopt the services.(4)To explore farmers’ preferences and priorities in terms of digital agricultural technology extension service content and service mode,and to investigate the heterogeneity of farmers’ preferences for digital agricultural technology extension service under different household resource endowment constraints.The results showed that 86% of the farmers had obvious preference for policy information in the service content,but the priority was second,and 72% of the farmers had obvious preference for social software such as We Chat and QQ in the service mode,and the priority was first.Farmers with different household resource endowment constraints have different preferences for digital agricultural technology extension service and the intensity of their preferences,there are significant gender differences in farmers’ preferences for digital agricultural technology extension service,and the higher the level of education,the stronger the farmers’ preferences,the richness of household social capital and economic capital have significant positive effects on farmers’ preferences for digital agricultural technology extension service,the natural capital of the household The distance between the village and the township where the household natural capital endowment is located plays a significant weakening role,and the more remote the geographical location is,the more negative the preference for digital agricultural technology extension service is.The results indicate that understanding and considering farmers’ household resource endowments can help agricultural extension agencies better meet different farmers’ needs and expectations,and provide them with personalized services that are more appropriate to their actual situations.(5)Considering that the adoption of digital agricultural technology extension service by farmers is a dynamic process from gradual decision-making to sustained adoption,the adoption decision of farmers is investigated by applying a two-column model that divides the adoption decision of farmers into a two-stage process,the first stage of whether to decide to adopt and the second stage of the degree of sustained adoption.And then explore the influencing factors of farmers’ adoption decision and the degree of sustained adoption of digital agricultural technology extension service.The results found that the degree of household risk preference,easy access to digital network devices in the social environment,and the number of people around them all positively contributed to the adoption decision and the degree of sustained adoption of digital agricultural technology extension service by farmers,while climatic variability or extreme climatic events in the natural environment showed a significant negative effect on the adoption decision and the degree of sustained adoption by farmers.The key factors and decision-making paths of farmers in the adoption process of digital agricultural technology extension service is revealed to help farmers better understand and use digital agricultural technology extension service,and to enhance their adoption decision-making ability and motivation for sustained adoption.(6)The adoption effect of digital agricultural technology extension service among farm households was evaluated through two perspectives of agricultural productivity and farm household income found.The empirical results of K-nearest neighbor matching,radius matching,caliper one-to-four matching,martingale matching,local linear regression matching,and kernel matching still confirm that digital agricultural technology extension service adoption significantly contributes to the increase of farmers’ income;farmers who adopt digital agricultural technology extension service can significantly improve agricultural production efficiency,and under the counterfactual hypothesis,the production efficiency of farmers who adopt digital agricultural technology extension service will decrease by 0.Under the counterfactual hypothesis,the productivity of farmers who adopt digital agricultural technology extension service will decrease by 0.113 if they do not adopt them,and the productivity of farmers who do not adopt digital agricultural technology extension service will increase by 0.106 if they do.digital agricultural technology extension service are not a single concept,but consist of multiple service contents and tools,and the benefits of different service contents and information integration and different service tools are different.The benefits are different,but the farmers’ joint adoption of digital agriculture technology extension service improves the production efficiency more significantly than the adoption of a single service,and there are also regional differences in the income increase effect of adopting digital agriculture technology extension service;compared with Shandong,the income increase benefits of adopting the service are more significant for farmers in Shanxi and Shaanxi.The results show that,digital agricultural technology extension service adoption can improve agricultural production efficiency,reduce production costs and increase household income.(7)Based on the findings of the study,the following countermeasures are proposed:increase publicity and actively guide farmers’ digital agricultural technology extension service adoption;provide targeted services to meet farmers’ preference for different digital agricultural technology extension service;strengthen digital rural infrastructure and solidify the construction foundation of digital agricultural technology extension service;improve the quality of digital agricultural technology extension service and provide reliable service guarantee;develop government incentives and supportive policies and promote successful cases;build digital agricultural technology personnel training system... |
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