The Antecedents of the Willingness to Adopt and Pay for Climate-Smart Agricultural Technology Among Cooperatives in China

Climate-smart agricultural technology (CSAT) has been recognized as an effective agricultural technology for mitigating or eliminating climate change damages to agricultural production. The adoption of CSAT by Chinese farmers has also increased significantly, driven by the government. However, the range of technologies adopted is very limited to several types, such as piped irrigation, high-yielding seeds, and organic fertilizers. In this study, four reasons for the adoption of CSAT were summarized through a literature review and semi-structured interviews, and antecedents and outcomes were conceptualized through the Behavioral Reasoning Theory (BRT) model and the concept of willingness to pay (WTP). The data from 308 farmers’ cooperatives were analyzed and it was found that three reasons—policy/government support, recommendations from opinion leaders, and extension services—have positive significant impacts on the willingness of farmers’ cooperatives to adopt CSAT. However, perceived usefulness was also observed to have no significant impact on the willingness of farmers’ cooperatives to adopt CSAT because the significant level of the t-value was only 1.767. In addition, the value of openness to change was proved to have significant positive effects on policy/government support, recommendations from opinion leaders, extension services, and perceived usefulness, whereas it had no impact on willingness to adopt CSAT. However, reasons for the adoption (policy/government support, recommendations from opinion leaders, and extension services) were confirmed to have a mediating effect between the value of openness to change and willingness to adopt CSAT, which means that the value of openness to change can indirectly affect the willingness to adopt CSAT by influencing the views of farmers’ cooperatives on the variables of reasons for the adoption of CSAT. More widespread, diverse, and multi-level CSAT adoption requires in-depth publicity and promotion and multi-channel recommendations, both at the government level and at the technology company level.