Influence of Information Literacy on Farmers’ Green Production Technology Adoption Behavior: The Moderating Role of Risk Attitude

Green production technology is a critical component of contemporary agricultural development, playing a pivotal role in the promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. Information literacy is the basic ability for farmers to engage in agricultural production, including information awareness, information knowledge, and information ability. In order to investigate the impact of information literacy on farmers’ green production technology adoption behavior, this paper constructs information literacy indicators using factor analysis, based on survey data from 1316 farming households in Shanxi and Hebei provinces, and empirically analyzed the impact of information literacy on farmers’ green production technology adoption behavior and the moderating effect of risk attitude using the Heckman model and moderating effect model, respectively. The empirical evidence indicates the following: (1) Information literacy can significantly contribute to farmers’ adoption decisions and adoption degree of green production technologies. (2) Information literacy has a significant effect on the adoption decisions of all five green production technologies. (3) The results of the heterogeneity analysis indicate that the coefficient of information literacy on the degree of adoption of green production technologies by farmers with different endowment characteristics varies significantly. The promotion effect is more pronounced for small-scale farmers and farmers with a high share of agricultural income. (4) The interaction term between risk attitude and information literacy has a significant effect on farmers’ green production technology adoption degree. Based on these findings, the paper recommends that relevant institutions focus on enhancing farmers’ information literacy, strengthening the agricultural production guarantee system, and developing differentiated strategies for promoting green production technologies.