Drivers of Farmers’ Intention of Water-Saving Irrigation Technology Adoption: A Social–Ecological Systems Perspective

Addressing the challenges of agricultural water scarcity requires widespread adoption of water-saving irrigation technologies (WSIT) by farmers, yet actual adoption rates remain persistently low. To investigate farmers’ intention to adopt WSIT, this study employs the social–ecological systems framework and analyzes samples of 3007 farmers using a mixed-methods approach combining binary logistic regression and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results indicate that cognitive levels, social environment, production conditions, grassroots governance, and policy environment exert significant positive effects on farmers’ intention to adopt WSIT. The study identifies several conditional configurations leading to high adoption intention, including endowment-driven, governance-substitution, internalization-driven, contextual configuration, and resilience-compensation pathways. Further analysis reveals that an integrated “soft power” enablement system, which is composed of effective grassroots governance, deep individual cognition, targeted policy support, and a favorable social environment, could effectively overcome constraints posed by limited production conditions or exposure to natural risk. These findings provide critical insights for relevant sectors to develop differentiated policies to promote WSIT adoption.