How does Internet use affect farmers' low-carbon agricultural technologies in southern China?

Agricultural low-carbon emission reduction is an essential part of China's ecological civilization construction. Farmers' low-carbon agricultural technology (LCAT) adoption has become an important means to achieve agricultural low-carbon emission reduction. Based on the survey data of 1080 farmers in Sichuan Province, farmers' LCAT adoption has been empirically studied using the combined estimate conditional mixed treatment model (CMP). The results show that the use of the Internet will substantially promote farmers' low-carbon tillage technology adoption and low-carbon fertilization technology adoption but has no significant impact on farmers' low-carbon pharmaceutical application technology adoption, low-carbon irrigation technology adoption, low-carbon agricultural film recycling technology adoption, and straw recycling technology adoption. Mechanism analysis shows that Internet use mainly affects farmers' low-carbon fertilization technology adoption through economic benefit cognition and affects farmers' low-carbon tillage technology adoption through ecological benefit cognition. This study can enhance our understanding of the relationship between Internet use and LCAT adoption and serve as a resource for rural digital infrastructure development and LCAT adoption-related policy design.

Effect of Farmers' Awareness of Climate Change on Their Willingness to Adopt Low-Carbon Production: Based on the TAM-SOR Model

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the intricate relationships between human health and the social-ecological system in an era of climate and global change. Widespread COVID-19 adversely affected farmers' employment, production practices, and livelihood resilience. At the same time, climate change is a key issue limiting agricultural production worldwide. Emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, are a major factor leading to global climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural production are receiving increasing attention. Therefore, it is particularly important to develop low-carbon agriculture. Based on data from 920 family farms in Jiangsu province and Shaanxi province, this study constructs a structural equation model and empirically tests the relationship between the variables using the bootstrap method. The results show that: (1) climate change awareness did not directly stimulate farmers' willingness to pursue low-carbon production; (2) climate change awareness has an impact on low-carbon production willingness through perceived ease of use and consequence awareness; and (3) anti-risk ability can effectively moderate the impact of climate change awareness on low-carbon production behavior in agriculture. The theoretical model framework proposed in this study provides a reference for research in the field of low-carbon agriculture and also provides some insights and suggestions for environmentalists and governments. In addition, policymakers should effectively raise the sense of responsibility of farmers to address climate change and promote low-carbon agricultural production to achieve healthy and sustainable agricultural development.