The Adoption of Conservation Agricultural Technology and the Impact on Crop Yields Based on Rice Farms in Anhui Province
保护性耕作技术采用及对作物单产影响的实证分析——基于安徽省水稻种植户的调查数据

In light of growing concern over the implications of many conventional agricultural practices, and especially the deep tilling of soils, the government of China has begun to promote a suite of soil conservation techniques under a conservation agriculture framework. While the title might be novel, its associated practices have long been employed by farmers, and studied by social scientists seeking to understand the reasons for adoption and non-adoption as well as effects on crop yield. Compared to some other countries, the promotion of conservation agriculture in China is relatively new. Although the development of conservation agriculture in China has been emphasized by the government and researchers, almost no empirical research has been conducted to understand the factors that drive farmer uptake and any impact on crop yield. The overall goal of this paper is to analyze the determinants of the adoption of conservation agricultural technology and the impact on crop yields and provide empirical evidence for policy decisions. The data used in our analysis was collected from field surveys across four counties of Anhui province. We found that the adoption rate of normative conservation agricultural technology (adopting all key components of conservation agriculture) remains very low: only 6.5% of late rice growers and no early rice growers have adopted these practices. The overall adoption rate of conservation agricultural technology by late rice growers is 30.8%. We then used Probit regression methods to analyze determinants of late rice grower behavior, and OLS regression methods to analyze the impact of conservation tillage techniques on rice yield. Results show that the awareness of conservation tillage technology, the non-farm working situation of the head of the household, the education of the head of the household, and whether the head of the household is a village cadre, were the main factors influencing whether a farmer adopted conservation tillage techniques. Last, compared to farmers who use traditional farming techniques, farmers who adopted conservation tillage technology had higher rice yields of 93 kg/hm2.