Study On The Impact Of Scale Of Operation On Farmers' Adoption Behavior And Effect Of New Citrus Varieties

With the economic development and market consumption upgrading,the citrus industry has developed speedily and plays an important role in meeting residents' consumption demand,increasing farmers' income and ecological environment construction.However,with the rapid expansion of industry,the mismatch between production supply and demand is constantly highlighted,and the supply side structure adjustment is imminent.The fundamental way out for the development of citrus industry is to promote new varieties,adjust the structure of varieties and form a market-oriented development mechanism.But in general,the adjustment of citrus varieties structure is still facing many difficulties.The problems such as low adoption rate,slow popularizes and inconspicuous effect of application are outstanding.The existing research shows that the adoption of a technology is the result of the joint action of technical attributes,group characteristics and environmental constraints.Farmers' adoption behavior and effect of the new citrus varieties is likely to be closely related to the characteristics of the technology,farmers' endowment and external environment.On the one hand,the effect of new citrus varieties can only be realized after the fruit trees are replaced.As a typical intertemporal agricultural technology,it may have unique properties that can not be ignored compared with other general agricultural technologies.On the other hand,with the deepening of rural reform,the moderate scale operation has gradually become a trend.The differentiation of farmers with the basic characteristics of the difference in operation scale is becoming increasingly deepened.The agricultural management system of small farmers and large-scale households in citrus industry is gradually formed,while different scale farmers have obvious heterogeneity in land,capital and other endowment,which may also be an important reason for the current problems of adoption new citrus varieties.Compared with the general agricultural technology,what are the special technical properties of new citrus varieties? What is the deep logic behind the behavior decision and performance of farmers in the adoption of new citrus varieties? Is the scale of operation the key factor that affects the behavior and effect of farmers' adoption? If so,what is the mechanism of action? Further,how to guide the adoption of new varieties and improve the effect of new varieties on the premise of respecting the heterogeneity of farmers?From the perspective of scale differentiation,based on the theory of agricultural technology diffusion,farmer behavior,behavioral economics and scale economy,this paper analyzes the characteristics of citrus industry and new varieties technology,explains the logic mechanism of the influence of scale on the farmers' adoption behavior and effect of new varieties.Based on the micro survey data of farmers in Sichuan and Chongqing main production area,the paper empirically tests the difference of new varieties adoption behavior and effect among different scale farmers.In addition,the paper selects the typical cases of adopting new varieties in Guangji,Sichuan Province.Through case study,the paper summarizes the policy enlightenment to improve the small farmers' adoption rate and effect of new varieties.The main conclusions are as follows:1)Compared with the general agricultural technology,the premium function of new citrus varieties is significant,but the effective period is long and the risk is large.There are obvious barriers to planting management skills and market circulation constraints in the implementation of new varieties.Facing the increasing market demand,farmers have strong overall willingness to adopt new citrus varieties,but compared with small farmers,large-scale households have stronger willingness;There is a gap between the behavior and willingness of farmers,and the willingness and behavior gap of small farmers is large.Risk aversion,insufficient information and technical constraints are the main reasons that hinder farmers to adopt new varieties.The focus of farmers' concern is the change of the price level and profit rate.The channels of farmers to obtain new citrus varieties information are different,large-scale households mainly obtain information through breeding institutions and agricultural technology promotion service departments,while small farmers mainly learn about new varieties through demonstration exchanges between surrounding farmers and relatives and friends.2)The scale of operation has a significant positive impact on the adoption of new citrus varieties.The risk preference and time preference of farmers are the important internal transmission mechanism of the impact of scale on the adoption of behavior.Compared with small farmers,large-scale households tend to adopt new citrus varieties,adopt earlier and more intensively.The behavior logic of different scale farmers conforms to the basic hypothesis of limited rational economic man.In the face of market profit induction brought by the "premium function" of new varieties,the difference of production objectives and sensitivity to expected income caused by the difference scale directly affect the decision-making of farmers' adoption behavior.Meanwhile,the new citrus varieties belong to the high-risk inter-temporal agricultural technology.In the process of adopting decision-making,the farmers' choice behavior depends on the risk and time preference.Compared with small farmers,large-scale households are more willing to take risks,pay more attention to the long-term interests,and adopt new citrus varieties actively,while small farmers are more inclined to wait-to-see or adopt in a small range and follow-up in the later period.3)The scale of operation has a significant positive impact on the adoption effect of new citrus varieties.The planting management skills and market docking ability of farmers are the internal transmission mechanism of the impact of the scale of operation.Compared with small farmers,the effect of large-scale households is more prominent,and the comprehensive technical efficiency is higher.The difference between transaction cost and technology transition cost of different scale farmers is the direct reason.This conclusion is in line with the hypothesis of scale economic effect.Meanwhile,as a technology intensive industry,good varieties need to match good planting method,and its products have high added value characteristics.The implementation of new varieties has obvious skill threshold and circulation restriction.The new variety adoption has high relevance and complementarity with high level of planting management skills and market docking ability.Compared with small farmers,the planting management skills and market docking ability of large-scale households are often higher,which can master supporting technology of new varieties faster and better,break through the market circulation constraints,obtain more favorable market opportunities,and realize the transformation from high quality of new varieties to high efficiency in the market.However,the small farmers are limited by the planting management skills and market docking ability,and the effect of the adoption is relatively poor.4)There are significant differences between influencing factors of the adoption behavior and the effect of new citrus varieties in different scale farmers.The scale of operation,risk preference and time preference have significant impact on the adoption behavior of small farmers and large-scale households,but the influence degree is different;The degree of education and Serving as a village cadre have significant positive impact on the small farmers and large-scale households' adoption behavior.Age,the number of family labor force,the joining of cooperatives and the promotion of new varieties have significant impact on the behavior of small farmers,and the impact on large-scale households is not significant;The distance from the market and the participation of agricultural insurance have significant impact on the adoption behavior of large-scale households,and the impact on small farmers is not significant.The scale of operation has a positive impact on the adoption effect of small farmers.But the inverted U relationship between the scale and the adoption effect of large-scale households is presented.The planting management skills and market docking ability have positive impact on effect of small farmers and large-scale households,but the significance degree are different.Age,land quality and concurrent business have significant impact on the adoption effect of small farmers,but not on large-scale households.Serving as a village cadre has a significant positive impact on the effect of large-scale households,and the impact on small farmers is not significant.5)The inspiration from case study of small farmers' adoption of new citrus varieties.The multi-path promotion of new varieties is helpful to improve the cognition and confidence of new citrus varieties in small farmers.The risk tolerance of small farmers is weak and their behaviors are conservative.They tend to adopt the technology fully mastered or familiar in production,and take various new varieties promotion measures actively to improve the cognition and confidence of small farmers,which is conducive to promoting the adoption of behaviors;The highly endogenous social service system is helpful to solve the problem of "last kilometer" of technical service in the adoption of new varieties of small farmers;The new cluster management mode is conducive to make up for the weak of scattered management of small farmers and realize the agglomeration effect of new varieties;Regional brand cultivation is conducive to the transformation of new varieties from high quality to high income.The possible innovations of this paper are as follows:1)This paper analysis the technical attributes of new citrus varieties from the economic perspective for the first time,and constructs the analysis framework of the adoption behavior and effect of new citrus varieties based on the full consideration of the industrial characteristics and technical attributes of new varieties.This is an attempt to study the impact of management scale on the adoption behavior and effect of new citrus varieties.Based on the properties of "premium function" "high risk" and "inter-temporal" of new citrus varieties,the paper introduces two economic preference variables,namely "risk preference" and "time preference" of farmers,constructs the analysis framework of adoption behavior "market profit induction-economic preference influence",which expands the theoretical explanation of economic preference in the farmers' adoption of technology.Based on the attributes of "skill complementarity" and "circulation constraint" of new citrus varieties,the paper introduces two capacity endowment variables,namely "planting management skills" and "market docking ability",and constructs the analysis framework of adoption effect " cost difference-realize capacity constraint".2)This paper analyzes the adoption behavior and effect of new citrus varieties from the perspective of scale differentiation,which provides a new research perspective and ideas for related research.Most of the existing researches on the adoption of new agricultural varieties ignore the heterogeneity of farmers in the scale.Usually,the scale of operation is taken as the control variable,and the logical mechanism of the influence is not analyzed theoretically.A few studies,when analyzing the mechanism of the impact of the scale of operation on the adoption of other technologies,also make general explanation from the scale economic effect,and lack of discussion on the specific mechanism in the specific technical categories.Based on the increasingly prominent background of farmers heterogeneity,the article studies the influence mechanism of scale on the adoption of new citrus varieties from the perspective of scale differentiation,and conducts empirical tests.In addition,the key factors that impact the adoption behavior and effect of different scale farmers are further analyzed,which provides a new way of thinking for effectively encouraging and guiding different scale farmers to improve the adoption rate and effect of new varieties under the premise of respecting the heterogeneity of farmers.3)In this paper,four core variables,namely "risk preference" "time preference" "planting management skill" and "market docking ability" are introduced in the decision-making and effect realization mechanism of new citrus varieties.Because these variables are abstract concepts,it is difficult to directly observe and measure them by using standard household survey method.This paper uses the experimental economics method to measure the risk preference of citrus farmers through the paid draw game;The time preference of citrus farmers was measured by using the "3-year matching problem";The experts were invited to set up skills test items to measure the management skills of citrus farmers;Based on the references,the paper measures the market docking ability of citrus farmers from five aspects: market information acquisition,product information transmission,market negotiation status,market sales channel and market transaction scope.