Research On The Behavior Of Farmers' Adoption Of Agricultural Seed Technology

Agricultural technology innovation is the fundamental driving force for agricultural development and increasing farmers' income. A technological innovation is certainly very important, but whether its innovative strengths can play an important role is determined by a wide range of usage. According to statistics, there are 7000 technology innovative in our country every year, but only 30-40 percent of the innovative can be applied to agricultural production. The low-efficiency of farmers' technology adoption reduce the welfare of agriculture innovation, and the main reason, is the out of touch between the agricultural research department and the technology demanders---farmers.The majority researches relating to microscopic agriculture innovative diffusion is focus on the adoption of farmers. A large number of scholars use the behavior theory of social psychology to construct the logistic and probit model, to find the differences between the adopters and non-adopters, further to understand the behavior of farmers' technology adoption. The researches had found many behavior characteristics of farmers' technology adoption, and provide us with the research paradigm and some important theoretical basis. But based on this research paradigm, we also find that:if only the characteristics of farmers is not very different, and they live in the same village, their behavior of technology adoption will be undifferentiated. But this outcome is not identical to the reality. Although the farmers in the same neighborhood, have very different behavior of technology adoption.Therefore, in study of the technology adoption behavior of farmers, we need to be process-oriented, and from the perspective of farmers, to find the detail of farmers' technology evaluation and adoption. In this paper,we will integrated use of technology diffusion theory, behavioral theory, and technology adoption process theory,to explore the technical evaluation details in technology adoption process of farmers, and the factors which affect on the farmers technology evaluation and adoption. Specific contents are as follows:Firstly, based on the technology diffusion theory,technology adoption theory and the theory of technology adoption process, we will construct the theoretical framework to describe the behavior of farmers' seed technology adoption. In the model we take the strong ties into account, and we think the adoption behavior of their strong ties is the one of the key factors which affect on farmers technology adoption. Secondly, using the research data in the Hubei province, this paper establish regression model, and then, test the impact of farmers' assessment behavior on the technology adoption behavior, strong relationships with farmers' behavior on their assessment behavior, farmers'economic capacity on the technology adoption behavior.Thirdly, the empirical analysis of this paper reached the following conclusions:(1) Farmers' technology adoption behavior is not a decision (adopt or not), but a process. Technical evaluation is the decisive condition of technology adoption behavior of the household, the evaluation is to compare the relative advantage,easy level and adaptability between the new technology and the old. When the new technology has the significant advantages, the farmers' technology adoption behavior will be positive.(2) In the process of farmers' technology adoption, their assessment behavior will be affected by the behavior of their strong ties; and the extension efforts which led by extension department have negative effect on farmers' technology assessment behavior, but the frequency of the contact between the farmers and the technology providers which led by the farmers, have an significant positive effect on farmers' technological assessment behavior.(3) Farmers' economic capacity had no impediment on their technology adoption behavior.At last, this paper construct the process-oriented model of the farmers' technology adoption behavior for the purpose. In the empirical research component, it also verify the effectiveness of the farmers' technology adoption behavior. Basing on the research conclusions, this paper make some relevant policy recommendations. In the end, the paper point out the shortcomings of the study and future research directions.