Empirical Study On Peanut Producers’Technology Adoption

Peanut is an important oil crop and major material for many food products in China. It plays a critical role in guaranteeing the supply of food and edible vegetable oil and improving people’s food structure. During the past30years, Chinese peanut industry has seen a rapid increase. From1978through2008, the average annual increase rate of peanut production and sown area are6.15%and2.96respectively. However, there are also some serious problems in China peanut industry, such as inefficiency of both supply and demand of technology, low pace of technology progress and variety update.To figure out the status quo of peanut technology adoption, identify determinants of farmers’technology adoption, and assess the impact of technology adoption on peanut productivity, the author conducted a large scale survey on peanut producers in Chuzhou, Anhui province. The survey got414farmer samples which mainly distributed at Mingguang county (129samples), Nanjiao district (126samples) and Quanjiao county (119samples), and there are also a few samples in Dingyuan county (20samples) and Fengyan county (20samples).The survey showed a very low technology adoption rate in current peanut production: the rate of adoption rate of new variety, plastic-film-covered cultivation, and ridge cultivation are27%,21%and19%respectively. More than half farmers are still using old varieties which have been used for several decades.To identify the determinants of peanut producers’technology adoption, the dissertation established three econometric models about farmers’adoption of new peanut variety, plastic-film-covered cultivation, and ridge cultivation. The empirical research indicated that there are different determinants to different technology adoption. The detail results are as follows:(1) income per capital, the proportion of peanut income to total income, and the proportion of wages income to total income have significant positive effects on farmers’ adoption of new varieties, while sown crop area per capital has a significant negative influence.(2) sown crop area per capital, land area per block, and the proportion of peanut income to total income have significant positive effects on farmers’ adoption of plastic-film-covered cultivation, while income per capital and the proportion of wages income to total income have significant negative effects.(3) income per capital and farmers’ risk attitude have significant positive effects on the adoption of ridge cultivation, while the proportion of peanut income to total income, and the proportion of wages income to total income tend to have significant negative effects.The dissertation also established multiple linear regression models to assess the impacts of technology adoption on farmers’ peanut productivity. The results showed that the adoption of new varieties and plastic-film-covered cultivation both have significant positive effects on peanut productivity. Keeping other conditions the same, the adoption of new varieties caused a26kg increase in peanut yield, and a333.75RMB increase in peanut income per Mu; the adoption of plastic-film-covered cultivation caused a36kg increase in peanut yield, and a295.74RMB increase in peanut income per Mu. The adoption of ridge cultivation, however, has no significant effect on peanut productivity.