Access to information on sustainable intensification practices for new agricultural business entities in China.

The adoption of sustainable intensification practices (SIPs) is generally lagging in China, as disseminating new technology to millions of farmers on heterogeneous smallholdings is challenging. Agricultural development strategies emphasise the role of new agricultural business entities (NABEs) in driving smallholder farmers' development. This study used a sustainable intensive apple culture system as an example of an SIP. To understand the effects of different information dissemination channels, extension service attributes, social networking structures, and socioeconomic factors on the efficiency of acquiring information on SIPs by NABEs, we used the censored least absolute deviation to analyse the data obtained from face-to-face interview surveys of 218 NABEs in the Loess Plateau. This study found that direct connections between NABEs and research institutions had the strongest facilitating effect on information acquisition, farm shops had the second strongest effect, agricultural extension agencies had the weakest effect, and field agricultural material promotion workers showed a significant adverse effect. Improving the quality of extension services has a far greater effect on facilitating the acquisition of information on SIPs than does increasing extension intensity. Relying primarily on weak ties to manage plantations significantly facilitated information acquisition, whereas relying on strong ties to manage plantations significantly inhibited acquisition. The study results show that implementing the "research institute + NABEs + smallholder farmers" technology extension model can significantly improve the adoption efficiency of SIPs.

Land Fragmentation, Technology Adoption and Chemical Fertilizer Application: Evidence from China.

Although it has been widely recognized that land fragmentation has increased chemical fertilizer application, little is known about the role of technology adoption in mitigating these adverse effects. To empirically examine the relationship between land fragmentation, technology adoption and chemical fertilizer application, we developed a mediation model. We applied our analysis to a survey data set encompassing 1388 farm-level samples collected in 14 Chinese provinces in 2019. Our study demonstrated that land fragmentation can not only directly increase chemical fertilizer application but also indirectly increase it by hindering the adoption of agricultural mechanization technologies (AMT's) and soil testing fertilization technologies (STFT's). Both are recognized as potent drivers of fertilizer use reductions. Moreover, the adoption of information and communications technologies (ICT's) can help mitigate the negative effects of land fragmentation on technology adoption, thus reducing chemical fertilizer application intensity (CFAI). However, the direct effects of land fragmentation on CAFI was unaffected by ICT's. Our findings suggest that ICT's have revolutionized farmer recognition, promotion and adoption of agricultural technologies by increasing awareness and diffusion of agricultural technology information.