Impact of informatization of agricultural extension services on farmers’ scientific fertilization technology adoption decisions

Continuously promoting scientific fertilization is a powerful support for achieving a stable food supply and constructing an ecological civilization. To explore the effective strategies to promote scientific fertilization by Chinese farmers in the context of digital village construction, this study uses the Heckman two-stage model based on the data from 1256 surveys of farmers in the rice producing areas of Hubei Province to explore the influence of informatization of agricultural extension services on the adoption decision of scientific fertilization technology by farmers in terms of “adoption behavior” and “the degree of adoption”. Additionally, we analyzed the mechanism of informatization of agricultural extension services on scientific fertilization technology adoption decision by farmers using the stepwise regression method. The results are presented as follows: 1) The informatization of agricultural extension services had a significant positive effect on adoption behavior of farmers and the degree of adoption of scientific fertilization technologies. 2) There are differences in the effects of informatization of agricultural extension services on different types of scientific fertilization technologies. The informatization of agricultural extension services had a more significant effect on the adoption of efficient fertilization technologies by farmers than the application of new fertilizers. 3) The informatization of agricultural extension services promoted adoption behavior of farmers by improving benefit perception; it also promoted the adoption behavior of farmers and the degree of their adoption by reducing risk perception. Consequently, this study proposes policy recommendations to continuously enrich the forms and service contents of information-based agricultural extension services, improve the cooperative extension mechanism, and enhance the effectiveness of agricultural extension services through personalization and precision.