Agric. Econ. - Czech, 2024, 70(4):187-197 | DOI: 10.17221/385/2023-AGRICECON

Impact of production outsourcing on the adoption of low-carbon agricultural technologies in ChinaOriginal Paper

Ruirui Du1, Aftab Khan2,3, Rui Shi1, Yujie Shen1, Minjuan Zhao1,4
1 College of Economics and Management, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling, P. R. China
2 Institute of Blue and Green Development, Shandong University, Weihai, P. R. China
3 Institute for Interdisciplinary Research, Shandong University, Weihai, P. R. China
4 College of Economics, Xi'an University of Finance and Economics, Chang'an District, Xi'an, P. R. China

Adopting low-carbon agricultural technologies (LCATs) is fundamental to reducing carbon emissions in agriculture. Our study explores the factors influencing the adoption of LCATs and the roles of production outsourcing and specialised farming within the framework of off-farm employment. In this regard, survey data were collected from 1 040 farmers in the Yellow River region of China in 2020 to examine the effect of production outsourcing on the farmers’ adoption of LCATs. Potential mechanisms associated with specialised farming and off-farm employment are considered to comprehend this relationship. We also investigate the heterogeneous effects of production outsourcing on adopting LCATs, taking different education levels and arable land areas into account. The results show a positive association between production outsourcing and farmers’ LCATs adoption behaviour, even after considering self-selection bias. Specifically, outsourcing production can significantly increase the likelihood of farmers adopting low-carbon tillage, low-carbon irrigation, and low-carbon fertilisation technologies by 7.2%, 8.1%, and 7.3%, respectively. This effect is more pronounced among farmers with higher levels of education and smaller areas of arable land. Furthermore, production outsourcing increases the LCATs adoption by promoting specialised farming. The findings suggest that outsourcing is vital to alleviating the lack of LCATs adoption resulting from off-farm employment.

Keywords: agricultural social services; carbon mitigation measures; mediating effect model; propensity score matching; specialised farming; off-farm employment

Received: November 11, 2023; Revised: March 9, 2024; Accepted: March 18, 2024; Published: April 25, 2024  Show citation

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Du R, Khan A, Shi R, Shen Y, Zhao M. Impact of production outsourcing on the adoption of low-carbon agricultural technologies in China. Agric. Econ. - Czech. 2024;70(4):187-197. doi: 10.17221/385/2023-AGRICECON.
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