Do Not Be Anticlimactic: Farmers’ Behavior in the Sustainable Application of Green Agricultural Technology—A Perceived Value and Government Support Perspective

Abstract

The production mode of “high input, high yield and high waste” in the agricultural system poses a serious threat to the environment and the quality of agricultural products. Accelerating the adoption of green agricultural technology (GAT) by farmers is an emergency measure. However, according to microsurvey data, many farmers give up GAT within a year after adopting it. The implementation of this measure has been anticlimactic. Based on a survey of 1138 kiwi growers in Shaanxi Province, China, this paper builds a theoretical model and conducts empirical exercises to gain insight into the effects of perceived value, government support and their interaction with kiwi growers’ sustainable application of GAT. We find that perceived value and government support have a significant impact on the sustainable application of GAT. Government support plays a moderating role in the influence of perceived value on the sustainable application of GAT. Furthermore, in order to overcome the potential endogeneity problem caused by the two-way causal relationship between subjective variables, “owning a smartphone” was selected as the instrumental variable. The 2SLS model was used for endogeneity analysis, and the OLS model was used for the robustness test. This paper discusses the relevant theories and policy implications of environmental management.