Effects of the Adoption of Technology Combinations Beyond Standardized Systems on the Income of Chinese Tobacco Farmers

Abstract

Using the microdata for tobacco farmer households in Chongqing, China, this article analyses the determinants of adopting additional multiple agricultural technologies and their impact on income based on implementing a standardized technology system by a tobacco company. In this paper, selection bias from the observed and unobserved heterogeneity was corrected using a multinomial endogenous treatment effects model, and the endogenous properties were eliminated. The empirical results show that the adoption of a variety of additional agricultural technologies was determined by famer’s education level, years of tobacco planting, household size, number of technical training sessions, distance from farmer’s family to the nearest tobacco technology extension station, distance from farmer’s family to the nearest township, proportion of land suitable for machine farming, proportion of leased land. Different from empirical judgment, integrated pest management and balanced fertilization are the most effective additional technology combination strategies for increasing farmers’ income instead of combining all additional comprehensive technologies. The research results suggest that Chongqing Tobacco Company should further strengthen the training of tobacco farmers and guide tobacco farmers to take appropriate pesticide and fertilizer input beyond the standardized technical system, especially for those tobacco farmers far away from the tobacco technology extension station.