Factors affecting farmers’ willingness to adopt wheat/maize agronomic water-saving technology in the piedmont plain region of Mount Taihang

Farmers is the main body of agricultural water-saving. For successful adoption of agronomic water-saving technologies, it is important to learn the factors affecting farmers’ willingness to adopt agricultural water-saving technologies. This paper therefore analyzed the factors affecting farmers’ willingness to adopt wheat/maize agronomic water-saving technologies in the piedmont plain of Mount Taihang using farmer household investigation and Logit model. The study shows that the proportion of crop to gross income of farming households, cost of water, and training significantly positively affect farmers’ willingness. However, the degree of water shortage has a significant negative effect on farmers’ willingness. In the piedmont plain of Mount Taihang, wheat/maize agronomic water-saving technologies should be introduced to households with high proportion of crop to gross household income, high proportion of labor to household population, high annual gross household income, large farmland area, female householder and a householder with high level education. As farmers’ awareness of water-saving is generally weak in the study area, it is necessary to use additional means to promote water-saving technologies to farmers. In order to popularize wheat/maize agronomic water-saving technologies in the piedmont plains of Mount Taihang, demonstration households and the effects of leading households should be emphasized. Government support should also increase, while more effort, such as training, is needed to spread information about agronomic water-saving in the region.