How Video‐Based Information Affects Farmers' Willingness to Pay for Drone Services

ABSTRACT Professional service for digital technology like agricultural drones lowers transaction costs and scope thresholds for smallholders. Meanwhile, perceptual adoption barriers remain underexplored. We conduct a two‐stage choice experiment with a randomized video‐based information treatment among 384 Chinese crop farmers to measure its effect on farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for agricultural drone services (ADS). While video‐based information significantly reduces farmers' WTP for contracts relative to oral agreements, it increases WTP for overall drone services among farmers who are younger, higher‐income, cultivate larger‐scale farms near tractor roads, have limited access to digital dissemination, and show lower risk preferences. By incorporating perceived uncertainty and risk management into the information‐adoption framework, we provide insights for policy support of digital agriculture service markets.