Impact of environmental regulation perception on farmers' agricultural green production technology adoption: A new perspective of social capital

At present, how to promote agricultural green production technology (AGPT) to achieve agricultural green production is one of the hot issues discussed by various countries and academia. From the perspective of farmers' environmental regulation perception and social capital, there is still a lack of research on the farmers' AGPT adoption behavior. Therefore, based on the survey data of kiwifruit growers in Mei and Zhouzhi counties of Shaanxi Province, China, this study applies Poisson model to empirically analyze the impact of farmers' environmental regulation perception and social capital and interaction on their AGPT adoption behavior and further reveals the intergenerational differences in AGPT adoption behavior between the new and old generation farmers. After dealing with endogenous problems, the conclusion is still robust. The study found that farmers' AGPT adoption rate was 71.7%, but the degree of AGPT adoption was only 1.46, and most of AGPT had not been popularized. Secondly, farmers' environmental regulation perception and social capital can significantly promote their AGPT adoption, and the promotion of incentive environmental regulation perception and disembedded social capital is more obvious. Thirdly, environmental regulation perception and social capital have interactive effect on farmers' AGPT adoption. At the same time, social capital can strengthen environmental regulation perception on farmers' AGPT adoption. Finally, the intergenerational difference analysis shows that old generation of farmers' AGPT adoption is generally affected by environmental perception regulation and social capital, while new generation of farmers is mainly affected by guiding environmental regulation perception. Based on the above conclusions, we provide policy suggestions for promoting farmers to adopt AGPT. • Farmers' environmental regulation perception (ERP) and social capital (SC) can significantly promote AGPT adoption. • ERP and SC have interactive effect on farmers' AGPT adoption, and the effect of disembedding social capital is greater. • ERP and SC have great intergenerational differences impact on farmers' AGPT adoption.