(1) Background: Rare empirical evidence has been explored concerning the ways in which training affects farmers’ adoption of resource conservation technology in agricultural production. This study attempts to analyze the role of three factors, including farmers’ absorptive capacity, social interaction and active learning, in bridging agricultural training and farmers’ adoption of the drip fertigation system (DFS), based on the primary data of 632 banana farmers collected in China. (2) Methods: A mediation model is used to estimate the role of farmers’ absorptive capacity, social interaction and active learning in the relationship between agricultural training and farmers’ adoption of the DFS. A treatment effect model (TEM) is employed to address the potential endogeneity problem. (3) Results: The results show that agricultural training has significantly increased farmers’ adoption of the DFS in banana cultivation. The mediating effect of the three factors appears statistically significant. Specifically, farmers’ active learning contributes to the effect of agricultural training on encouraging their adoption of the DFS by around 60 percent; farmers’ absorptive capacity and social interaction contribute about 30 and 10 percent, respectively. This study also find that agricultural training can increase farmers’ adoption rate of the DFS by 18.75 percent after the endogeneity problem has been addressed using the treatment effect model (TEM). (4) Conclusions: The findings suggest that agricultural training can promote farmers’ adoption of the DFS through improving their absorptive capacity, social interaction and active learning. Understating these mediating factors will enable extension agency to design effective agricultural training programs and better promote resource-conservation technologies in developing countries.

Low-carbon agricultural practices (LAPs) can reduce carbon emissions in agricultural production for farmers in developing countries. However, the role of emerging social media has not received enough attention in the diffusion of LAPs among farmers. This study first attempts to examine the impact of farmers’ social media participation on their adoption intensity of LAPs using the Zero-truncated Poisson model and specify the effect of each participation activity on social media by the endogenous-treatment Poisson regression model, then discuss the economic performance of LAPs using the quantile regression model, based on the primary data collected from banana farmers in Southern China. The results show that social media participation exerts a positive and significant effect on farmers’ adoption intensity of LAPs. Specifically, the adoption intensity of LAPs in the treated group who participated in the short-video social media is about 1.1 times higher than that in the control group. The treatment effects of the five activities (watch, like, forward, comment, and release) on farmers’ adoption intensity of LAPs are positive and significant. We also find that adoption of LAPs can increase household income of farmers, and the effect presents particularly significant for those at the higher income level. Whilst, Social media participation can significantly increase household income of farmers who are at the lower income level. Our findings underscore the important role of social media in the diffusion of LAPs among farmers and income growth of households in developing countries. Thus, supportive strategies can be designed by policymakers for encouraging farmers to participate the emerging social media platforms and adopt more LAPs in agricultural production.

Zinc (Zn) is a fundamental micronutrient required by all living organisms. Zn deficiency among children under 5 years, pregnant, and child-bearing women has been identified in developing countries such as Pakistan. Biofortified crops can increase micronutrient levels and decrease deficiencies. Meanwhile, consumer acceptance is essential, given that genetic alterations can occur during biofortification, resulting in changes in sensory traits and the quality of grains. Therefore, the present study focuses on the determining factors for consumer acceptance of Zn-biofortified wheat., an experimental survey was conducted to achieve the study's objectives. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed from 203 respondents in the Punjab province. The results regarding sensory perceptions revealed that people attached great importance to the appearance of the chapati prepared with Zn-biofortified wheat. Therefore, they were willing to purchase Zn-biofortified wheat when asked to choose between the conventional wheat and the Zn-biofortified wheat. Moreover, the probit model illustrates that the level of education in the family and having young children aged under 5 years in the household positively impacted the acceptance of Zn-biofortified wheat among the participants. The findings suggest that there is significant scope for promoting Zn-biofortified wheat in the country. It is also imperative to ensure its availability across various regions so that households with weak purchasing power can buy and address their Zn deficiency. Furthermore, policymakers could introduce reforms targeting business communities for food management, keeping Zn-biofortified wheat in the priority stream.

Purpose: Farmers' adaptation strategies in agricultural production are required to minimise the negative impact of climate change on a nation's food production in developing countries. Based on the panel data of the provincial level in China from 2000 to 2017, this study aims to analyse the changing climate over recent years and farmers' adaptation strategy in terms of cropping in agricultural production. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses Simpson's diversity index (SDI) to measure the degree of crop diversity planted by farmers and evaluate the influence of climate change on farmers' cropping strategy using the fixed-effect model. Further, the authors estimate the impact of farmers' cropping strategy on their economic performances in two aspects including yields and technical efficiency of crops. Findings: The empirical results show that the overall climate appears a warming trend. Different from farmers in some other countries, Chinese farmers tend to adopt a more specialised cropping strategy which can significantly improve the technical efficiency and yields of crops in agriculture. In addition, as a moderating role, the specialised cropping can help farmers to alleviate the negative impact of climate change on technical efficiency of their crops. Originality/value: First, previous studies showed that the changing climate influenced farmers' adaptation strategies, while most studies focussed on multiple adaptation strategies from the farm-level perspective rather than cropping strategy from the nation-level perspective. Second, the present study investigates how the cropping strategy affects the economic performance (in terms of the technical efficiency and crop yields) of agricultural production. Third, the stochastic frontier analysis method is used to estimate the technical efficiency. Fourth, this study explores the moderating effect between farmers' cropping strategy and technical efficiency by introducing an interaction item of SDI and accumulated temperature.

Introduction: Small-scale farmers in developing countries can significantly contribute to sustainable food production through market-oriented cooperation (MOC). MOC allows farmers to access machinery services and specialized labor, but it also carries economic costs that may impact food production performance in small-scale farms. This study attempts to uncover the association between farmers' MOC participation and food production performance in small-scale farms in rural China, using a sample of 650 rice farmers in Jiangsu province.Methods: We applied the stochastic frontier analysis to calculate the technical efficiency that indicates the production performance of small-scale farms. The treatment effect model is employed to detect the effect of farmers' MOC participation on technical efficiency, and the multivalued treatment effects model is used to explore the relationship between farmers' intensity of MOC and technical efficiency.Results: The results show that farmers' MOC participation significantly increases technical efficiency of small-scale farms, with an inverted U-shaped correlation between MOC participation intensity and technical efficiency. A heterogeneity analysis based on production phases reveals that farmers tend to adopt MOC in machinery-driven phases with higher priority than in labor-driven phases. MOC in labor-driven phases, such as seedling and spraying, presents negative effect on technical efficiency.Discussion: These findings highlight the crucial role of MOC in food production performance in small-scale farms, and provide insights for designing MOC strategies in different production phases in order to facilitate sustainable food production in developing regions. This research addresses the need for solutions to improve food production sustainability under agricultural transformation in developing countries. It also touches on the challenges and opportunities that producers face in adopting new practices and participating in the modern food supply chain.