Farmers’ Willingness and Adoption of Water-Saving Agriculture in Arid Areas: Evidence from China

Enhancing water resource utilization efficiency is crucial for achieving sustainable development in arid and semi-arid regions. In promoting water-saving agriculture technologies, there is often a phenomenon of “willingness without behavior”. Therefore, investigating how willingness translates into behavior is of significant importance for improving water resource utilization. This study utilized data from a survey of 494 households in Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China, and employed Probit models to analyze the factors influencing farmers’ willingness towards water-saving technologies and their adoption. Prospect theory and mental accounting theory were introduced to understand the mechanism of transformation from farmers’ willingness to adoption. The study found that farmers’ willingness is a crucial prerequisite for their adoption. Farmers’ income perception towards adopting water-saving technologies can facilitate the transformation from willingness to adoption, while cost perception can inhibit this transformation. Both small and large-scale farmers’ perception of the benefits of water-saving technologies significantly increased their likelihood of translating their willingness to adopt into actual action. Compared with large-scale farmers, small-scale farmers are more sensitive to the perception of economic costs in the decision-making process. For both types of farmers, the perception of learning cost inhibits their willingness to adopt water-saving technologies to a certain extent. Farmers’ perception of the prospects of adopting water-saving technologies leads to a psychological segmentation effect, and the ultimate adoption depends on the psychological game between farmers’ income and cost perception.