Effects of Digital Social Support on Farmers’ Behavior of Resource Utilization of Plantation Wastes

Waste resource utilization is an important initiative in regard to promoting the development of green, low-carbon, and recycling activities in agriculture. Exploring the impact of digital social support on farmers’ waste resource utilization behavior is conducive to solving the challenges brought about by the current rapid development of the plantation industry. Based on survey data concerning 1213 farmers in Liaoning Province, this paper empirically analyzes the influence of digital social support on plantation farmers’ waste resource utilization behavior using a standard Poisson regression model and explores the roles of information comprehension and self-efficacy and the moderating role of narrow framing in the process. The results show that, firstly, digital social support had a significant positive effect on farmers’ plantation waste resource utilization behavior, and this conclusion was still valid after solving the endogenous problems. For the robustness test, every unit increase in digital social support increased the expected value of farmers’ waste resource utilization behavior by about 22.14%. Secondly, digital social support influenced farmers’ plantation waste resource utilization behavior by improving their information comprehension ability and self-efficacy. Thirdly, narrow framing will weaken the positive effect of digital social support on farmers’ plantation waste resource utilization behavior. Finally, based on the results of the heterogeneity analysis of the degree of land fragmentation and the concept of face, the influence of digital social support on the utilization of waste resources had a significant positive effect on the farmers with a low degree of land fragmentation and a strong concept of face. Therefore, the government and the agricultural sector should strengthen digital infrastructure, actively establish digital sharing platforms, and provide personalized digital social support to farmers so that they can actively engage in waste resource utilization and contribute to green and sustainable agricultural development.