IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/341032.html

Farmers' preferences for agricultural drone services under uncertainty: A choice experiment in Hubei, China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Hua
  • Kuhn, Lena
  • Xiong, Hang
  • Sun, Zhanli

Abstract

Agricultural drones can improve productivity, save labor, and reduce environmental impacts by offering digital multifunctionality in agricultural production. Yet, the lagging adoption among smallholders is still prevalent. Existing literature commonly explains it by the lack of capital, land fragmentation, and digital illiteracy, with little delving into specific adoption modes under uncertainty. In this study, we demonstrate the potential of hiring agricultural drone services and investigate the role of supplier uncertainty in the adoption decision. We conduct a discrete choice experiment among 338 farmers in Hubei Province, China. Mixed logit models are used to analyze farmers' preferences for the agricultural drone service (ADS) and its attributes. The results show that the large majority of sampled farmers are willing to adopt ADS. Besides low prices, farmers prefer services with local suppliers and contracts. Potential adopters in this choice experiment are characterized by youth, higher education, owning poor-topography farms, drone learning via word-of-mouth, and adoption experience. The willingness to pay analysis indicates that farmers would like to spend 25 CNY per mu (53 USD per ha) on average for ADS. Notably, farmers value the localness of suppliers more than the form of agreements when choosing a particular drone service. These findings suggest that the mode of hiring ADS can effectively motivate farmers' adoption intention, thereby requiring supply-side incentives and uncertainty-reducing promotion strategies to enhance smallholders' access to and adoption of agricultural drones.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Hua & Kuhn, Lena & Xiong, Hang & Sun, Zhanli, 2026. "Farmers' preferences for agricultural drone services under uncertainty: A choice experiment in Hubei, China," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 25(6), pages 2188-2200.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:341032
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jia.2025.12.066
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/341032/1/Zhang_2026_agricultural_drone_services.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jia.2025.12.066?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jürgen Meyerhoff & Ulf Liebe, 2009. "Status Quo Effect in Choice Experiments: Empirical Evidence on Attitudes and Choice Task Complexity," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 85(3), pages 515-528.
    2. J Blasch & B van der Kroon & P van Beukering & R Munster & S Fabiani & P Nino & S Vanino, 2022. "Farmer preferences for adopting precision farming technologies: a case study from Italy," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 49(1), pages 33-81.
    3. Wachenheim, Cheryl & Fan, Linfeng & Zheng, Shi, 2021. "Adoption of unmanned aerial vehicles for pesticide application: Role of social network, resource endowment, and perceptions," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    4. Andreas Pedroni & Renato Frey & Adrian Bruhin & Gilles Dutilh & Ralph Hertwig & Jörg Rieskamp, 2017. "The risk elicitation puzzle," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 1(11), pages 803-809, November.
    5. Meijer, Ineke S.M. & Hekkert, Marko P. & Koppenjan, Joop F.M., 2007. "The influence of perceived uncertainty on entrepreneurial action in emerging renewable energy technology; biomass gasification projects in the Netherlands," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5836-5854, November.
    6. Roberts, Roland K. & English, Burton C. & Larson, James A. & Cochran, Rebecca L. & Goodman, W. Robert & Larkin, Sherry L. & Marra, Michele C. & Martin, Steven W. & Shurley, W. Donald & Reeves, Jeanne , 2004. "Adoption of Site-Specific Information and Variable-Rate Technologies in Cotton Precision Farming," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Southern Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 36(01), pages 1-16, April.
    7. Schwirplies, Claudia & Dütschke, Elisabeth & Schleich, Joachim & Ziegler, Andreas, 2019. "The willingness to offset CO2 emissions from traveling: Findings from discrete choice experiments with different framings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Train,Kenneth E., 2009. "Discrete Choice Methods with Simulation," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521766555, August.
    9. Kabirigi, Michel & Abbasiharofteh, Milad & Sun, Zhanli & Hermans, Frans, 2022. "The importance of proximity dimensions in agricultural knowledge and innovation systems: The case of banana disease management in Rwanda," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    10. Moritz, Laura & Kuhn, Lena & Bobojonov, Ihtiyor, 2023. "The role of peer imitation in agricultural index insurance adoption: Findings from lab‐in‐the‐field experiments in Kyrgyzstan," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 1649-1672.
    11. Jerrod M Penn & Wuyang Hu, 2018. "Understanding Hypothetical Bias: An Enhanced Meta-Analysis," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 100(4), pages 1186-1206.
    12. Kelvin J. Lancaster, 1966. "A New Approach to Consumer Theory," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 74(2), pages 132-132.
    13. Skevas, Theodoros & Kalaitzandonakes, Nicholas, 2020. "Farmer awareness, perceptions and adoption of unmanned aerial vehicles: evidence from Missouri," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 23(3), August.
    14. Mélanie Jaeck & Robert Lifran, 2014. "Farmers’ Preferences for Production Practices: A Choice Experiment Study in the Rhone River Delta," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 112-130, January.
    15. Annemie Maertens, 2017. "Who Cares What Others Think (or Do)? Social Learning and Social Pressures in Cotton Farming in India," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(4), pages 988-1007.
    16. Jean‐Paul Chavas & Céline Nauges, 2020. "Uncertainty, Learning, and Technology Adoption in Agriculture," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 42-53, March.
    17. Sadick Mohammed & Awudu Abdulai, 2022. "Do ICT based extension services improve technology adoption and welfare? Empirical evidence from Ghana," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(23), pages 2707-2726, May.
    18. François J Dessart & Jesús Barreiro-Hurlé & René van Bavel, 2019. "Behavioural factors affecting the adoption of sustainable farming practices: a policy-oriented review," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 46(3), pages 417-471.
    19. Rommel, Kai & Sagebiel, Julian, 2017. "Preferences for micro-cogeneration in Germany: Policy implications for grid expansion from a discrete choice experiment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 612-622.
    20. Loureiro, Maria L. & Umberger, Wendy J., 2007. "A choice experiment model for beef: What US consumer responses tell us about relative preferences for food safety, country-of-origin labeling and traceability," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 496-514, August.
    21. Robert Finger & David Wüpper & Chloe McCallum, 2023. "The (in)stability of farmer risk preferences," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(1), pages 155-167, February.
    22. Hensher,David A. & Rose,John M. & Greene,William H., 2015. "Applied Choice Analysis," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107465923.
    23. Abebe, Gumataw K. & Bijman, Jos & Kemp, Ron & Omta, Onno & Tsegaye, Admasu, 2013. "Contract farming configuration: Smallholders’ preferences for contract design attributes," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 14-24.
    24. Amanuel Hadera & Tewodros Tadesse, 2023. "Risk and ambiguity aversion: Incentives or disincentives for adoption of improved agricultural land management practices?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(6), pages 867-883, November.
    25. Ward, Patrick S. & Bell, Andrew R. & Droppelmann, Klaus & Benton, Tim G., 2018. "Early adoption of conservation agriculture practices: Understanding partial compliance in programs with multiple adoption decisions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 27-37.
    26. Kliem, Lea & Sagebiel, Julian, 2023. "Consumers' preferences for commons-based and open-source produce: A discrete choice experiment with directional information manipulations," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sun, Zhanli & Xiong, Hang & Yi, Hongmei & Kuhn, Lena, 2026. "Digitalization of smallholder agriculture: Adoption and impacts," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 25(6), pages 2183-2187.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zheyi Zhu & Yuxin Chen & Ke Ning & Zengjin Liu, 2024. "Policy setting, heterogeneous scale, and willingness to adopt green production behavior: field evidence from cooperatives in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 1529-1555, January.
    2. Anastasio J. Villanueva & Jesús Barreiro-Hurlé & Macario Rodríguez-Entrena, 2025. "Impact of consequentiality in willingness to accept: evidence from a choice experiment with land managers," Agricultural and Food Economics, Springer;Italian Society of Agricultural Economics (SIDEA), vol. 13(1), pages 1-24, December.
    3. Wenjing Nie & David Abler & Liqun Zhu & Taiping Li & Guanghua Lin, 2018. "Consumer Preferences and Welfare Evaluation under Current Food Inspection Measures in China: Evidence from Real Experiment Choice of Rice Labels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-15, November.
    4. Kevin W. Maina & Martin C. Parlasca & Elizaphan J. O. Rao & Matin Qaim, 2024. "Farmer‐friendly delivery of veterinary services: Experimental insights from the Kenyan dairy sector," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(3), pages 829-846, September.
    5. Rombach, Meike & Widmar, Nicole Olynk & Byrd, Elizabeth & Bitsch, Vera, 2018. "Do all roses smell equally sweet? Willingness to pay for flower attributes in specialized retail settings by German consumers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 91-99.
    6. Wan Norhidayah W Mohamad & Ken Willis & Neil Powe, 2019. "The Status Quo In Discrete Choice Experiments: Is It Relevant?," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 65(02), pages 507-532, March.
    7. Wongprawmas, Rungsaran & Canavari, Maurizio, 2017. "Consumers’ willingness-to-pay for food safety labels in an emerging market: The case of fresh produce in Thailand," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 25-34.
    8. Lin Bai & Zhanguo Zhu & Tong Zhang, 2021. "How to Improve Food Quality in the Domestic Market: The Role of “Same Line Same Standard Same Quality”—Evidence from a Consumer Choice Experiment in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, May.
    9. Oyakhilomen Oyinbo & Jordan Chamberlin & Miet Maertens, 2020. "Design of Digital Agricultural Extension Tools: Perspectives from Extension Agents in Nigeria," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(3), pages 798-815, September.
    10. Bjørnåvold, Amalie & David, Maia & Bohan, David A. & Gibert, Caroline & Rousselle, Jean-Marc & Van Passel, Steven, 2022. "Why does France not meet its pesticide reduction targets? Farmers' socio-economic trade-offs when adopting agro-ecological practices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    11. Doherty, Edel & Campbell, Danny, 2011. "Demand for improved food safety and quality: a cross-regional comparison," 85th Annual Conference, April 18-20, 2011, Warwick University, Coventry, UK 108791, Agricultural Economics Society.
    12. Jianhua Wang & Jiaye Ge & Yuting Ma, 2018. "Urban Chinese Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Pork with Certified Labels: A Discrete Choice Experiment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-14, February.
    13. Tamaki Kitagawa & Kenichi Kashiwagi & Hiroko Isoda, 2020. "Effect of Religious and Cultural Information of Olive Oil on Consumer Behavior: Evidence from Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-17, January.
    14. Bernadeta Gołębiowska & Anna Bartczak & Mikołaj Czajkowski, 2020. "Energy Demand Management and Social Norms," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-20, July.
    15. Goedele Van den Broeck & Kaat Van Hoyweghen & Miet Maertens, 2016. "Employment Conditions in the Senegalese Horticultural Export Industry: A Worker Perspective," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 34(2), pages 301-319, March.
    16. Landmann, D. & Feil, J.-H. & Lagerkvist, C.J. & Otter, V., 2018. "Designing capacity development activities of small-scale farmers in developing countries based on discrete choice experiments," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277738, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Ihli, Hanna & Seegers, Ronja & Winter, Etti & Chiputwa, Brian & Gassner, Anja, 2021. "Preferences for Tree-Fruit Market Attributes Among Smallholder Farmers in Eastern Rwanda: A Discrete Choice Experiment," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 314980, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. Risius, Antje & Hamm, Ulrich, "undated". "Consumer segmentation based on attitudes - Does information change it all?," 2017 Annual Meeting, July 30-August 1, Chicago, Illinois 258328, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    19. Ana I. Sanjuán‐López & Helena Resano‐Ezcaray, 2020. "Labels for a Local Food Speciality Product: The Case of Saffron," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(3), pages 778-797, September.
    20. Maria Espinosa‐Goded & Jesús Barreiro‐Hurlé & Eric Ruto, 2010. "What Do Farmers Want From Agri‐Environmental Scheme Design? A Choice Experiment Approach," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 259-273, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:341032. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.