Does it matter who spreads and to which farmers? The influence of video extension on Chinese farmers’ green control technology adoption behavior

Most of the existing researches focus on the role of video teaching in traditional technology extension in farmers’ technology adoption behavior. However, there is a lack of special exploration and heterogeneity analysis for video extension in the new media. This study analyses the impact of video extension on farmers’ green control technology (GCT) adoption based on questionnaire data of 761 households in Henan and Hubei provinces. By distinguishing between video senders and video receivers, we further explain the effect mechanism of video extension on farmers’ GCT adoption behavior. Our results indicate that, first, video extension can significantly promote the adoption of GCT by farmers. After solving the endogeneity problem and testing the robustness, the above conclusion is still valid. Second, heterogeneity analysis based on the perspective of video senders shows that farmers’ GCT adoption behavior is more likely affected by the video extension from government organizations compared with market organizations and informal organizations. Government video extension raises farmers’ media trust, which encourages farmers to adopt GCT. Third, heterogeneity analysis based on the perspective of video receivers shows that information utilization ability can positively regulate the positive impact of video extension on farmers’ GCT adoption. Specifically, the promotion effect of video extension on GCT is greater for farmers with stronger information utilization ability. This effect is also stronger on farmers with higher levels of education.