Water Saving Technology in Chinese Rice Production - Evidence from Survey Data

Whereas water is an important input in rice production, China faces severe problems with increasing demand for water and limited water resources. In conventional paddy production, one of the most important irrigated crops, a significant amount of irrigation water is lost due to percolation and evaporation. Therefore, it exist a vivid research in water saving rice technologies. This paper analyzes the adoption of one of these water-saving rice production technologies, the so-called Ground CoverRice Production System (GCRPS), in the Hubei province. Based on farm survey data several factors which affect the adoption decision could be identified. The adoption decision is treated as a binary choice problem and therefore a probit model is used for the econometric analysis. The main determinants of the adoption decision are the number of previous adoptions, the membership in anextension service and the income of the household. Additionally, soil characteristics show a significantimpact on the probability of adoption.