The role of internet information in farmers’ climate change adaptation: evidence from Jianghan Plain, China

Based on survey data from 1,361 farmers in the Jianghan Plain of China, this study uses the endogenous switching Probit model to examine the impact of Internet access to agricultural information on farmers’ adoption of organic fertilizer technology in response to climate change. The results suggest that accessing agricultural Internet information significantly enhances farmers’ likelihood of using organic fertilizers. In the counterfactual framework, agricultural Internet information raises the probability of Internet-use farmers’ adoption by 17.8 percentage points. Besides, the Internet facilitates farmers’ adoption by enhancing their perceptions of climate change, expanding access to information and enriching social interactions. Moreover, the Internet plays a more significant role among farmers with lower education and larger scale, compared to those with higher education and smaller scale. The government should improve Internet infrastructure, establish effective agricultural information delivery systems and foster climate-smart social networks, to promote the integration of digital infrastructure with climate adaptation.