Market participation, off-farm employment and adoption behavior of agricultural machinery: A case study of 532 highland barley farmers in Tibet

Agricultural mechanization is an important driving force for the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, while farmers’ adoption behavior of agricultural machinery determines the level of agricultural mechanization. Based on the survey data of highland barley planting farmers in Tibet, this paper analyses the relationship among market participation, off-farm employment, and farmers’ adoption behavior of agricultural machinery from the perspective of income effect and substitution effect by a Multivariate Ordered Probit model. Results show that, 32.89% of highland barley planting farmers are non-mechanized, and agricultural machinery used by farmers in underdeveloped areas is insufficient. Market participation and off-farm employment have a significant positive influence on farmers’ adoption behavior of agricultural machinery, and off-farm employment has a positive moderating effect between market participation and adoption behavior of agricultural machinery. Improving farmers’ ability and behavior of market participation can directly affect farmers’ adoption behavior of agricultural machinery, and it can also indirectly affect farmers’ adoption behavior of agricultural machinery by off-farm employment. Therefore, this paper suggests to improve the degree of market participation, to promote the off-farm employment of farmers, to develop the rural market economy, to consummate the agricultural machinery service market, and to improve the level of agricultural mechanization in underdeveloped areas.