Abstract:

Based on the survey data of 542 peasant households, we utilized the exploratory factor analysis method to measure and judge the abilities of peasants to consumer agricultural information from the perspective of consumer behavior. Focusing on the twelve variables of four aspects (i.e. personality and family features, local information infrastructure, peasants’ perceptions of agricultural informatization, and performance of agriculture business), we used multinomial logit and ordered logit models to run regression analyses against the influencing factors of farmers’ agricultural information consumption capacities. The regression analyses identified eight key influencing factors: peasants’ perception of the importance of agricultural informatization, access to comprehensive information service, professionalization of the management of agriculture business, the highest level of education in a family, home address, average harvest, income of agriculture business, and the efficiency of irrigation systems.

Key words: Agricultural information consumption, Consumption behavior, Influencing factors, Exploratory factor analysis, Multi-class sorted Logit model, Gansu province, Agricultural informatization