Can information increase farmers’ willingness to pay for digital agricultural technologies? A survey experiment on agricultural drones in rural China

Can information interventions increase farmers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for digital agricultural technologies, and do their effects vary by mode of access? We conduct a large-scale survey experiment across eight provinces in China, providing farmers with technical and market information about agricultural drones. The intervention significantly increases WTP by approximately 29% for drone services and 37% for direct investment, relative to their baseline levels. Mechanism analysis suggests that farmers’ improved cognition of technical characteristics exhibits an inverted-U relationship with service WTP but a positive relationship with investment WTP, whereas cognition of market conditions is positively associated with WTP for both modes. Using a saturation design, we identify a positive spillover effect on service WTP and a treatment-saturation effect consistent with social interaction: treated farmers in partially treated villages exhibit lower gains in service WTP than those in fully treated villages, with this pattern moderated by local adoption status. Importantly, while advantaged farmers exhibit larger WTP gains for direct investment, disadvantaged farmers (smallholders, elderly, less educated) respond more on the service margin, suggesting a potential pathway to address the digital divide. Illustrative projections based on stated WTP suggest possible increases in investment rates. These findings imply that extension programs should be tailored to local adoption conditions and facilitate service-based access for inclusive agricultural digitalization.