How Agricultural Industry Organizations’ Support Influences Farmers’ Sustained Adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Technologies: The Mediating Role of Government Regulation Perception

Sustainable agricultural technologies (SATs) are essential for improving agricultural sustainability, yet their sustained adoption among smallholder farmers remains challenging. Agricultural industry organizations (AIOs), including cooperatives and agribusiness enterprises, may complement government interventions by providing various forms of support. However, limited studies have examined how AIO support and government regulation jointly influence farmers’ sustained SAT adoption. Based on survey data from 484 kiwifruit farmers in Shaanxi Province, China, this study investigates the effect of AIO support on the sustained adoption of three SATs, namely soil testing and formulated fertilization (STFF), drip irrigation (DI), and orchard grass cover (OGC), using Probit models and the KHB mediation method. The results show that AIO support is positively associated with farmers’ sustained SAT adoption. Furthermore, AIO support is linked to adoption through its enhancement of farmers‘ perceptions of binding, incentive, and guiding regulations, with guiding regulation perception showing the strongest mediating effect. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that incentive support plays a more important role in STFF and DI adoption, guiding support has a stronger effect on OGC adoption, and market-oriented entities show a greater promoting effect on OGC adoption than collaborative-oriented entities. These findings highlight the role of AIO support in promoting sustained SAT adoption and provide evidence for designing targeted strategies.