Farmers' Willingness to Adopt Maize-Soybean Rotation Based on the Extended Theory of Planned Behavior: Evidence from Northeast China

CONTEXT: For decades, maize monoculture practices dominated Northeast China, causing significant damage to the local soil and ecological environment. Crop rotation has in recent years been promoted as an environmentally friendly and sustainable technology in China. Despite its numerous benefit for environment and crop productivity, farmers’ willingness to adopt crop rotation remains low. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to investigate the social-psychological factors influencing farmers’ intentions to adopt maize–soybean rotation, with the goal of informing strategies for promoting sustainable agricultural practices. METHODS：Based on a farm-level survey of 298 rural households in Northeast China, this study integrates value orientation into the Theory of Planned Behavior and employs structural equation modeling to investigate the social-psychological factors that affect farmers' willingness to adopt soybean-based rotation. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirm the applicability of the extended Theory of Planned Behavior in explaining farmers’ decision-making. Farmers’ attitudes (0.384) and perceived behavioral control (0.323) had significant positive effects on adoption intentions, whereas subjective norms (0.018) were not significant. More favorable attitudes and greater perceived behavioral control, reflecting higher risk tolerance and better access to external support, promoted adoption. Value orientations strongly shaped farmers’ attitudes: altruism (0.148) and biospheric values (0.180) had positive effects, while egoism (0.044) showed no significant impact. These results offer guidance for policymakers to design targeted interventions promoting sustainable crop rotation. SIGNIFICANCE: These results can help policy makers better understand what factors influence farmers' adoption of rotation and what targeted measures can be taken to popularize the improved agricultural system. To foster farmers' adoption of rotation, it is important to go beyond traditional supporting policies, but to leverage innovative approaches to promote value orientation on sustainable farming practices