Cultivating the heart, preserving the soil: A framework for the evolutionary game of conservation tillage technology...

Against the backdrop of climate change, population growth, and tightening resource constraints, soil degradation has emerged as an urgent global challenge that threatens both food security and ecosystem stability. Conservation tillage is widely regarded as an effective remedy. This study develops (1) a baseline evolutionary-game model and (2) an evolutionary-game framework situated on a Newman-Watts (NW) small-world network to examine the stability of farmers' strategic choices, the key actors involved, and the determinants of technology diffusion. Sensitivity analyses of the initial adoption rate, network rewiring probability, economic benefits, and additional costs reveal the dynamic characteristics of conservation-tillage diffusion across rural social networks of different sizes. Building on these insights, we propose a dynamic incentive-constraint mechanism that couples rewards and penalties to encourage widespread adoption while curbing traditional tillage. Results show that when the initial adoption rate reaches 0.5, the final adoption level can rise to 90 %. Moreover, moderate network rewiring, higher economic returns, and lower incremental costs markedly accelerate diffusion. Positive incentives prove more effective than punitive measures in raising adoption rates. Policy recommendations are offered accordingly. The study not only extends the application of complex-network and evolutionary-game theories to agricultural technology diffusion but also provides new perspectives and strategies for tackling global soil degradation, thereby contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of "Zero Hunger" and "Life on Land."