Objective Targeted promotion policies based on farmer preferences were developed to improve the adoption rate of soil and water conservation technologies, in order to provide a scientific basis for controlling soil erosion, safeguarding agricultural resources, and ensuring sustainable development. Methods Based on survey data from 748 maize-farming households in typical and representative watershed areas severely affected by soil erosion in Shaanxi Province, the adoption of soil and water conservation technologies was regarded as a key measure for participating in governance. The choice experiment method and mixed Logit model were employed to examine policy preferences and sources of heterogeneity. Results All incentive policies aligned with farmer preferences, enhancing the utility of adopting soil and water conservation technologies and promoting participation in governance. The preference ranking was: technical guidance > cash subsidies > outsourcing services > yield insurance > risk information. Heterogeneity analysis revealed that, at the farmer level, in terms of scale, yield insurance and other measures were more effective for large-scale farmers, while cash subsidies had a more pronounced effect on small-scale farmers. Regarding participation, it was influenced by individual characteristics (e.g., gender, party membership), household characteristics (e.g., household size, cooperatives, leading enterprises), and operational characteristics (e.g., planting years, number of plots). At the policy level, policy combinations exhibited nonlinear interactions. Cash subsidies and yield insurance demonstrated substitution effects, while cash subsidies, technical guidance, and risk information exhibited synergistic effects. Outsourcing services had substitution effects with risk information and synergistic complementarity with technical guidance. Based on this, an integrated promotion system was constructed to improve the implementation effectiveness of soil and water conservation technologies through systematic configuration of policy instruments. Conclusion Governments need to establish a multidimensional incentive system, implement heterogeneous interventions, accelerate the development of agricultural land transfer platforms, and strengthen policy synergy. Additionally, a trinity non-technical participation pathway for soil and water conservation of ‘institutional embeddedness-community collaboration-market incentives’ should be constructed to overcome participation challenges.
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