In this paper, we comprehensively assess the differences in soil and water conservation tillage technology among different districts: Fenyang and Ji county of Shanxi province, Ansai and Jingbian county of Shaanxi province, and Zhenyuan and Jingchuan county in Gansu province. We use survey data of 1237 rural households of the Loess Plateau on their adoption of the core technology of soil and water conservation tillage (e.g., contour tillage, groove ridge planting, moderate or non-tillage, subsoiling, straw plowing, stubble mulching, plastic film covering). We use the bootstrap test to analyze peasant household horizontal and vertical differentiation directly impacting on soil and water conservation tillage technology adoption. Next, we test risk perception as the mediation role for technology adoption. Finally, we analyze the moderating effect of government subsidies, and government subsidy can compensate for possible risk losses and encourage farmers to adopt soil and water conservation tillage technology. The results are showed the following: (1) The horizontal and vertical differentiation of farmers have a significant positive impact on the adoption of soil and water conservation tillage technology. (2) In the context of horizontal differentiation, risk perception has a positive mediating effect on the adoption of contour tillage, groove ridge planting, moderate or non-tillage, straw plowing, and plastic film covering technology; in the adoption of subsoiling technology, the mediating effect of risk perception differs because of the size of the government subsidies; in the adoption of stubble mulching technology, the mediating effect of risk perception is not significant. In the context of vertical differentiation, risk perception has a positive mediating effect in the adoption of contour tillage, groove ridge planting and straw plowing; and in the adoption of moderate or non-tillage, subsoiling, and stubble mulching, the mediating effect of risk perception is not significant. (3) In the context of horizontal differentiation, the moderating effect of government subsidies is not significant in the adoption of contour tillage, moderate or non-tillage, straw plowing, and plastic film covering; the moderating effect of government subsidies is significant in the adoption of groove ridge planting and subsoiling. In the context of vertical differentiation, the moderating effect of a government subsidies is not significant in the adoption of contour tillage, groove ridge planting, and straw plowing technology; the moderating effect of a government subsidies is significant in the application of plastic film covering technology. •Influence of peasant household differentiation on technology adoption is studied.•Impact of career differentiation and income differentiation are considered.•Risk perception plays a mediating role on technology adoption.•Government subsidies play a moderating role on adoption behavior.