Farmers' behavior toward pesticide input based on the reduction target: Micro-data of grain farmers from seven provinces

Excessive pesticide input is a common problem of agricultural production in China. The reduction of pesticide input is important for promoting green and sustainable agricultural development. Farmers are the main micro-decision-making bodies for pesticide inputs; therefore, theoretical and empirical research was conducted on farmers' behavior regarding pesticide input. This study examined the important factors finely through analyzing internal mechanism of farmers' pesticide input behavior, such as production, operation, and the external environment, which were not considered in the prior researches. Based on the household survey data of 746 grain farmers from seven provinces of China, the generalized ordered Logit model was used to empirically analyze the effects of individual and family factors, production factors, and external environmental factors on farmers' behavior toward pesticide input. This study compensated for the shortcomings of the traditional ordinary least squares (OLS) model or the binomial Logit model estimation method and highlighted the impact direction and degree of each factor on farmers' pesticide input behavior. The results showed that 1) from the perspective of impact direction, education level, sown area of grain, land concentration, land tenure, pesticide input cost, agricultural technology training, and agricultural production insurance had significant negative effects on pesticide input intensity. Farmers' age, grain income proportion, and production motivation had significant positive effects on the pesticide input intensity. These results suggest that younger age, a higher education level, greater sown area of grain, higher land concentration, better land tenure, lower grain income proportion, production for self-sufficiency, lower pesticide input cost, participation in agricultural technology training, and agricultural production insurance were associated with a lower likelihood of pesticide input. 2) From the perspective of impact degree, agricultural technical training, agricultural production insurance, grain income proportion, education level, land concentration, land tenure, and production motivation had greater effects on pesticide input intensity, whereas the effects of sown area of grain, farmer's age, and pesticide input cost were weaker. To encourage farmers to reduce pesticide input, the government should introduce measures to stimulate the endogenous power of farmers' safe production and create supportive external conditions.