The Impact of Information Acquisition Channels and Risk Preferences on Farmers’ Chemical Pesticide Reduction Behavior

Muhao Jin, Lei Xu and Chao Chen ()
Additional contact information
Muhao Jin: College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Lei Xu: School of Economics and Management, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, China
Chao Chen: College of Economics and Management, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 21, 1-23

Abstract: Farmers, as the primary decision makers in agricultural production, are crucial to ensuring food safety and ecological security through chemical pesticide reduction, thereby contributing to agricultural sustainability. While existing research has acknowledged the influence of information factors on farmers’ pesticide reduction behavior, there remains a lack of comprehensive consideration of multiple information acquisition channels. The differential impacts and underlying mechanisms among these channels require further exploration. This study focuses on cash crops with higher chemical pesticide usage, utilizing field survey data from 573 peach farmers across seven province-level regions (including provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities) in China in 2023 to assess the impact of information acquisition channels on farmers’ chemical pesticide reduction behavior. The results indicate the following: (1) Information acquisition channels significantly promote farmers’ implementation of chemical pesticide reduction behavior. (2) Information acquisition channels encourage the adoption of agricultural and biological control technologies, but have no significant impact on physical control technologies. (3) Information acquisition channels have a more substantial impact on older farmers and those in the eastern-central regions compared to other demographic groups. (4) Information acquisition channels alter farmers’ risk preferences, thereby facilitating chemical pesticide reduction behavior. Based on the above conclusions, government agencies should diversify information acquisition channels and enhance the dissemination of information related to chemical pesticide reduction. Furthermore, given the characteristics of different green control technologies, government agencies should select appropriate information acquisition channels to conduct targeted promotion and outreach to farmers.

Keywords: information acquisition channels; chemical pesticide reduction behavior; risk preferences; green control technology; peach farmer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/21/2226/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/21/2226/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:21:p:2226-:d:1779413

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().