Market Returns, External Pressure, and Safe Pesticide Practice—Moderation Role of Information Acquisition

Jianhua Wang, Yuanyuan Deng and Hanyu Diao
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Jianhua Wang: School of Business, Jiangnan University, Lihudadao 1800, Wuxi 214122, China
Yuanyuan Deng: College of Economics and Management, China agricultural university, Tsing Hua East Road 17, Beijing 100083, China
Hanyu Diao: School of Business, Jiangnan University, Lihudadao 1800, Wuxi 214122, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 9, 1-16

Abstract: The main objective of this study is to examine how market returns and external pressure influence farmers’ standardized pesticide application and to investigate the moderating role of information acquisition. Data were collected from 986 farmers following a multi-stage sampling method from five major agricultural provinces in China. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test the hypothesis. The results show that market returns and information acquisition of pesticide application had a significant and positive influence on standardized pesticide application. Also, interaction effects were found between acquisition of policy information and market returns, and also between acquisition of pesticide application information and external pressure. The policy implication is that the improvement of market returns of safe agricultural products is a potential way to improve farmers’ pesticide usage behaviors. Policy information and pesticide application information should be widely provided to farmers in order to facilitate the transition to standardized pesticide application.

Keywords: farmers’ behavior; pesticide use; information; hierarchical regression analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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