The Deviation of the Behaviors of Rice Farmers from Their Stated Willingness to Apply Biopesticides—A Study Carried Out in Jilin Province of China

Hongpeng Guo, Fanhui Sun, Chulin Pan, Baiming Yang and Yin Li
Additional contact information
Hongpeng Guo: College of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Jilin University, 5988 Renmin Street, Changchun 130022, China
Fanhui Sun: College of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Jilin University, 5988 Renmin Street, Changchun 130022, China
Chulin Pan: College of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Jilin University, 5988 Renmin Street, Changchun 130022, China
Baiming Yang: Changchun Guoxin Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd., Shuangyang District, Changchun 130600, China
Yin Li: Changchun Guoxin Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd., Shuangyang District, Changchun 130600, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-17

Abstract: The substitution of chemical pesticides by biopesticides is crucial to ensure the quality of agricultural products and to foster environmental sustainability. This study takes the willingness and the behaviors of rice farmers on the application of biopesticides as the research object. The survey questionnaire was designed based on the theory of rational small-scale farmers from three aspects: “individual and family characteristics of farmers”, “cognition of farmers” and “external factors”. The survey was then conducted on 163 rice farmers in seven prefecture-level cities in Jilin Province of China. The logistic model was used to analyze the influencing factors resulting in the deviation of the behaviors of the rice farmers from their initial willingness on the application of biopesticides. The explanatory structure model (ISM) was used to analyze the logical hierarchical relationship among various influencing factors. The results show that: (1) For 45% of the farmers surveyed, there’s a deviation between their willingness and behaviors regarding the application of biopesticides; (2) Among the significant factors leading to the deviation between farmers’ willingness and behaviors concerning the application of biopesticides, the surface-level direct factor is biopesticide awareness. The mid-level indirect factors are agricultural product quality and safety awareness and the deep-level root cause is farmers’ education level. (3) The primary reason for the deviation of the farmers’ behaviors from their willingness is their lack of knowledge about biopesticides and the biopesticides’ incomplete market structure. Based on the comprehensive analysis, it is recommended to improve the professionalization of the farmers, to strengthen the publicity of green production and to accelerate the formulation of the biopesticides market to further promote the usage of biopesticides.

Keywords: biopesticides; rice; application willingness; application behaviors; behaviors deviate from willingness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/6026/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/11/6026/ (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:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:11:p:6026-:d:568386

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

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