The Agriculture Product Quality Certification Behaviour Of The New Type Operators In China’s Agriculture Sector

Standards certification has been the key tools of agri-food quality and safety management in developed countries, agriculture standardization also has became the critical instrument in the enhancement of the quality and safety of agricultural products in China, prevention and improvement of agricultural non-point source pollution, and carrying out the reform of agricultural supply side. But the standardization of agriculture which promoted by the theoretical circle and the government, is difficult to play its proper role due to the defective market mechanism in China. In this paper, referring to the double deck system model of food quality and safety management, we develop an analysis framework to analyze the internal and external environmental pressure, which confronted by the new type operators of agriculture in the the implementation of the quality and safety certification; Exploring the new type operators’motive mechanism behind the behavior of the the quality and safety certification, and trying to re-position and developing the market-based incentive mechanism in China’s agriculture product quality and safety management. On the basis of the survey data of 1261 new type operators from 55 counties in zhejiang province, this study used technology organization environment (TOE) model which explains organization technology adoption behavior, took into account the measurement to the internal and external environmental pressure of the new type operators, and analyzed the quality and safety certification implementation decisions, choice decisions of the quality and safety certification standards, and overlap certification decision-making behavior; using the technology acceptance model (TAM) which interprets technology acceptance behavior of individuals within organizations, analyzed the effect of productive service which provided by the new type operators on the quality and safety certification implementation behavior; after that, using mean value analysis and binary logistic regression, tested the influence of different type of certification to operators’ performance. The research found that:First, the decision-making behavior of the new type operators in the quality and safety certification mainly drove by the internal motivation and external market incentives, as well as constrained by the market barriers; and influenced by the operators’ individual and market structure characteristics. On the decision-making process in choice of quality and safety certification standard, comparative to the Hazard-free agricultural products certification, the choice of management system certification hampered by the standard features; Green food certification influenced by government regulation and market barriers; and organic food certification obviously drove by market incentives. Operators’ overlap certification behavior clearly drove by operators’ internal motivation, but hindered by standard features and human resource limitation.Second, the provision of technology standards and norms, unified in-put procurement and testing services ensured the enforcement of the quality and safety standards certification of the new type operators. Relative to the Hazard-free agricultural products certification, testing services has significant positive influence on the implementation of green food certification; but for the realization of the management system certification, training and guidance service is more important. Unified agricultural products sales, protective price acquisition, training and coaching services significantly negative influence on the realization of the green food certification, which reversely proved that these three kinds of productive service have positive effect on the implementation of Hazard-free agricultural products certification.Third, comparative to the quality and safety certification, the no certification standardization can significantly improve the benefit of the operators, which shows that the economic performance of the quality and safety certification is not obvious; although the quality and safety certification may increase the operating cost, but also can significantly improve the product image, enhance the market competitiveness, and relatively increase the price.In order to promote the implementation of the quality and safety certification, there is need to strengthen market incentives, ease the market barriers and optimize of China’s "green box" agriculture policy.Only taking great advantage of the market’s dominant position in the agricultural products quality and safety certification, under the shield of the government in market order maintenance and the public service providing, the long-term mechanism of agricultural product quality and safety management can be established basing on the agricultural products quality and safety certification system, depend on which to ease and remedy the agricultural non-point source pollution, implement the reform of agriculture supply side, and meet the needs of the people for food safety.