Farmers' Pro-environmental Behavior Of Grain Production In Grain Major Producing Areas

Food security has always been a major and important strategic issue concerning China's national economic development and social stability.The main grain producing areas are the mainstay of China's grain production and the main stone for ensuring national food security.In the past four decades,Chinese agriculture has made great achievements,but with the continuous growth of population and the advancement of urbanization and industrialization,the contradiction between agricultural economy and environment has become increasingly prominent.Agricultural non-point source pollution of main grain producing areas is particularly prominent.Severe agricultural non-point source pollution will directly affect the quality of rural ecological environment and food,and thus threaten the health and safety of urban and rural residents.Farmers are the mainstay of grain production and the main body of environmentally friendly agriculture.Farmers' implementation of reduction,reuse,and low-pollution environmental behavior in grain production is the key to curbing agricultural pollution from source and achieving sustainable development.It is also an inevitable choice to improve the quality of farmland to ensure the comprehensive production capacity of grain and achieve food security.Based on the researches on farmers' pro-environmental behavior of farmers at home and abroad,according to the theory of planned behavior,value-belief-norm theory,farmer behavior theory and farmer's pro-environmental behavior performance evaluation theory and using the survey data of farmers in three grain-producing counties in Shandong province,this paper summarizes current situation and problems of farmers' pro-environmental behavior in irrigation link,fertilizer application link,pesticide application link and straw treatment link of the grain production,explores the intrinsic mechanism of farmers' pro-environmental behavioral intention in grain production from the perspective of overall and sub-links;identifies the mechanism of off-farm employment and farm size on farmers' pro-environmental behavior at household-level and plot-level in the context of land transfer;investigates the effect of farmers' pro-environmental behavior on the unit yield and unit net income of crops in different links of grain production from the perspectives of yield effect and cost-benefit,and then evaluates the performance of farmers' pro-environmental behavior in order to provide scientific guidance for government to encourage farmers to choose pro-environmental behavior and promote the sustainable development of agriculture in China.The mainly conclusions are as follows:(1)In general,farmers' pro-environmental enthusiasm in grain production in the main grain-producing areas is not so high,the application of water-saving irrigation is not sufficient,the problems of excessive application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are serious,and directly burning crop straws still exists.In four links,farmers' pro-environmental behavioral intentions in straw treatment link and irrigation link are relatively high,while in fertilizer application link and pesticide application link are relatively low.(2)There is only one path for value perception to inhibit farmers' overall pro-environmental behavioral intention: value perception ? responsibility attribution ?behavioral intention.There are three paths for value perception to promote farmers' overall pro-environmental behavioral intention: value perception ? subjective norm ? behavioral intention;value perception ? subjective norm ? responsibility attribution ? behavioral intention;value perception ? perceptual behavior control ? behavioral intention.In fertilizer application link,the effect of value perception on the farmer's fertilizer reduction or moderate application intention is consistent with the overall,while in the other links there are subtle differences in the above impact paths.(3)Off-farm employment of rural labor has a significant negative population effect and a significant positive income effect on farmers' overall implementation of pro-environmental behavior for wheat and maize.In terms of sub-links,the effects of the off-farm employment of rural labor on farmers' pro-environmental behavior for wheat and maize are consistent with overall,while the effect in straw treatment link is reversed.(4)Regarding to the impact of farm size on farmers' pro-environmental behavior in grain production,at the household-level,there is a relatively stable “U” between the household farm size and farmers' overall pro-environmental behavior for wheat and maize.At the plot-level,only in straw treatment link,there is a stable inverted “U” relationship between plot size and farmers' pro-environmental behavior for wheat and maize.Forrented-in plot,there are stable “U” relationship between plot size and pro-environmental behavior for wheat and maize in fertilizer application link and pesticide application link;for contracted plot,there is a stable inverted “U” relationship between plot size and pro-environmental behavior for wheat and maize in the straw treatment link.(5)At the household-level,farmers' pro-environmental behavior has a positive effect on the unit yield and unit net income of wheat and maize.From different links,in irrigation link,farmers' pro-environmental behavior can significantly promote maize unit yield and unit net income;in straw treatment link,farmers' pro-environmental behavior has a significant positive effect on maize unit yield;while in other links the effects are not significant.At the plot-level,farmers' overall pro-environmental behavior only significantly promotes maize unit yield.From different links,only in irrigation link and straw treatment link,farmers' pro-environmental behavior have significant effects on unit yield and unit net income of wheat and maize.While in fertilizer and pesticide application links,farmers' pro-environmental behavior has a significantly negative effect on wheat unit yield,but not significant effect on its unit net income.