An Research On Moral Risk Prevention Of Farmers In The Safe Production Of Agricultural Products In China

Food safety has gained an increasing worldwide attention, and "Farm to table" isa notion of food safety management generally taken by the current nation. As thestarting point of the food chain, the quality and safety conditions of agriculturalproducts determine those of food. As a direct producer, Farmers’ production decisionsand activities directly relate to the quality and safety of agricultural products.Therefore, the study of moral risk of farmers in agricultural safe production hasimportant practical significance for improving the quality and safety of agriculturalproducts. The details of the paper include the following six parts:The first, it introduces the background and significance of research in the moralrisk of farmers in agricultural safe production; A review and comment on literaturesfrom three angles of farmer behaviors, agricultural organizations, and governmentregulation; And data sources, research methods and technologies routes, on the basisof which, defects and possible innovation of paper being discussed.The second, the Lemon market theory, the principal-agent theory, externalitytheory, the theory of government regulation and theory of farmers’ behavior areintroduced to help analyze the influence mechanism of bodies like farmers, markets,government on agricultural product safety; this paper relates to connotations of food,agricultural products, food safety, agricultural products safety, safety of agriculturalproducts production, and moral risk.Then objectively summing up China’s achievements made in the safety ofagricultural products on the production and management, and taking "poisonouscowpea and poisonous leeks” events as an example, the real problem is analyzed. Andtaking Enshi City of Hubei Province as example, and using empirical researchmethods, it analyzes the impact of individual characteristics of farmers from thefarmers point of view, household characteristics, production characteristics and farmerawareness on farmers’ moral risk behavior; Through summary of case studies and experience, it analyzes agricultural enterprises’ and government’s roles in the controlof farmers moral risk.At last, through summarizing the measures of the United States and Japan in themanagement of safety of agricultural products and reducing farmers’ moral risk, itprovides useful lessons for China. And countermeasures and suggestions are given inthe aspects of laws and regulations, regulatory functions, market access, traceablequality information, and education of farmers and agriculture organization.Through combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis, taking thevegetable industry in Enshi City as an example, and analysis of local farmers andagricultural enterprises, this article has worked out the following results:(1) moralrisk of farmers in agricultural safe production bears a comprehensive influence ofindividuals characteristics of farmers (gender, age, educational level), familycharacteristics (population, the proportion of vegetable cultivation, proportion ofvegetable revenue), the environmental characteristics of production (the degree oforganization, technology accessibility, government supervision) and farmers’awareness on safe production and other; gender, family size, proportion of vegetablerevenue, the degree of organization, technical guidance, training of production safetyawareness and government supervision impact on farmers’ moral risk significantly.(2)agricultural enterprises, through the organization of decentralized production offarmers and farmers’ signing an agreement by the organization responsible forprenatal, delivery and postnatal services and guidance, increasing the supply of safeagricultural technologies the management of the production process, anddemonstrating farmers responsibility on violation of safety production standards,improves the quality of agricultural products.(3) Government, as an important factorto affect the organization of agricultural production and farmers act of production, caneffectively reduce the farmers moral risk and protect the safety of agriculturalproducts production, through strengthening supervision, promoting standardization ofproduction and agriculture organization.Therefore, government is an inseparable key role in fighting against the farmersmoral risk and improve safety and quality of agricultural products in China. Based on field research results, and a combination with the experience of the United States andJapan, suggestions are to improve laws and regulations to rationalize the regulatoryregime, to improve the market access system, to build traceable quality informationsystem, to strengthen of farmers’ education, to support the development of agriculturalproduction organization, and to set up farmers moral risk prevention mechanism. Insuch a way, we can improve the level of safety in production of agricultural productsin China.