Risk、Information Sources And Farmers’ Pesticide Use Behavior

China is the largest producer,consumer and user of pesticides in the world,and the use of pesticides has increased rapidly in recent years.The intensity of pesticide application in 2017 was 9.95 kilos per hectare,which is 3.75 times larger than the world average and 1.95 times higher than the amounts applied in 1991 in China.As an important means of agricultural production,the use of pesticides has played an important role in improving our country’s grain production.China can recover 54 million tons of grain loss every year through pesticide control.But at the same time,China is also facing serious environmental,health and food safety problems caused by unreasonable use of pesticides.According to statistics,of the pesticide use in China,only about 1/3 can be absorbed by crops,and most of the rest go into water,soil and agricultural products.The area of crops polluted by pesticide residues in China amounts to 1.2 billion mu every year.The unreasonable use of pesticides has also polluted drinking water in some rural areas,seriously threatening the health of farmers.Farmers are not only the main body of agricultural production,but also the decision-makers of pesticide use,and their pesticide use behavior is the key to alleviate the problem of unreasonable use of pesticides from the source.In order to standardize the pesticide use behavior of farmers,our government has taken a series of control measures.However,despite the introduction of a large number of policies,the pesticide use of farmers in China has always been much higher than the world average.The negative impact events caused by farmers’ unreasonable use of pesticides still emerge one after another.Previous studies have shown that risk and information sources play an important role in farmers’ pesticide use behavior decision-making.Risk includes risk attitude and risk perception.Information sources include public agricultural extension agents,pesticide retailers,peer farmers and their own experience.Based on the microcosmic survey data of rice growers in seven provinces,this paper empirically analyzes how risks and information sources affect farmers’ pesticide use behavior,it has important practical significance for how to guide farmers to apply pesticides scientifically byimproving farmers’ risk perception and standardizing information sources so as to promote the sustainable development of agriculture.Specifically,this paper first uses the moderation analysis model and mediation analysis model to analyze the influence of risk attitude and risk perception on pesticide use behavior,and to test whether risk perception plays a regulatory and intermediary role in the relationship between risk attitude and pesticide use behavior,in order to reveal the relationship between risk aversion,risk perception and pesticide use behavior and the internal mechanism of intermediate transformation path.Secondly,using the newly developed multiple endogenous transformation models,after correcting the selection bias caused by observable and unobservable factors,this paper analyzes the effects and differences of different information sources such as public agricultural extension agents,pesticide retailers,peer farmers and farmers’ own experience on farmers’ pesticide use behavior,in order to provide practical significance and theoretical value for government pesticide reduction work.The conclusions of this paper are as follows:First,Farmers’ risk aversion increases their pesticide expenditure,that is,risk-averse farmers are more likely to use more pesticide.Farmers’ perceptions of risk to profit-maximizing factors,namely the perception of risks to food quality and human health associated with pesticides,can decrease their pesticide expenditure,while the perception of environmental risks,namely the perception of risk in terms of soil degradation,water pollution,and air pollution,is not significantly associated with pesticide expenditure.The perception of risks to food quality and human health has a moderating and partial mediating effect on the relationship between risk attitude and pesticide application behavior.Second,there are differences in the impact of different information sources on pesticide use behavior.Compared with own experience,public agricultural extension agents significantly increase pesticide expenditure,while pesticide sellers and peer farmers significantly decrease pesticide expenditure,and the greatest reduction is obtained from pesticide sellers.Specifically,farmers that getting information from public agricultural extension agents will increase their pesticide expenditure by 8.7% if they choose to get information based on their own experience.However,farmers thatobtaining information from pesticide sellers and peer farmers will decrease their pesticide expenditure by 19.0% and 10.1% if they choose to obtain information from their own experience.