Drivers Of Pesticide Use Change And Allocation Scheme Of Responsibility For Pollution Control In China

Over the past two decades,the average annual pesticide use in China has exceeded1 million tons,accounting for approximately 40% of that in the world.The reduction of pesticide use is one of the key ways to control non-point source pollution in China.By 2020,pesticide use in China had been reduced for six consecutive years.The change of pesticide use is indirectly affected by the consumption of agricultural products.The growth in interregional trade has increased the consumption of agricultural products in distant regions,which could potentially promote the local agricultural production,leading to more pesticide inputs in the local agricultural production process and indirectly exacerbating the local pesticide pollution.Therefore,it is of great significance to identify the key socioeconomic factors affecting the change of pesticide use and analyze the characteristics of cross-regional transfer of pesticide pollution risk,which will be helpful to formulate effective pesticide reduction policies and assign responsibility for pollution control.Accordingly,the objects of this study are to(1)analyze the temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of pesticide use in production side and consumption side by using the Multi-Regional Input-Output model(MRIO)from 2012 to 2017,(2)identify the key socioeconomic drivers of pesticide use change from the perspective of production and consumption by Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index(LMDI)and Structural Decomposition Analysis(SDA)models,and(3)clarify the transfer characteristics of pesticide pollution risk and the responsibility of pesticide pollution control in different provinces and sectors.The results would provide a scientific basis for control of pesticide pollution from various provinces and sectors.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)From the perspective of production,there was obvious spatial heterogeneity of pesticide use and the influencing factors of pesticide use change were different in different provinces.From 2012 to 2017,the total amount of pesticides use in production decreased year by year in China,with the most obvious decrease in Hubei,Gansu and Shandong provinces.Pesticide use intensity effect,arable land occupation effect and industrial structure effect led to the decrease of pesticide use by 8.0%,19.4% and 19.0%respectively.On the contrary,per capita GDP and population effect led to the increase of pesticide use by 36.0% and 2.0%,respectively.In addition,the driving factors of pesticide use change were different in each province.From 2012 to 2017,the intensity effect of pesticide use led to the largest reduction in pesticide use in Shandong,Hubei and Anhui.The effect of arable land occupation led to a large decrease in pesticide use in Shandong,Hunan and Hubei.Due to the effect of industrial structure,Shandong,Anhui and Hunan had the largest reduction of pesticides in production side.The per capita GDP effect led to an increase in pesticide consumption in all provinces,while the population effect also led to a slight increase in pesticide consumption in most provinces.Therefore,from the perspective of production,it is necessary to improve the utilization efficiency of arable land,promote economic development,and improve pesticide use technology to promote pesticide reduction.(2)From the perspective of consumption,there are differences in pesticide use and the influencing factors of pesticide use change are different in each province.Provinces such as Shandong,Guangdong and Hubei had higher pesticide use,while Ningxia,Qinghai and Tibet had less one.From 2012 to 2017,the pesticide use in each province changed in consumption side.Pesticide use coefficient effect and production structure effect were the main factors leading to the decrease of pesticide use in China,leading to the decrease of pesticide use by 27.3% and 12.0%,respectively.On the contrary,rural resident consumption effect,urban resident consumption effect,other consumption effect and export effect were the main factors driving the increase of pesticide use in China,leading to the increase of pesticide use by 8.3%,9.2%,12.4%and 1.0%,respectively.In addition,there were differences in the driving factors for the change of pesticide use in consumption side in each province.From 2012 to 2017,the intensity effect of pesticide use led to a large decrease of pesticide use in Hubei,Shandong and Anhui.The production structure effect led to a large reduction of pesticide use in Henan,Hunan and Hebei.The consumption effect of rural residents led to a large increase in pesticide use in Guangdong,Henan and Guangxi.The consumption effect of urban residents led to a large increase in pesticide use in Hubei,Henan and Jiangsu.The export effect led to a large increase in the pesticide use in Jiangxi,Hunan and Anhui.Therefore,from the perspective of consumption,to promote pesticide reduction,the government should increase subsidies to green products,guide consumers to buy green products,adjust the trade structure,reduce the planting of highpollution crops,and establish a coordinated environmental regulation system of trade and environmental protection.(3)Driven by consumption,the risk of pesticide pollution transferred between provinces and sectors.From the perspective of provinces,agricultural developed provinces such as Hunan,Hubei,Henan and Anhui bore the risk of pesticide pollution in economically developed provinces such as Shanghai,Guangdong,Jiangsu,Beijing and Tianjin.From a sectoral perspective,the consumption of agricultural products in the non-agricultural sector led to an increase in pesticide use in the agricultural sector of 921 thousand tons in 2017,accounting for 61.39% of the total pesticide use.The food processing sector transferred a greater risk of pesticide pollution to the agricultural sector.The construction and catering sectors followed.Therefore,the government should consider the transfer of pesticide pollution risk in inter-provincial trade,and improve the efficiency and fairness of pesticide reduction policy.