Gap between Willingness and Behaviors: Understanding the Consistency of Farmers’ Green Production in Hainan, China

Abstract

The green transformation of production modes plays an essential role in the sustainable development of China’s agriculture and the modernization process, but there is often a deviation between farmers’ behavior and their willingness regarding green production. This paper analyzed the factors influencing the deviation of farmers’ green production behaviors from their willingness, along with their hierarchical logic structure, using the ordered logit model and ISM model with field survey data of 436 households in Hainan Province. The results show that: (1) there are deviations between farmers’ green production behavior and willingness; (2) age, number of dependents, peer influence, and social networks aggravate farmers’ green production behavior–willingness deviation, while ethnicity, education, land fragmentation, agricultural expenditure, land transfer, neighborhood learning, and green production cognition mitigate the deviation; (3) among the significant influencing factors, farmers’ perceptions of green production, peer influence, land transfer, and agricultural expenditure are the direct surface factors, while neighborhood learning, land fragmentation, and number of dependents are the middle indirect factors, and farmers’ education, social networks, age, and ethnicity are the deep-rooted factors. This study sheds more light and detail on the understanding of the factors influencing farmers’ green production behavior–willingness deviation, and provides more practical and relevant guidance for the agricultural green development in tropical China.

Assessment of the Coupling Degree between Agricultural Modernization and the Coordinated Development of Black Soil Protection and Utilization: A Case Study of Heilongjiang Province

“…The second category encompasses factors affecting agricultural modernization, including studies on institutional guarantees and new technologies [19]. Qiao [20] suggests that the green transformation of production methods plays a vital role in China's sustainable agricultural development and modernization processes. The third category centers on the development paths of agricultural modernization.…”

Impact Effects of Cooperative Participation on the Adoption Behavior of Green Production Technologies by Cotton Farmers and the Driving Mechanisms

“…With such a driving mechanism, cooperatives become an important production organization for smallholder farmers because they provide a solid foundation for their agricultural production technologies and encourage farmers to utilize advanced technologies and share their experiences, such as the use of superior seed varieties and water-saving irrigation systems, the scientific use of fertilizers, and the adoption of environmentally friendly technologies, which broadens the scope of farmers' choices for the implementation of AGPTs and contributes to the development of sustainable agriculture [16]. Second, cooperatives enable farmers to engage in green production through education and training [17]. In recent years, in order to realize the organic connection between farmers and the development of modern agriculture, the rapid development of cooperatives and other new agricultural management subjects has been promoted, which in turn allows cooperatives to carry out training and guidance, information exchange, and other services on the basis of multiple advantages such as industry, talent, economy, and resources [18][19][20].…”

“…Enhancing green production cognition is crucial for farmers to acquire knowledge about new technologies, and from cooperatives, farmers can have a deeper understanding and awareness of the value of organic fertilizers and biopesticides, which will influence farmers' decision to adopt AGPTs [33]. However, there are fewer empirical studies on green perceptions of the adoption of AGPTs by farmers [17], and more academic attention is currently focused on the area of risk perception [20,34]. The effect of green perceptions on the adoption of AGPTs may also be different among farmers who participate or do not participate in cooperatives.…”

“…This paper mainly contributes in the following three aspects: first, based on the consideration of the heterogeneity of production segments, propensity score matching is used to assess the effect of farmers' participation in cooperatives on cotton farmers' AGPT adoption behavior. The previous literature mostly takes a single technology as an example, and there is a lack of further discussion on the differences in technology promotion effects of cooperatives due to the heterogeneity of production segments [15,17,26]. Considering the technology diffusion function of cooperatives, it is necessary to focus on analyzing the influence of cooperatives on the adoption behavior of AGPTs by cotton farmers.…”

Analysis of Influencing Factors and Mechanism of Farmers’ Green Production Behaviors in China

“…Numerous studies have been conducted on the factors that contribute to farmers' adoption of environmentally friendly production practices, but not enough has been done to understand how small-and medium-sized farmers actually behave in this way. Farmers' knowledge of green production, environmental risks, clean and safe production, green production policies, and economic and social benefits is a significant contributor to their green production behaviors [5][6][7][8]. Government rules, social standards and environmental laws can all motivate farmers to adopt green production behaviors [9,10].…”