Factors affecting Chinese farmers' environment-friendly pesticide application behavior: A meta-analysis

Excessive chemical pesticide application in China has caused serious agriculture environmental pollution in the country. To address this, understanding farmers' environment-friendly pesticide application behavior (FEPAB) is important. However, the divergence in findings of different empirical studies is a major challenge for forming appropriate policies. Using a meta-analysis of 67 empirical studies, this study quantitatively synthesizes the existing research and explores the key factors affecting FEPAB in China and how the influence of different factors on FEPAB changes over time. The results show that: (1) Pesticide application knowledge has the strongest promoting effect on FEPAB, followed by pesticide residue awareness, government subsidies, production safety awareness, environmental pollution awareness, and family income. Meanwhile, Green pesticide price has the strongest inhibiting effect on FEPAB, followed by risk attitude, government publicity and education, household size, land fragmentation, farm income ratio, farm size, and health. (2) The effects of family income, environmental pollution awareness, and pesticide residue awareness on FEPAB strengthen over time. Thus, FEPAB can be promoted by publicizing the application of environment-friendly pesticides, improving farmers' awareness about environmental pollution and the negative impacts of pesticide residues, diversifying farmers' income channels, and increasing subsidies for green pesticide purchases.