Abstract
The influence of farmers’ production experience on pesticide overuse is empirically analyzed by an endogenous switching probit model of pesticide use time, type, and dosage, based on survey data of 836 rice farmers in the Yangtze River Basin of China. We find that farmers’ production experience is an important cause of pesticide overuse, especially for small-scale farmers. Older, self-sufficient, small-scale, non-cooperative members and rice farmers with distant market towns are more likely to use pesticides based on their personal experience. In terms of pesticide use time, type, and dosage, 35.26%, 30.10%, and 28.52% of the samples, respectively, relied on a decision based on “experience.” Among them, farmers’ decision-making based on production experience for pesticide type and dosage are the key causes of pesticide overuse. These results will be helpful for reducing pesticides and correcting farmers’ “bad habits” within agricultural ecosystems.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abtew A, Niassy S, Affognon H, Subramanian S, Kreiter S, Garzia GT, Martin T (2016) Farmers’ knowledge and perception of grain legume pests and their management in the Eastern province of Kenya. Crop Prot 87:90–97
Arthur WB (1994) Increasing returns and path dependence in the economy. University of Michigan Press, pp 157–162. https://muse.jhu.edu/book/6343
Bhandari G, Atreya K, Yang X, Fan L (2018) Factors affecting pesticide safety behaviour: the perceptions of Nepalese farmers and retailers. Sci Total Environ 631:1560–1571
Bagheri A, Emami N, Damalas CA, Allahyari MS (2019) Farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of pesticide use in apple farms of northern Iran: impact on safety behavior[J]. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:9343–9351
Cliff Z, Emma A, Hanna AR (2018) Climate variability, perceptions and political ecology: factors influencing changes in pesticide use over 30 years by Zimbabwean smallholder cotton producers. PLoS One 13(5):1–19. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0196901
Dasgupta S, Meisner C, Huq M (2010) A pinch or a pint? Evidence of pesticide overuse in Bangladesh. J Agric Econ 58(1):91–114
Deng Y, Dai H, Zeng M, Guan L, Luo X, Zhang C, Tian J, Zhang J, Li Y, Xi Q, Zhao M, Jiang M, Zhao L (2019) Knowledge and behavior regarding pesticide use: a survey among caregivers of children aged 1–6 years from rural China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26(22):37–43
Fan L, Niu H, Yang X (2015) Factors affecting farmers’ behaviour in pesticide use: insights from a field study in northern China. Sci Total Environ 537:360–368
Gao Y, Dong J, Zhang X (2019) Enabling for-profit pest control firms to meet farmers’ preferences for cleaner production: evidence from grain family farms in the Huang-huai-hai plain, China. J Clean Prod 227(4):141–148
Gao Y, Zhang X, Lu J (2017) Adoption behavior of green control techniques by family farms in China: evidence from 676 family farms in Huang-huai-hai Plain. Crop Prot 99:76–84
Ghimire N, Woodward RT (2013) Under- and over-use of pesticides: an international analysis. Ecol Econ 89(5):73–81
He K, Zhang J, Wang X (2018) A scientometric review of emerging trends and new developments in agricultural ecological compensation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25(3):1–11
Jallow M, Awadh D, Albaho M (2017) Pesticide risk behaviors and factors influencing pesticide use among farmers in Kuwait. Sci Total Environ 574:490–498
Khan M, Damalas C (2015) Farmer’ knowledge about common pests and pesticide safety in conventional cotton production in Pakistan. Crop Prot 77:45–51
Lichtenberg E, Zilberman D (1986) The econometrics of damage control: why specificationmatters. Am J Agric Econ 68(2):261–273
Liu E, Huang J (2013) Risk preferences and pesticide use by cotton farmers in China. J Dev Econ 103:202–215
Lokshin M, Sajaia Z (2011) Impact of interventions on discrete outcomes: maximum likelihood estimation of the binary choice models with binary endogenous regressors. Stata J 11(3):368–385
Ma W, Abdulai A (2019) IPM adoption, cooperative membership and farm economic performance. China Agricultural Economic Review 11(2):218–236
Ma W, Renwick A, Nie P (2018) Off-farm work, smartphone use and household income: evidence from rural China. China Econ Rev 52(12):80–94
Mostafalou S, Abdollahi M (2013) Pesticides and human chronic diseases: evidences, mechanisms, and perspectives. Toxicol Appl Pharmacol 268(2):157–177
Schreinemachers P, Tipraqsa P (2012) Agricultural pesticides and land use intensification in high, middle and low income countries. Food Policy 37(6):616–626
Sharifzadeh MS, Abdollahzadeh G, Damalas CA (2019) Determinants of pesticide safety behavior among Iranian rice farmers. Sci Total Environ 651:2953–2960
Skevas T, Lansink AO (2014) Reducing pesticide use and pesticide impact by productivity growth: the case of Dutch arable farming. J Agric Econ 65(1):191–211
Solomon A, Dagmar M, Hermann W (2009) EU food safety standards, pesticide use and farm-level productivity: the case of high-value crops in Kenya. J Agric Econ 60(3):645–667
Thomas G, Böcker RF (2017) A meta-analysis on the elasticity of demand for pesticides. J Agric Econ 68(2):518–533
Wang J, Deng Y, Diao H (2018) Market returns, external pressure, and safe pesticide practice: moderation role of information acquisition. Int J Environ Res Public Health 15(9):1829–1845
Wouterse F, Badiane O (2019) The role of health, experience, and educational attainment in agricultural production: evidence from smallholders in Burkina Faso. Agric Econ 50(4):421–434
Wu L, Hou B (2012) China’s farmer perception of pesticide residues and the impact factors. China Agricultural Economic Review 4(1):84–104
Zeng Y, Zhang J, He K (2019) Who cares what parents think or do? Observational learning and experience-based learning through communication in rice farmers’ willingness to adopt sustainable agricultural technologies in Hubei Province, China [J]. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26(3):22–36
Zhao L, Wang C, Gu H, Yue C (2017) Market incentive, government regulation and the behavior of pesticide application of vegetable farmers in China. Food Control 85(09):308–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2017.09.016
Acknowledgments
We are very grateful to the editors and reviewers of the journal for their time and valuable comments. Their guidance is very careful and patient.
Funding
The authors received financial support from The Key Program of the National Social Science Foundation of China (15AZD071), Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Research and Planning Fund Project of China (15YJAZH050), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (71803145).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Responsible editor: Baojing Gu
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOC 82 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Huang, Y., Luo, X., Tang, L. et al. The power of habit: does production experience lead to pesticide overuse?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 25287–25296 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08961-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-08961-4