Work

Does Agricultural Production Trusteeship Promote Pesticide Reduction? A Case Study of Rice Farmers in Sichuan Province, China

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Under the dual pressures of ensuring food security and advancing the green transformation of agriculture, effectively guiding farmers toward pesticide reduction has become a core issue in China’s sustainable agricultural development. As a new form of agricultural socialized service, agricultural production trusteeship offers a potential solution to the challenge of farmers’ excessive pesticide input through specialized services. Based on the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method, this study employs micro-level survey data from 978 rice-growing farmers in Sichuan Province, China, to empirically examine the impact of agricultural production trusteeship on farmers’ pesticide reduction. The findings are as follows: (1) Agricultural production trusteeship significantly promotes pesticide reduction among farmers. (2) The moderating effect results of land endowments indicate that both cultivation scale and land fragmentation exert a negative moderating effect on the relationship between agricultural production trusteeship and farmers’ pesticide reduction. (3) The heterogeneity results reveal that, from the perspective of trusteeship mode selection, full-process trusteeship is more effective in promoting farmers’ pesticide reduction. From the perspective of farmer differentiation, the pesticide-reducing effect of agricultural production trusteeship is more pronounced among non-farm-dominated farmers and middle and new generation farmers. Accordingly, this study proposes that agricultural production trusteeship may serve as a promising policy pathway for pesticide reduction initiatives, and that differentiated promotion strategies and incentive mechanisms are recommended to be implemented based on farmer types and land endowments.

Source: Agriculture

DOI: 10.3390/agriculture16111207

Authors: Ziwei Peng, Dingde Xu, Gang Fu

Institution: Sichuan Agricultural University

Language: English

Topic: Agricultural Innovations and Practices

Subfield: General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDGs: Zero hunger, Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,137