The Influence Of Farmland Scale On Rural Household’s Ecological Production Behavior

The extensive operation of farmers has led to problems such as excessive input of chemical fertilizers and pesticides,agricultural film residues,random disposal of pesticide packaging waste,and on-site burning of straws.In 2019,the national mechanized straw returning area only accounted for 32.74% of the total planting area.In 2020,China’s agricultural production has applied a total of 52.507 million tons of chemical fertilizers,2.389 million tons of agricultural plastic films,and 1.313 million tons of pesticides.The level of consumption per unit of output far exceeds the world average.This not only increases the production cost of agriculture and wastes resources,but also causes serious pollution to the ecological environment.At present,about 40% of China’s rural arable land has degraded quality,ecological resources are rigidly constrained,agricultural pollution still exists,and the quality and efficiency of agriculture is not high.In the "14th Five-Year Plan for Promoting Agricultural and Rural Modernization" and the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Doing a Good Job in Comprehensively Promoting Rural Revitalization in 2022",both put forward the overall goal of promoting green agricultural development.In this context,farmers,as the main body of agricultural production,their ecological production behavior is an important basis for promoting the green and sustainable development of agriculture.With the orderly advancement of land distribution,the new-type agricultural management entities with large-scale operations are more likely to implement ecological production behaviors,which have a driving effect on the ecological production of small farmers.With the continuous improvement of the socialized service system,green,high-quality and efficient socialized services have become an important way for promoting the connection between farmers and green agriculture.In this regard,it is worthy of attention to investigate the influence of farmland operation scale and plot scale on farmers’ ecological production behavior,and to explore the mediating effect of socialized services.Based on the data of 522 rice farmers in 5 counties(districts)in 4 cities in Jiangxi Province,this paper was based on four ecological production behaviors: the application of organic fertilizer or formula fertilizer,the use of high-efficiency,low-toxicity and low-residue pesticides,the recycling of pesticide packaging or agricultural film,and the straw returning,and constructed the comprehensive value of farmers’ ecological production behavior.Based on the theoretical analysis,a framework of "farmland scale-social service-ecological production behavior" was constructed,and the farmland scale was decomposed into operation scale and plot scale.The Orderly Probit Model and the Mediation Effect Model were used to analyze the impact of farmland scale on farmers’ ecological production behavior and the mediating effect of socialized services.The research results showed that: First,the sample farmers implemented 1.91 ecological production behaviors on average,and the ecological production level was not high,especially for the two ecological production behaviors of applying organic fertilizer or formula fertilizer and recycling pesticide packaging or agricultural film.Second,the farmer’s operation scale and plot scale both promoted the implementation of ecological production behavior.Compared with the plot size,the operation scale had a greater role in promoting ecological production behavior.Third,control variables such as environmental protection awareness,time preference,family agricultural labor force,and land damage situation had a significant effect on farmers’ ecological production actions.Fourth,the operation scale and the plot scale affected ecological production behavior by acting on socialized services.Fifth,according to the different types of agricultural management entities,this paper divided farmers into small farmers and large planters.It was found that in the sample group of large planters,the operation scale had a greater role in promoting the ecological production behavior of farmers.The conclusion of this paper confirms the positive effect of farmland scale on promoting the ecological production behavior of farmers,but for the problems existing in the implementation of ecological production behavior of farmers,this paper puts forward four policy suggestions.(1)The government should fully promote organic fertilizers and formula fertilizers to farmers,support scientific and technological research and development of the organic fertilizer and formula fertilizer industries,and give farmers certain subsidies.(2)Relying on the leadership of the government,establish a good recycling incentive mechanism and recycling system for pesticide packaging and agricultural film waste,and appropriately expand the scope of subsidy pilot projects.(3)The government should continue to promote the transfer of land,and encourage the transfer and integration of adjacent plots,so as to realize the simultaneous expansion of the farmland’s operating area and the area of the plots,and give play to the role of the scale of farmland in promoting the ecological production behavior of farmers.But at the same time,farmers should be encouraged to operate on an appropriate scale within the scope of their own management capabilities,so as to prevent blind expansion of the scale of operation.(4)Build a socialized service system in line with "green agriculture",strengthen green services in agricultural socialized services such as soil testing and formula fertilization,green prevention and control,and soil conditioning,and drive small farmers to implement ecological production behaviors.