Research On Farmers' Pro-environmental Behavior Based On Social Norms And Personal Norms

At present,agricultural environmental pollution has become the largest source of environmental pollution in China and has gradually become one of the most important and prominent environmental problems in C hina.Environmental problems are ultimately a result of human behavior.As the main body of agricultural product ion,agricultural growers' behavior has a direct impact on agricultural environment,which is the root of agricultural environmental problems.When agricultural growers implement pro-environmental behavior in agricultural production,the reality of agricultural environmental pollution will be improved.At the present stage,some scholars have pointed out that there are deficiencies in the interpretation and prediction of farmers' behavior based on the original theory of planned behavior.Moreover,the agric ultural growers' pro-environment behavior in the agricultural production process is a result of the comprehensive effect of various factors,and the existing theoretical analysis framework is not enough to give a reasonable explanation.Therefore,the theoretical analysis framework of agricultural growers' pro-environment behavior needs to be further developed.Under the background of social relation structure in rural China,farmers' production activities are mostly carried out based on geographical relations,and their behavior are inevitably affected by social norms.In addition,compared with the government's intervention in mandatory regulation,the spontaneous behavior generated by the improvement of farmers' personal norms may be more effective in solving the current agricultural environmental problems.Thus,it can be seen that social norms and personal norms play an important role in the decision-making process of agricultural growers' agricultural production,and they are important factors in promoting the implementation of agricultural growers' pro-environmental behavior.So,what are the factors that influence social norms and personal norms? How do they affect agricultural growers' pro-environment intention and behavior? These are the practical problems that agricultural growers must face in the process of realizing the transition to pro-environment behavior.Based on the above background,on the premise of summarizing domestic and foreign literature related to the research topic at the present stage,this paper builds a theoretical analysis framework of agricultural growers' pro-environmental behavior based on social norms and personal norms on the basis of the theory of planned behavior.Through the research data of 624 grain growers and 617 vege table growers from six provinces including Shanxi,Gansu,Shaanxi,Jiangsu,Anhui and Shandong,this paper uses multiple linear regression model,structural equation model,ordered probit model and other empirical methods to discuss and analyze the influence factors of social norms and personal norms,the influence of social norms and personal norms on agricultural growers' pro-environmental intention and behavior,and the relationship between social norms,personal norms,agricultural growers' pro-environmental intention and their behavior,and then to put forward corresponding policy recommendations according to the conclusions.The main research conclusions of this paper are as follows:(1)Under three different types of pro-environmental behaviors,namely,organic fertilizer application behavior,green pesticide application behavior and straw returning behavior,regardless of the whole sample agricultural growers,grain growers or vegetable growers,the mean values of farmers' perception of injunctive soc ial norms related to specific pro-environmental behaviors are higher than that of descriptive social norms.In addition,under the three types of pro-environmental behaviors,grain growers and vegetable growers have evident differences in descriptive socia l norms,injunctive social norms and personal norms.(2)Under three different types of pro-environmental behaviors,namely,organic fertilizer application behavior,green pesticide application behavior and straw returning behavior,agricultural growers' pro-environmental intention is generally high;Under different types of pro-environment behaviors,the pro-environmental intention of grain growers and vegetable growers are evidently different.Regardless of the whole sample agricultural growers,grain growers or vegetable growers,the implementation degree of the three kinds of pro-environmental behaviors,such as organic fertilizer application behavior,green pesticide application behavior and straw returning behavior,are lower than their implementation intention;Under different types of pro-environmental behavior,there are evident differences in the implementation of grain growers and vegetable growers.(3)Under three different types of pro-environmental behaviors,namely,organic fertilizer application behavior,green pesticide application behavior and straw returning behavior,regardless of grain growers or vegetable growers,family income type,participation level of collective activities and communication level with others all have a promoting effect on farmers' descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms.Education level,family income,descriptive social norms,injunctive social norms,result consciousness,responsibility ownership,environmental pollution perception and environmental concern,which all have a promoting effect on their personal norms.(4)For agricultural growers' social norms,in terms of the organic fertilizer application intention,descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms both have a direct promoting effect on the organic fertilizer application intention of grain growers and vegetable growers.In terms of the green pesticide application intention,descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms both have a direct promoting effect on the green pesticide application intention of grain growers and vegetable growers.In terms of the straw returning intention,descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms both have a direct promoting effect on grain growers' straw returning intention,however,they do not play a role in vegetable growers' straw returning intention.For agricultural growers' personal norms,in terms of the organic fertilizer application intention,personal norms both have a direct promoting effect on the organic fertilizer application intention of grain growers and vegetable growers.In terms of the green pesticide application intention,personal norms both have a direct promoting effect on the green pesticide application intention of grain growers and vegetable growers.In terms of the s traw returning intention,personal norms both have a direct promoting effect on the straw returning intention of grain growers and vegetable growers.(5)For agricultural growers' social norms,in terms of the organic fertilizer application behavior,descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms both have a direct promoting effect on the organic fertilizer application behavior of grain growers and vegetable growers.In terms of the green pesticide application behavior,descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms both have a direct promoting effect on the green pesticide application behavior of grain growers and vegetable growers.In terms of the straw returning behavior,descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms both have a direct promoting effect on grain growers' straw returning behavior,however,they do not play a role in vegetable growers' straw returning behavior.For agricultural growers' personal norms,in terms of the organic fertilizer application behavior,personal norms both have a direct promoting effect on the organic fertilizer application behavior of grain growers and vegetable growers.In terms of the green pesticide application behavior,personal norms both have a direct promoting effect on the green pesticide application behavior of grain growers and vegetable growers.In terms of the straw returning behavior,personal norms both have a direct promoting effect on the straw returning behavior of grain growers and vegetable growers.(6)In the models of agricultural growers' intention to apply organic fertilizer,green pesticide and straw returning to fields,descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms can indirectly promote agricultural growers' pro-environmental intention through personal norms,whether for grain growers or vegetable growers.At the same time,in the models of the organic fertilizer application behavior of grain growers and vegetable growers and the green pesticide application behavior of grain growers and vegetable growers as well as the straw returning behavior model of grain growers,social norms can play an indirect role in promoting agricultural growers' pro-environmental behavior through three paths: through personal norms alone,through intention alone,and through personal norms and intention simultaneously;In the model of vegetable growers' straw returning behavior,social norms can play an indirect role in promoting vegetable growers' straw returning behavior through two paths: through personal norms alone,and through personal norms and intention simultaneously.In the models of the organic fertilizer application behavior of grain growers and vegetable growers and the green pesticide application behavior of grain growers and vegetable growers as well as the straw returning behavior model of grain growers,both descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms can promote the transformation of agricultural growers' pro-environmental intention into behavior.However,descriptive social norms and injunctive social norms do not play a role in the transformation of vegetable growers' straw returning intention into behavior.At the same time,in the organic fertilizer application behavior,green pesticide application behavior and straw returning behavior,regardless of grain growers or ve getable growers,personal norms can promote the transformation of agricultural growers' pro-environmental intention to behavior.