Tingwu Yan

【目的】在保障国家粮食安全和提升农业产业链韧性的双重背景下，厘清耕地质量保护与产业链参与之间的关系具有重要意义。本文旨在揭示产业链参与对农户耕地质量保护行为的影响及其机制，并为政策制定提供实证依据。【方法】基于全国农村固定观察点2019年和2020年每期19066户农户的面板数据，采用双向固定效应模型与面板工具变量法，实证分析产业链参与对农户耕地质量保护行为的影响。【结果】①无论产业链参与决策还是参与程度，均能显著提升农户耕地质量保护行为强度。相比未参与农户，参与产业链的农户耕地质量保护行为平均提高约3.7%。②横向一体化与纵向一体化均对耕地质量保护行为具有正向影响，其中电商模式的效果最为显著。③产业链参与通过让农户获得更多机械化服务，实现服务规模经营，从而提升农户耕地质量保护行为强度，农业技术效率和村庄产业结构在产业链参与对农户耕地质量保护行为的影响中起到正向调节作用。【结论】产业链参与通过组织约束与市场激励，改变农户市场地位、销售渠道与经营规模，促使更多分散小农户有效对接农产品大市场，实现耕地质量保护。未来应进一步发挥农业产业组织的联农带农作用，完善社会化服务体系，优化村庄产业结构，并大力发展农村电商模式，以促进农户生产的经济效益与生态效益协同提升。

The burning of crop residue in the open field has become a significant concern for climate change mitigation efforts worldwide. This practice has led to air quality impairment, smog, haze, heat waves, and different health problems. These could be avoided by adopting sustainable crop residue management practices (SCRMPs) and enabling farmers to engage in SCRMPs. Assessing the health effects at the household level is critical for understanding this problem and finding a solution. Using the primary dataset of 420 farmers from Punjab, Pakistan, we estimated the incurred impacts and costs of crop residue burning. We calculated the health and environmental benefits associated with adopting SCRMPs by comparing the two groups of farmers (adopters and non-adopters). Furthermore, we used a propensity score matching technique to measure the causal impact of SCRMPs adoption on health costs. The findings showed that a surprisingly large number of farmers are all aware of the adverse effects of residue burning, and many do not burn crop residues and instead use SCRMPs. This study found that households with chronic and non-chronic diseases become acute, and the severity increases during the burning period. They spend USD 13.37 to USD 8.79 on chronic and non-chronic diseases during the burning season, respectively. Consequently, the use of SCRMPs has a positive effect on healthcare costs. Our study findings highlight the meaningful implications for developing a new policy to promote the sustainable utilization of crop residues and enhance their adoption in Pakistan.

Over the past decade, crop residue burning after harvest is prevalent in developing countries. Promoting crop residue retention to replace residue burning is effective in improving air quality and contributing to the mitigation of global climate change. This study examines farmers’ continuance intention of crop residue retention, using the expectation confirmation model (ECM) and survey data from 542 rice farmers in Hubei Province, P.R. The results show that farmers’ perceived usefulness, confirmation, perceived ease of use, and satisfaction significantly have direct or indirect positive impacts on their continuance intention on adopting crop residue retention. In particular, perceived ease of use contributes the most. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use act as intermediaries in the relationship between confirmation and farmers’ continuance intention to residue retention. This study provides a valuable governance reference and scientific basis for the government to adjust and improve existing policies, including how to stimulate farmers to continue to adopt agricultural waste treatment technologies such as residue retention.

This study uses the Planned Risk Information Seeking Model (PRISM) to estimate the public's information seeking and avoidance intentions during the COVID-19 outbreak based on an online sample of 1031 Chinese adults and provides support for the applicability of PRISM framework in the situation of a novel high-level risk. The results indicate that information seeking is primarily directed by informational subjective norms (ISN) and perceived seeking control (PSC), while the main predictors of information avoidance include ISN and attitude toward seeking. Because ISN are the strongest predictor of both information seeking and avoidance, the way the public copes with COVID-19 information may be strongly affected by individuals' social environment. Furthermore, a significant relationship between risk perception and affective risk response is identified. Our results also indicate that people who perceive greater knowledge of COVID-19 are more likely to report greater knowledge insufficiency, which results in less information avoidance.

An integrated model combining multi-layer cradle to cradle approach: cost effective, technically sound, and bioenvironmental cutting-edge agricultural waste assessment technologies are lacking; to address this gap, the study proposes circular agriculture model (CAM) to support an integrated, bio-based, sustainable and broadly applicable rural society. CAM is an innovative, quasi-public product, bio-commodity, and concept. This study uses survey data on the Chinese province of Hubei to consider the returning of crop residues to the soil and manure for compost or biogas production (first-generation biorefinery). It explores farmers' environmental understanding and their willingness to pay (WTP) under a “polluter pays” principle. Factors, including education, infrastructure, trust in family-neighbors, and environmental attitudes, have a significant effect on WTP. Moreover, income, sustainability-recycling behavior, environmental perception, perceived usefulness-easiness, and trust-in-government positively affect farmers’ WTP, whereas environmental attitude, intention, and selfishness have a negative effect. It, therefore, calls for the integration and cooperation of private, government, business, R&D and public welfare to value the combined rural traditions, religion, philosophy and belief, socio-psychological and altruistic values of local communities, which are essential for building trust and providing ecological security, tech spill-over, thereby indirectly helping farmers to restore their livelihoods.