农药减量:挖掘包装容量的秘密

Pesticide Reduction: Exploring the Secret of Package Capacity

农药包装容量的信号显示功能和行为经济学意义,尚未得到充分重视。不同于已有研究主要关注土地经营规模和社会化服务等影响农户农药用量的因素,本文试图打开农药包装容量的“黑箱”,通过分析包装容量对农药用量的影响机理,揭示减少农药用量的新路径。研究结果表明:第一,农药大容量包装能够显著增加农户的农药用量。第二,农药包装容量的功能专用性、质量可靠性、储存风险性信号显示,通过作用于农户用药行为规范化程度影响农药用量。第三,气候变化感知增强、种植多元品种和采用新种植制度、劳动力转移、地块规模狭小,均可能显著增强大容量包装对农户农药用量的正向作用。第四,随着土地经营规模扩大,包装容量对农药用量的影响在初始阶段呈增强趋势,但当土地经营规模超过16.667亩的临界值后,包装容量对农药用量的正向作用出现衰减趋势。据此,本文认为优化包装容量是以市场手段促进小农户农药减量的重要举措。

The signal display function and the significance of package capacity of pesticides from the perspective of behavioral economics have not been fully discussed. Different from prior studies which explore the determinants of pesticide reduction from enlarging farmland scale and developing agricultural outsourcing services, this study attempts to open the black box of pesticide’s package capacity, analyzes the impact mechanism of package capacity on pesticide application, and proposes a new chemical reductionoption. Theresults show that, firstofall, large capacity packaging ofpesticidescan significantly increase rural households’ pesticide application. Secondly, the signal display functions of package capacity, including “functional specificity”, “quality reliability” and “storage risk”, affect their pesticide application through sharping their spraying behaviors. Thirdly, factors such as enhancing climate change perception, planting multiple varieties and applying new planting systems, transferring of agricultural labor and operating small size plots, can significantly strengthen the positive effect of large capacity packaging on rural households’ pesticide consumption. Fourthly, with the expansion of farmland operation scale, the impact of package capacity on pesticide consumption increases at the initial stage, but it declines when farmland operation scale exceeds the critical value of 16.667 mu.Therefore, the study indicates that optimizing package capacity is an important market means to stimulate small farmers to reduce pesticide application.