Junying Tao’s research while affiliated with Jiangnan University and other places

Based on field research data on farmers in 30 counties (districts) of six cities in Shandong Province, this study systematically examines the methods of disposal of livestock and poultry waste and the factors that influence them, that is, the determinants of farmers’ waste disposal behaviors, using the UTAUT theoretical framework and a disordered multi-class logit model. The results show that, first, economic performance expectancy, subjective norms, farming population, and poultry and livestock breeding numbers have significant effects on the four waste recycling methods considered: direct return, compost fermentation, biogas fermentation, and fresh-packed sale. Second, annual family income has a positive effect on the direct return method. Third, compost fermentation is positively affected by farmers' knowledge, distance from sources of water, and farming scale, and negatively affected by gender and marital status. Fourth, biogas fermentation is negatively affected by the age of farmers and positively affected by the farming income ratio and environmental convenience. Finally, the most important factors affecting the four methods are subjective norms, farming scale, economic performance expectancy, and farming population. Therefore, this study proposes that policies to promote resource utilization of livestock and poultry waste must prioritize raising awareness among the farmers of the advantages of resource disposal of waste; provide reasonable subsidies for waste recycling and enhance policy applicability, pertinence, and motivation; strengthen the promotion of waste recycling technology and improve the practicality of lectures or training content; and improve relevant laws and regulations and enhance authority and usability.

Ecological compensation is widely considered a policy that encourages farmers to recycle livestock and poultry waste for economic and ecological benefits. Therefore, based on field data from 30 counties (districts) in six cities of Shandong Province, China, this study systematically analyzes farmers' willingness to accept compensation for livestock and poultry waste resource utilization as well as its determinants. It does so using the UTAUT theoretical analysis framework, as well as the contingent valuation method and Heckman two-stage selection model. The results show that, first, 72.4% of the farmers in the sample are willing to accept a certain amount of compensation—the expected value of which is RMB 98.02 per month per household—as an incentive to utilize livestock waste. Second, the key determinants of farmers' willingness to accept compensation are marital status, family annual income, concurrent business, farming scale, economic performance expectation, social performance expectation, knowledge reserve, public relations, and technical convenience. Finally, the factors that affect farmers’ willingness in terms of the compensation amount are gender, age, family annual income, social performance expectation, subjective norms, and public relations. Therefore, to promote the recycling of livestock and poultry waste, this study proposes policies that promote education and technology popularization in relation to livestock and poultry waste resource utilization, provide subsidies for waste recycling, and strengthen government control and social supervision over the non-standard disposal of such waste.

This study aims to evaluate Chinese consumers' trust in food certification, and incorporates perceived quality as a new construct into the theory of planned behaviour to further analyze their purchase intention of certified food. The study conducted a survey of 844 Chinese consumers in twelve selected cities in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces by stratified sampling regarding their intention to purchase pork. Results from structural equation modelling analysis reveal that the proposed additional construct, i.e. perceived quality, as well as the traditional constructs, i.e. behavioural attitude, perceived behavioural control and subjective norm, have significant impacts on consumers' purchase intention. This paper also suggests that while food labelling serves its function of informing potential consumers about the commodity's quality, Chinese consumers hold different levels of trust in different labels, depending on the food certifying body, and that international bodies receive the highest confidence level. As this phenomenon might hinder the function of the food certification system, it has considerably policy implications. We make a number of recommendations on how the Chinese government can alleviate trust issues among consumers and other stakeholders.

Following a variety of incidents in China relating to food poisoning due to the presence of pesticide residues, it is crucial to correct for farmers’ unsafe and improper practices towards pesticide use. Although most studies have focused on the role of external stakeholders such as government extension agencies and pesticide retailers, the attention paid to farmers’ intrinsic motivations is limited. This paper applies Structural Equation Modelling to investigate psychological motivational concepts such as farmers’ knowledge and risk perception, their formation mechanisms and the underlying processes of these concepts that lead to farmers’ practices to eliminate pesticide residues, based on a representative survey conducted with 986 Chinese farmers from 20 counties selected from six provinces. We found both a direct and significant effect of farmers’ knowledge on pesticides residue on their safe pesticide practices and also an indirect effect, i.e. knowledge influences on risk perception which in turn enhances safe pesticide practices. It was also reported that government support strategies are more effective in promoting safe pesticide practices than government regulation.