Henan Agricultural University Reports Findings in Agricultural Insurance (How does full-cost insurance for wheat affect pesticide use? From the perspective of the differentiation of farmers’ production scale): Agriculture – Agricultural Insurance

Agriculture Daily

2023 DEC 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Agriculture Daily -- New research on Agriculture - Agricultural Insurance is the subject of a report. According to news reporting from Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Theoretically, agricultural insurance influences farmers’ use of pesticides by changing the expected income of agricultural production. Full-cost insurance, with high guarantee and high compensation characteristics, may significantly affect farmers’ pesticide use.”

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Henan Agricultural University, “First, this paper constructs a production function to characterize and compare the marginal incomes of insured and uninsured farmers under risk uncertainty and analyses how insured farmers can increase marginal income by increasing or reducing factor inputs. Considering scale differentiation, it discusses pesticide use strategies different types of farmers may adopt to maximize household utility. Second, using survey data of the pilot counties of full-cost insurance for wheat in Henan Province, China, the simultaneous equation model is used for empirical testing. The results reveal the following: (i) Farmers’ insurance participation and pesticide application behaviour are not mutually independent. (ii) For the whole sample, full-cost insurance for wheat has a significant pesticide reduction effect. (iii) However, considering scale differentiation, pesticide application decreases significantly among insured ordinary farmers but does not change significantly among insured large-scale farmers.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Third, policy measures are proposed to activate the green development function of agricultural insurance.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: How does full-cost insurance for wheat affect pesticide use? From the perspective of the differentiation of farmers’ production scale. Environmental Research, 2023:117766. Environmental Research can be contacted at: Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science, 525 B St, Ste 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Environmental Research - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/environmental-research/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Yinhao Wu, College of Economics and Management, Henan Agricultural University, No.15, Longzi Lake College Park, Zhengzhou Eastern New District, Zhengzhou, 450046, People’s Republic of China. Additional authors for this research include Xiangdong Duan, Ruifeng Liu, Hengyun Ma and Yongmin Zhang.

Publisher contact information for the journal Environmental Research is: Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science, 525 B St, Ste 1900, San Diego, CA 92101-4495, USA.