Impact of specialized agricultural services on climate-smart agricultural practices: Evidence from biopesticide application in Jiangsu Province, China

• Published in: Environmental impact assessment review 2024-03, Vol.105, p.107430, Article 107430
• Main Authors: Han, Hongyun, Zou, Kai, Yuan, Zhen
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biopesticide application; China; Climate-smart agricultural practices; Endogenous switching probit model; Specialized agricultural services
• ISSN: 0195-9255; 1873-6432
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eiar.2024.107430

Global climate change is aggravating the occurrence of pests and diseases, however, pesticide residue caused by the abuse of chemical pesticides is emerging as a worldwide issue with a great threat to the ecological environment, human health, and food security. Biopesticide application, a component of climate-smart agricultural practices, is viewed as a vital alternative for agricultural sustainable development. Due to the additional cost attached to externalities and information insufficiency, the adoption rates of biopesticide are still quite low in most developing countries. By using panel data of 3143 rural households from 2020 to 2021 in Jiangsu Province, this paper builds a theoretical framework of whether and how specialized agricultural service (SAS) for specialized pest control affects farmers' biopesticide application, and then employs an Endogenous Switching Probit model to verify this effect and its channels empirically. The empirical results show that the SAS purchase can increase significantly the probability of smallholders' biopesticide adoption by 30.8%. Without consideration of the self-selection bias, this probability would drop to 16.2%. The potential channels of the SAS influencing farmers' biopesticide application are technology popularization (training) and machinery substitution resulting from SAS. Moreover, our findings also indicate that the effects of SAS on biopesticide adoption are heterogeneous, and vary with farmers' education level, cooperative members, and land size. This paper provides the first empirical evidence for the effect of SAS on biopesticide promotion, which is expected to contribute to agricultural sustainable development and food safety in most developing countries. [Display omitted] •Climate-smart agricultural practices play a vital role in global adaptation to climate change.•We examine the effects of specialized agricultural services on biopesticide application in China.•Theoretical framework and endogenous switching probit model are employed to identify these effects.•Specialized agricultural service affects biopesticide adoption mainly through two channels.•These effects are heterogeneous and vary with farmers' different characteristics.