Factors affecting the willingness of agricultural green production from the perspective of farmers' perceptions

In the context of increasingly tight resource and environmental constraints, understandingwhy and howfarmers were willing to engage in agricultural green production (AGP) had become amajor practical issue that needed to be answered to promote sustainable development of agricultural economy. This study collected first-hand data of 645 grain growers and used structural equation model (SEM) to explore the impacts of farmers' perceptions on AGPwillingness focusing on perceived value and its antecedent factors, namely perceived benefits and perceived risks. Results showed that perceived value and perceived benefits had significantly positive impacts on AGPwillingness, while the impacts of perceived risks was significantly negative. Furthermore, itwas found that although the direct effect from perceived value (0.364) on farmers' AGP willingness was greater than perceived benefits and perceived risks, the decisive factor that ultimately played a key role in AGP willingness was farmers' perceived benefits (0.501). This was because perceived value played an actively mediating role of 23.1% in the path from perceived benefits to green production willingness. Besides, the multi-group analysis (MGA) found that the variable `whether to join a cooperative or not' had a positively moderating effect on the relationship between farmers' AGP perceived value andwillingness. Meanwhile, the variable `joining cooperative group' (0.552) had a greater impact on the perceived value-green productionwillingness path of farmers' AGP than the variable `non-joining cooperative group' (0.251), which indicated that farmers' AGP willingness could be enhanced by joining a cooperative. This study provides some enlightenment and reference for policymakers and practitioners to design or adjust programs related to reducing rural environmental pollution and implementing AGP. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.