Agricultural technical education, interpersonal trust, and pesticide use by vegetable farmers in China

IF 2.9 4区教育学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Journal of Agricultural Education & Extension Pub Date : 2021-03-15 DOI:10.1080/1389224X.2020.1844769

Qingsong Tian, Yan Yu, Zhaoyang Xiang, Chongguang Li

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引用次数: 3

Abstract

ABSTRACT Purpose Agricultural technical education is widely used in Chinese agricultural production to reduce farmers’ pesticide overuse. However, the effectiveness of technical education is questioned by scholars who found that it fails to promote farmers’ pesticide management. In this study, we aimed to explore whether farmers’ interpersonal trust in education staff affects the efficiency of technical education. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted on Chinese vegetable farmers with 117 open field vegetable growers and 119 greenhouse vegetable growers. Data were analyzed using a multivariate regression model. Findings The results show that technical education can significantly reduce farmers’ pesticide application in vegetable production. And the effect of specific guidance is stronger than that of course training. The response of farmers on technical education, as a proxy of farmers’ understanding capacity on education knowledge, negatively affects farmers’ pesticide costs. More importantly, we find that farmers’ trust in education staff could affect the positive effect of agricultural technical education on pesticide application. Practical implications This study will enable education staff/officers to value interpersonal relationships, which can instruct farmers to turn the pesticide knowledge they received from technical education into production practice. Theoretical implications Promoting farmers’ trust in information providers will increase the efficiency and quality of knowledge transmission and transformation in agricultural technical education. Originality/value This paper highlights the importance of interpersonal trust in agricultural technical education, and offers an available explanation for controversy over on efficiency of agricultural technical education.

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农业技术教育、人际信任与中国菜农农药使用

摘要目的农业技术教育在我国农业生产中得到广泛应用，以减少农民过度使用农药。然而，技术教育的有效性受到学者的质疑，他们发现技术教育未能促进农民的农药管理。本研究旨在探讨农民对教育人员的人际信任是否会影响技术教育的效率。设计/方法/方法采用问卷调查法对117名露天菜农和119名大棚菜农进行了横断面研究。数据采用多元回归模型进行分析。结果表明，技术教育能显著降低农民在蔬菜生产中的农药用量。而具体指导的效果比当然培训的效果更强。农民对技术教育的反应反映了农民对教育知识的理解能力，对农民的农药成本产生负向影响。更重要的是，我们发现农民对教育人员的信任会影响农业技术教育对农药使用的积极影响。本研究将使教育人员重视人际关系，指导农民将从技术教育中获得的农药知识转化为生产实践。促进农民对信息提供者的信任将提高农业技术教育知识传递和转化的效率和质量。本文强调了人际信任在农业技术教育中的重要性，并为农业技术教育效率的争议提供了一个可行的解释。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Agricultural Education & Extension Multiple-

CiteScore

5.00

自引率

28.60%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Agricultural Education & Extension is published to inform experts who do or use research on agricultural education and extension about research conducted in this field worldwide. Information about this research is needed to improve policies, strategies, methods and practices for agricultural education and extension. The Journal of Agricultural Education & Extension accepts authorative and well-referenced scientific articles within the field of agricultural education and extension after a double-blind peer review process. Agricultural education and extension faces profound change, and therefore its core area of attention is moving towards communication, competence development and performance improvement for a wide variety of fields and audiences, most of which can be studied from a multi-disciplinary perspective, including: -Communication for Development- Competence Management and Development- Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Development- Design and Implementation of Competence–based Education- Environmental and Natural Resource Management- Entrepreneurship and Learning- Facilitating Multiple-Stakeholder Processes- Health and Society- Innovation of Agricultural-Technical Education- Innovation Systems and Learning- Integrated Rural Development- Interdisciplinary and Social Learning- Learning, Conflict and Decision Making- Poverty Reduction- Performance Improvement- Sustainable Agricultural Production