Machinery use, pesticide use behaviours and farmers' health conditions in China: A casual mediation analysis

Abstract

The adverse effects of pesticides on the health of farmers have also been well documented, this article focused on how to reduce the harmful effects of pesticides on health with agricultural mechanization. Give the common criticism of quantitative social science research that it only provide a black-box view of causality, this study employs a causal mediation analysis method by taking the machinery use behaviors as a mediation variable, to examine the average causal mediation effects(ACME) and the average direct effects (ADE) of pesticide overuse on famers' self-reported health conditions. The empirical results show that pesticide overuse has a negative and statistically significant impact on farmers' self-reported health conditions. The average effect through the machinery use (ACME) of pesticide overuse on farmers' self-reported health conditions account for 10%-13%. Machinery use is a viable way to reduce negative effect of pesticide on farmers’ health. In addition, we find that the age , household income, non-farm employment farm size and the level of local economic development are important factors that influence farmer's self-reported health conditions.