1 Introduction
This study aims to delve deeply into and construct a theoretical system on how agricultural insurance facilitates farmers’ transition to a green lifestyle. Since the Industrial Revolution, the remarkable enhancement in the level of global industrialization has greatly diversified industrial products and profoundly facilitated people’s lives. However, the production and consumption of industrial products have also brought about a series of environmental issues. These issues are mainly reflected in two aspects: firstly, pollution during the production process, such as the discharge of wastewater, exhaust gases, and waste residue, as well as the residue issues of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in agricultural production; secondly, pollution generated in daily life, including the treatment and discharge of garbage and sewage. The presence of these environmental issues poses a severe challenge to the natural environment on which we depend and requires us to take effective measures to respond to and manage them. According to the “WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin” released by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on October 26, 2022, the concentrations of three key greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – reached historical highs in 2021. Notably, the growth rate of carbon dioxide between 2020 and 2021 exceeded the average annual growth rate of the past decade (WMO, 2022). Moreover, the “IPCC 2023: Synthesis Report” clearly states: “Human activities have had a clear impact on the warming of the atmosphere, oceans, and land” (Lee et al., 2023). At present, the governance of global environmental issues has become a consensus in the international community, with countries actively exploring paths for environmental governance and green transformation. The Chinese government attaches great importance to this matter. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the concept of “building a socialist ecological civilization under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party” has been incorporated into the Party’s constitution, clarifying the guiding status of ecological civilization construction. The revision of the Environmental Protection Law in 2014 strengthened the legal system for environmental protection; the implementation opinions of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2015 accelerated the greening of lifestyles; in 2018, the concepts of “ecological civilization” and “beautiful China” were incorporated into the Constitution, marking that the construction of ecological civilization has been elevated to the level of the country’s fundamental law. In 2020, China announced its goals of achieving carbon peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060, demonstrating its sense of responsibility in global climate governance. In 2021, the guiding opinions issued by the State Council not only proposed a specific timetable but also outlined a vision for the transformation toward green production and lifestyles. Although China has made significant progress in green development, pollution prevention and control, and ecological protection, there are still many challenges in the green transformation of production and lifestyles. This requires China to continuously innovate in policies and technology to achieve a broader green transformation. Data shows that greenhouse gas emissions caused by household consumption in China have accounted for 52% of the country’s total emissions (“Energy Cold Knowledge|More than Half of the Country’s Carbon Emissions Actually Come from It,” 2020; Ritchie et al., 2020). The transition of residents to a green lifestyle has become an urgent necessity. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2021, there are approximately 509.79 million farmers in China, accounting for 36.11% of the total population. Their lifestyle has a profound impact on China’s ecological environment. The transformation to a green lifestyle in rural areas is not only an important practice for promoting sustainable development in the new era but also a key to achieving the goal of ecologically livable villages in the rural revitalization strategy. Effectively promoting the transformation to a green lifestyle in rural areas is of great significance for improving the quality of the rural ecological environment, advancing green agricultural development, and also lays a solid foundation for promoting public environmental awareness and constructing an ecological civilization society. Consequently, green transition issues have been given high priority by countries worldwide. Currently, most research focuses on the green transition of production methods, while discussions on lifestyle green transition are relatively scarce (Cao and Gao, 2021). Studies also indicate that between 2000 and 2018, both the carbon emissions produced by rural residents’ lives and the per capita carbon emissions have risen sharply. Specifically, the carbon emissions from rural residents’ lives account for 3.0-4.0% of the country’s total emissions (Zhang et al., 2021). Therefore, guiding the transition of lifestyles toward green is of paramount significance for reducing carbon emissions, achieving peak carbon levels, and realizing harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.
Insurance, as a crucial financial service tool, plays an essential role in promoting the transformation of production toward a green and low-carbon model. Agricultural insurance, as an important mechanism for diversifying agricultural risks, has been widely adopted in many countries. Since China began implementing agricultural insurance premium subsidy policies in 2007, the development of agricultural insurance domestically has been impressive. By 2022, the total amount of agricultural insurance in China reached 1,192 billion yuan, providing risk protection totaling 5.46 trillion yuan for nearly 167 million farmer-times. With the continuous expansion of agricultural insurance coverage, it has become an indispensable part of the rural financial service system (Hua and Yang, 2023). Agricultural insurance has extensive coverage in rural China, and it essentially falls within the category of green insurance, playing a role in carbon sink projects. This form of insurance not only promotes the sustainable development of agriculture but also makes a significant contribution to achieving China’s goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality (Tuo, 2023). Although existing research has extensively explored how agricultural insurance influences farmer production behavior, such as its impact on production scale (Kim et al., 2020), the use of chemicals in agricultural production (Cai et al., 2021; Li et al., 2022), and the adoption of new technologies (Salazar et al., 2019; Fang et al., 2021; Kumar and Babu, 2021), there is still no consensus. Specifically, studies on how agricultural insurance affects the use of chemicals, which are often used to assess its role in green agricultural production, are particularly noteworthy. Researchers have yet to reach a unified view on this topic: some scholars believe that agricultural insurance may reduce the use of chemicals, while others hold the opposite opinion. These studies undeniably show that agricultural insurance has a certain impact on farmer production behavior, but does it influence their lifestyles? This question piqued our interest. This study aims to explore, from a theoretical perspective, how agricultural insurance impacts the green transition of farmers’ lifestyles and to deeply analyze its intrinsic mechanisms and actual effects.
This paper offers three potential contributions:
Firstly, this study delves deeply into and refines the theoretical framework of interdisciplinary research encompassing “Agricultural Insurance + Behavioral Science + Psychology.” By integrating theories and practices from multiple disciplines, we successfully merged perspectives from agricultural insurance, farmer behavior studies, behavioral psychology, and agricultural technology adoption behavior. This fusion offers the academic community a novel research paradigm.
Secondly, this research introduces the SOR model for the first time, constructing a brand-new analytical framework for the “Agricultural Insurance – Farmer Green Lifestyle Impact Mechanism.” Although existing literature has empirically analyzed the impact of agricultural insurance on farmers’ green agricultural production behavior, the exploration of the underlying behavioral decision-making process remains scant. Not only does this paper discuss in-depth the multifaceted influences of agricultural insurance on agricultural production, but it also deciphers the decision-making logic and process by introducing the SOR model, aiming to unveil the underlying theoretical mechanisms.
Furthermore, to facilitate a more comprehensive empirical analysis, based on the SOR model, we designed a detailed survey questionnaire comprising 43 questions. This aims to capture the shifts in farmers’ personal perceptions and their potential impact on behavior.
The structure of the remaining sections of this paper is as follows: Section 2 provides a literature review, Section 3 delves into mechanism analysis, Section 4 describes the questionnaire design, and Section 5 outlines the forthcoming research content.