As agriculture is becoming a less reliable source of income, many farmers are turning to other industries to supplement their lackluster profits from farming in a process known as farmers’ livelihood differentiation. Despite the existence of a voluminous literature on farmers’ livelihood differentiation, little is known about its effect on agricultural production behavior. To fill this knowledge gap, this study uses rice planting data from 537 Chinese farm households to analyze how farmers’ livelihood differentiation affects pesticide application among rural farmers in China. This study not only examines the effects of farmers’ livelihood differentiation on farmers’ pesticide application, but also underscores the potential pathways behind the effects of farmers’ livelihood differentiation according to land resource endowment via a causal mediation analysis. The results showed that (1) farmers’ livelihood differentiation had a direct effect on the amount of pesticide use. Compared to the full-time agricultural households, regular part-time farmers and ir-regular part-time farmers generally tend to use lower levels of pesticides. (2) The mediating effect of farmers’ livelihood differentiation on pesticide use was through land resource endowment. Compared to the full-time agricultural households, ir-regular part-time farmers reduce their pesticide use through maintaining better land resource endowment, while regular part-time farmers increase their pesticide application by maintaining poor land resource endowment. These results may provide important implications for policymakers to improve cultivated land protection policies and encourage the use of soil testing technology to determine the formulation of the fertilizer used in the agricultural ecological environment.

Introduction: Under the background of increasingly severe aging of agricultural labor force and relatively slow land circulation, agricultural production outsourcing has become the main means of agricultural modernization. Despite the existence of a voluminous literature on outsourcing service of pest control, little is known about its effect on biopesticides use.Methods: To fill this knowledge gap, this study uses rice planting data from 1,045 Chinese farm households to analyze the impact of different aging agricultural households and the pest control outsourcing service on the application of biopesticides by using the logit regression model.Results and Discussion: The study results showed that: (1) Participation in pest control outsourcing services significantly promotes biopesticide application. But this positive effect varied across age groups. (2) Compared with aging households, non-aging farmers tend to use biopesticides. Given this, it is recommended that pay attention to the ecological effect of pest control outsourcing services, strengthen the assistance to the aging labor group in the green pesticide promotion policy, and guide the aged planting decision makers to participate in pest control outsourcing services, thereby effectively improving the sustainable development of green agriculture.

To address international uncertainties and ensure food security, establishing and implementing a comprehensive food security perspective holds significant strategic importance. However, research on how digital marine ecological governance impacts marine fishery production remains scarce. Therefore, this study takes coastal areas of Fujian Province as a case example, systematically examining the causal relationship between digital marine ecological governance and marine product yields through two pathway mechanisms: “coastal water quality” and “red tide coverage.” Specifically, utilizing panel data from coastal cities in Fujian Province from 2011 to 2023, a two-way fixed effects model was constructed for empirical testing. Results indicate that digital marine ecological governance significantly promotes marine aquatic product output, with conclusions remaining robust after a series of stability tests. This study not only reveals the economic value of digital marine ecological governance but also provides empirical support for the practice of digital ecological civilization concepts.