This paper explores the effects of environmental regulation (ER) and rural residents’ health investment (RRHI) on agricultural eco-efficiency (AEE) to provide a reference for the Chinese Government and other developing countries for implementing environmental regulation policies and to provide new paths to further improve green development in agriculture. Using the panel data of 31 Chinese provinces from 2009–2018, the Super-SBM model was used to measure AEE. The role of ER on AEE was analyzed based on panel two-way fixed effects with endogeneity treatment and a robustness test, and this mediating effect analysis was conducted to analyze the role of RRHI in ER and AEE, examining the extent of the effect of ER on AEE in three regions of China—eastern, central and western—using a heterogeneity analysis. The results of the study show that: (1) from a national perspective, ER has a significant positive impact on AEE, showing that ER is effective at this stage; (2) when RRHI is used as a mediating variable, the rising ER’s intensity can promote AEE by increasing RRHI; and (3) the results of the heterogeneity analysis show that ER has the greatest impact on AEE in the economically developed eastern region; the western region with a weaker level of economic development is in second place. However, ER has a negative impact on AEE in the central region with a medium level of economic development. Thus, the impact of ER on AEE will show great differences depending on the stage of economic development.

Clarifying the factors influencing the safe use of pesticide is essential for scientific decision making to effectively manage pesticide use and promote sustainable agroecological development. The study aims to explore the factors influencing farmers’ safe use of pesticides from the perspectives of external supervision and face consciousness. Using survey data covering 534 farm households in Sichuan province, this study empirically analyzes the influence mechanisms of external supervision, face consciousness, and their interaction terms on farmers’ safe use of pesticides by employing the binary logit and IV-2SLS model, and further reveals their intergenerational differences on this basis. The results show that external supervision and positive face consciousness have significantly positive effects on pesticide safety use by farmers; market supervision and ability-type face, respectively, play the biggest role among them. Furthermore, there is an interaction effect between external supervision and face consciousness with respect to pesticide safety use. Farmers with different generation farms are influenced differently by external supervision and face consciousness. The behaviors of the new generation farmers to safely use pesticide are principally influenced by government supervision, market supervision, and ability-type face; in contrast, the ones of the older generation farmers are mainly influenced by market supervision, organization supervision, and relationship-type face.

The resource utilization of swine manure represents a critical pathway for advancing sustainable agricultural development. This study, based on survey data from 509 swine farmers in Sichuan Province, employs the Ordered Probit (Oprobit) model and the Conditional Mixed Process (CMP) model to analyze the mechanisms and pathways through which cognition about manure treatment, environmental regulation, and their interaction influence farmers’ behaviors towards manure resource utilization. It further delves into the heterogeneous characteristics of influencing factors. The findings reveal the following: (1) Farmers possess a high level of cognition regarding manure treatment, while environmental regulation is moderately implemented. The principal methods of manure resource utilization focus on recycling to fields and organic fertilizer production, with over 95% of farmers adopting at least one method of resource utilization. (2) Both cognition of manure treatment and environmental regulation significantly promote the behavior of manure resource utilization. There are substitutive or complementary effects between moral cognition and constraint regulation, as well as capability cognition and guidance regulation. (3) Among the farming community, the behavior of large-scale farmers is mainly influenced by moral cognition, whereas non-large-scale farmers are more affected by capability cognition and guidance regulation; middle-aged and young farmers are predominantly influenced by capability cognition, incentives, and guidance regulation, whereas the older generation of farmers is driven more by moral cognition and guidance regulation. Based on these insights, this study proposes targeted strategies for enhancing cognition and regulatory alignment across different groups, aiming to elevate the level of manure resource utilization and promote the green transformation of livestock farming.