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Overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is a major policy concern for many countries. Chinese government has adopted many technologies and management practices to reduce their use. However, little is known about the effects of social-economic method such as short supply chain (SSC) participation. SSC is an important organizational innovation in fresh food supply chains aiming at directly connecting farmers and consumers. Closer relationships between farmers and consumers may result in production behavioral changes. Thus the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impacts of SSC participation on agrochemicals application.

Based on the household level data collected from Jiangsu province in China, this paper employs an instrumental variable (IV) method to address the self-selection bias when we evaluate the effects of SSC participation on use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. In addition, this paper also distinguishes between growth inputs and facilitating inputs in the production function when we calculate the marginal production values of chemical fertilizer and pesticides.

The empirical results show that SSC participation significantly reduces chemical fertilizer use by 351 kg and pesticides costs by 1659 Yuan (RMB) per hectare, accounting for 43.4% of the average chemical fertilizer use and 49.4% of the average pesticide costs, respectively for Chinese vegetable farms. However, SSC participation still cannot improve the use efficiency of agrochemicals.

This paper uses both application quantities and allocation efficiencies of chemical fertilizer and pesticides to comprehensively evaluate the effects of SSC participations. The results will reveal the core role of SSC played in promoting sustainable development of Chinese agricultural sector dominated by small-scale farmers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of adopting certified food production on chemical fertilizer and pesticide use in China.

The authors estimate fixed effect models to track the changes in agrochemical consumption at household level over time and evaluate the effect of certified food production, using an unbalanced panel data set covering 4,830 households in six provinces over the period 2005–2013.

On average, the authors do not find significant effects of certified food production on either chemical fertilizer or pesticide consumption among Chinese farmers. The effects are heterogeneous across villages, but the heterogeneous effects show no clear pattern that is consistent with different types of certification. The findings are robust to the use of alternative panel structure and certification indicators. The lack of knowledge about certification among farmers, the price premium and differences in regulation enforcement across regions may explain why the authors do not find negative effects on agrochemical use.

This study suggests that careful inspections and strong enforcement of certified food production is needed to ensure that the environmental goals of certified food production can be achieved and the reputation of certification in China can be improved. The inspection of certification producers and the enforcement of current regulations should be stricter for the further healthy development of certified food production in China.

This study is the first attempt to systematically evaluate the impact of food certification on the use of agrochemicals in Chinese agriculture.

Pesticides have been detected in groundwater in many areas of the State of Washington over recent years. Laws and regulations of federal and state environmental protection and argicultural agencies have developed in response to concern over the public health risk to pesticide exposure. Prevalent views about health risk from pesticide exposure tend to emphasize either the economics and food availability, while downplaying risk of pesticide exposure, or the risk to people, while downplaying economic and food availability issues. The Aquifer Vulnerability Project of the Washington State Department of Ecology is using the Environmental Agency’s PATRIOT model to screen the State of Washington for susceptibility to pesticide leaching to groundwater. PATRIOT models the pesticide loading at the top of the water table when the user selects parameters to run in the model, including the crop and the pesticide.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors believed to influence the behavior of 1,042 rice farmers in Malaysia regarding the overuse of pesticides. Frequent overuse of pesticide will have an impact on human health and the environment, which lead to greater expenditure on health care.

The theoretical models of compliance behavior tested include the basic deterrence model, which focuses on the enforcement of regulation as a key determinant of compliance. The models integrate economic theory with theories of social behavior to account for motivations expected, influencing individuals’ decisions on whether to follow the regulation on using pesticides.

Significance tests reported that the information regarding the danger of using pesticides, the perception toward the impact on the environment and the expected impact on health influences the compliance behavior of using pesticides.

These findings highlight the necessity for the policy makers to design an effective program which gives more information and provide training related to the risk and the safe handling of pesticides.

The farmers who receive information and training related to handling of pesticides become more cautious in the use of pesticides. Countries involved in agriculture and the use of pesticides widely by their farmers need to emphasize continuous training and periodic information dissemination.

The implication drawn is rice farmers should be encouraged to practice new methods in rice planting, especially in the integrated pest management method.

These research findings suggest that the overuse of pesticides in the rice farming continues to be an important problem.

China's Government in 2015 announced its goal of stabilizing the use of fertilizers and pesticide by the year 2020. However, implementation of effective policies is not straightforward, while one may even argue that the policy goal is by far not ambitious enough. Hence, it is useful to look at experiences of other countries that have gone through a similar process. In this paper, the authors explicitly consider the case of European Union's (EU’s) policies aimed at greening agriculture. The choice for the EU is motivated by the fact that the EU is about 35 years ahead of China in implementing a policy agenda to counter the problems China is facing now.

In this paper, the authors focus on agricultural inputs, in particular fertilizer and pesticides, as well as land use and their impact on food safety, air and water quality, soil degradation, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and biodiversity. Policies related to those issues are discussed for both, China and the EU. Given that implementation and monitoring are critical for the success of policies, the authors also discuss how policies are implemented and monitored under different governance and institutional conditions.

From the EU experiences, positive and negative, three central lessons are drawn: (1) China should strive for cross compliance but in two steps. In the first step, arrangements for on-farm monitoring must be made, coupled with a pilot program of cross-compliance conditions for large farms in selected counties; in the second step, cross-compliance requirements must be introduced for all farmers, with additional funds for rural development in vulnerable areas. (2) Strong stakeholder commitment should be sought in the formulation as well as implementation of greening policies. (3) Monitoring of greening results should be harmonized and standardized across the country, with a limited number of indicators.

This paper contributes to the policy discussion by comparing the agricultural greening measures in the EU (which was some 35 years ago in the same situation as China now) with the measures taken in China so far.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse factors affecting the use of pesticides in intensive vegetable farming in Java, Indonesia. Evaluating such factors is expected to provide appropriate policies to reduce pesticides, and eventually, mitigates the adverse impacts of pesticides on human health and the environment.

Data were compiled from a farm survey of randomly selected 240 vegetable farmers in three regions of Java in 2014. A concept of economic threshold was employed to analyse the pesticide use determinants, which were estimated using econometric models.

Factors leading to the increase in the application of pesticides were the number of observed insect pests, prices of vegetables, use of local varieties, and use of mixed pesticides. Conversely, factors lowering the use of pesticides were the number of observed diseases, the cost of pesticides, and area planted to vegetables. The most important factor in influencing pesticide use was farmers’ perception on the correct prediction of yield losses associated with pests and diseases.

The sample for this research is somewhat low and the analysis was based on one-year data of the quantity of pesticides in a formulation.

The use of pesticides can be reduced by training farmers on crop protection practices, which provide correct information on pests and diseases. Policies related to the price of pesticides would be ineffective, as farmers still highly relied on pesticides. These findings will be useful for reducing the use of pesticides in intensive vegetable farming in Indonesia, and in tropical countries in general.

Pesticides have two opposite properties: to increase income on the one side and to cause devastation of life on the other side. Because pesticides are generally less selectively toxic than would be desired, non-targets including humans and the environment must be protected from contamination by these agrochemicals. This study found the most important determinants for reducing pesticide exposures in Indonesian intensive farming.

After completion of this case study, students will be able to apply the triple bottom line concept to a spice manufacturing and export company (RBT 3); to examine the options before Value Ingredients Private Limited (VIPL), namely, to cultivate spices in the traditional way versus adopting integrated pest management (IPM) to cater to international markets (RBT 4); to analyse the returns for an IPM farmer vis-à-vis a conventional farmer, and to compare the returns therein (RBT 4); and to evaluate the ways and means of engaging farmers to change their way of cultivation (RBT 5)

The COVID-19 pandemic heightened awareness about the benefits of spices and buoyed its demand worldwide, which presented an opportunity to VIPL, a spice manufacturing company based in Chennai, to expand its business. However, the export markets demanded residue-free spices grown with little or no use of pesticides. Traditional farmers supplying spices to VIPL were accustomed to spraying pesticides whenever there was a pest attack. This case study discussed the options that the protagonist Mr Sijil Karim, managing director and CEO of VIPL, had, who wanted to onboard farmers for pesticide-free cultivation. The options before him were either to continue traditional farming or adopt IPM. This case study discussed the merits, demerits and challenges of each of these options.

The triple bottom line concept discussed three Ps – people, planet and prosperity – for this case as follows: The farmers and the consumers constituted the people in the spice supply chain. The farmers supplying organic, export-worthy spices under the guidance of VIPL gained 30% more than regular spice farmers, which were accrued through cost savings and better prices. The consumers benefitted from the pesticide-free, organic spices through accrued health gains. The manufacture of organic, pesticide-free spices helped the planet, as the process did not release hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere. VIPL manufactured pesticide-free spice with a focus on prosperity.

The case study can be introduced in a course on sustainability while discussing the triple bottom line concept. This case study showed how a for-profit company grew without losing sight of the planet or its focus on people. This case is best suited for students who have preliminary knowledge of supply chain management, operations and sustainability. Therefore, it is suited for sophomore-year students of MBA.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

Food gives us essential nutrients to lead a healthy lifestyle but lately it has been found that many food products have become hazardous due to contamination and lead to many diseases. The rampant use of pesticides and chemical-based fertilizers in agriculture has, increased the productivity but at the same time they have created an alarming situation for the environment. The demand of the hour is to therefore to encourage organic farming and offer a better choice to consumers as well as save the environment. The purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the factors affecting perception of consumers on organic food products in Indian context.

The study used a structured survey of 150 respondents covering Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) of Ghaziabad, Noida and Faridabad (India). Exploratory research was used to know the variables from the literature that affect the perception of consumers regarding organic food. Descriptive research was used to understand the demographic profile of the organic food consumer’s. Conclusive research design was used to test the hypotheses based upon the motivating and inhibiting factor in the growth of organic food.

The data collected from the survey were analyzed using t-test, χ ² test, factor analysis and multiple linear regression tests. Results indicated that the intention to purchase organic products was impacted by the consumer’s belief on the safety and health aspect of the product, trust and certification, information and availability and lifestyle and are hence drivers of growth. And certain impeding factors were identified like doubt in the professed quality of organic food, lack of awareness and price parity.

There are enough evidences of fertile land being converted into wasteland because of use of agro- chemical-based fertilizers in farming. There are also enough incidents of polluted water (ground and surface) due to agrochemical-based farming. Heavy use of pesticides leads to adverse effect on the health of farmers also. There were many reports of farmers committing suicide because of debt due to heavy investment on pesticides and fertilizers. Organic farming is a win-win proposition for environment, farmers and consumer’s.

The study was an effort to understand awareness and perception of organic food consumers in urban India post-agriculture revolution. The result would help the organic food producing and marketing companies to understand the factors that influence the belief of consumers when they purchase organic food and henceforth they can formulate communication strategies and marketing policy based on consumer’s expectations.

The current situation in India concerning the implementation of the Stockholm Convention on persistent organic pollutants (POPs), aimed at regulating their production and use has been examined. The purpose of this paper is to present data on the quantities of POPs generated and accumulated in the country. Measures for environmental sound management of POPs and effective implementation of the Stockholm Convention have been recommended.

A national implementation plan (NIP), presenting the status and inventory of POPs in India was developed. Ground-level situation of 12 POPs were assessed through inventorization, samples collection, analysis and interpretations.

As per the inventory of POPs; to date, the total amount of polychlorinated biphenyls is assessed as up to 28,000 MT in the power sector and total quantity of date-expired obsolete pesticides stock was around 47,000 kg. The total emission of dioxins was estimated to be ∼8.7 kg toxic equivalent, with the main contributions coming from waste incineration followed by ferrous and non-ferrous metal production. There are gaps in the implementation, in terms of existing legal and regulatory framework and Stockholm Convention requirements.

The analysis, results and recommendations presented would be useful for other developing countries in a comparable position to India confronting similar challenges of POPs management.

During the development of the NIP, primary data on POPs were collected and assessed. This perhaps is the first research paper from India on the status and environmental management framework of POPs listed under various Annexes of the Stockholm Convention.

Past and current uses of chemical treatments to control or eradicate fungal infections and/or insect infestations in buildings have led to a number of reported cases where occupants and users of these buildings have suffered various physical symptoms. The role of chemical treatments, whether as biocides, fungicides, insecticides or wood preservatives, has therefore come under scrutiny and various countries are now reviewing their use in favour of a more benign approach to the management of decay in buildings. Growing concern for the environment and the health of those treating or living in treated buildings has also led to changes in the way we perceive and deal with buildings and building defects. As a result, the conventional approach to survey, defect diagnosis and remediation has to be re‐thought and placed in the context of a wider environmental agenda. This paper provides evidence for how historic chemical treatments can have effects on the health of the building and its occupants, and considers the implications of such treatments for those charged with specifying or undertaking works to the fabric of affected buildings.